What is Meant by “No Affiliation?”

Lady Olivia Robertson, AU and FOI co-founder, has written and publicly stated that our “no affiliation” policy goes back to the time period immediately after the FOI was first formed. The three FOI co-founders, Olivia Robertson, her brother Lawrence Durdin-Robertson and his wife Pamela Durdin-Robertson, held a series of salons through their Huntington Castle Centre for Meditation and Study before the formal founding of the Fellowship of Isis. These salons featured many prominent psychics, occultists and mystics, who were themselves from various backgrounds and traditions. Many of the featured guests were either members of, or later founded their own groups, including Ross Nichols who founded the OBOD.

After the founding of the Fellowship of Isis, other people began referring to the FOI as the "Irish Branch" of this group or that group. This was due to their previous working with the FOI co-founders in the Huntington Castle Centre for Meditation and Study. To designate the Fellowship of Isis as unique from these others, Olivia and Lawrence started using the phrase "no affiliation" to notate the FOI as a separate organization.

A direct quote from the very first Fellowship of Isis manifesto, issued in 1976 is included directly below to further support Lady Olivia's statement. The concept of the FOI as a 'multi-faith' organization with no affiliations to any particular group or tradition, has been a premise of the FOI from the very beginning:

Membership of the Fellowship of Isis is open to all, of every religion, tradition and race.

The current version of the FOI manifesto contains these sentences:

Beauty and Truth are expressed through a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-racial Fellowship. The good in all faiths is honored.

FOI Members as Representatives

Throughout the history of the Fellowship of Isis, FOI members have acted as representatives. Two outstanding and well documented examples of this include the Parliament of the World’s Religions Centenary and the work of members of the FOI Founders or Daughter Society, the Druid Clan of Dana, with the Council of British Druid Orders.

At the Parliament of the World's Religions Centenary in 1993, FOI co-founder Lady Olivia Robertson, AU acted as a representative for the Fellowship of Isis. She was joined by Caroline Wise, AU; Deena Butta, AU; Loreon Vigne, AU; Paul Ramses, Pr.; Karl Duncan, Pr. H.; and Deborah Merwin, Prs. H; among many other FOI members at this event. As FOI co-founder and representative, Lady Olivia gave an opening address, attended private and closed interfaith discussions, headed the public performance of an FOI liturgy ritual and signed the formal Draft of the Declaration of Global Ethics during the Parliament.

Members of the Druid Clan of Dana, John Merron, AU; Caroline Wise, AU; and Steve Wilson, AU; acted as representatives in the Council of British Druid Orders during the 1992 - 2000 struggle to gain access to Stonehenge for Summer Solstice observances. Three members of the Fellowship of Isis and Druid Clan of Dana are still actively working within the CoBDO, John Merron, AU as a representative and Steve Wilson, AU as press officer and Arthur Pendragon as Battlechieftain. Lady Olivia Robertson, FOI co-founder, was made an Associate Member of the Council. Associate membership includes those who are prominent in the academic and Druid communities.

Both of these instances were well documented in televised news accounts, newspapers, magazines, in FOI members written contemporary accounts in the FOI Official Newsletter, the Isian News, and archived on various websites on the internet.

Many other FOI members have acted as representatives in other causes, particularly in the area of environmental concerns. In these cases they act as representatives of the Fellowship of Isis and the Founders or Daughters Society, the Noble Order of Tara on local, national or international levels.

This is in accordance with one of the founding aims of the Fellowship of Isis, which is included within the original version of the FOI Manifesto:

The Fellowship also aims at informing the public about the Religion of the Goddess; presenting the views of Her followers on current social affairs; working for a fair representation of the religion of the Goddess at local and national levels; communicating with members of the Press and other media, and with our political representatives and others.

Further information can be obtained at the links below:

The Original FOI Manifesto is printed out in full here:

http://lotuspharia.freeyellow.com/thecircleofisis/id253.html

An account of FOI/DCD participation in the Council of British Druid Orders to gain access to Stonehenge is available here:

http://lotuspharia.freeyellow.com/thecircleofisis/id275.html

An account of FOI participation in the Parliament of the World's Religions Centenary is available here:

http://lotuspharia.freeyellow.com/thecircleofisis/id273.html

For more information about Lady Olivia’s participation as a representative for the Fellowship of Isis at the Parliament of the World’s Religions Centenary, please visit the link included directly below which features Lady Olivia's written account from the official FOI newsletter, the Isian News, No. 71:

http://fellowshipofisis.com/parliament.html 

Rt. Rev. Deena Butta of FOIChicago is building a website that will feature more details of her work as an FOI representative during the Parliament of the World's Religions Centenary and the annual Intermonastic Day of Prayer.  Her website url is: http://foichicago.org/ 

For an account of public work performed on behalf of Pagans in the military by FOI members in Isis Invicta Military Mission:

http://lotuspharia.freeyellow.com/thecircleofisis/id336.html

Isis Invicta Military Mission website url: http://www.isis-invicta.org