We hope that you all had a as good as possible end to 2023 and start to 2024. We stayed at home and did almost nothing, which was perfect and just what we needed after a physically and mentally demanding year.
So far, 2024 seems a wee bit less busy even though we are facilitating no less than four CoPCons—where the Church of Pain congregation and friends meet here at our farm for bigger events. These events all coincide with the sun’s cycle and will be held on each equinox and solstice. In addition, we will again be going to Berlin for the BMXnet conference to facilitate suspensions there.
Registrations for all the bigger events will open a little later in the year but please mark the dates already! If you want to do a more private pain ritual at our place, or book us for a ritual somewhere else, we are available for that all year round. Sign up through the form on our webpage or send us a message in one of our channels.
CoPCon and other dates for the year
20 March — Spring Equinox Pull
19–23 June — Summer Solstice Gathering (with wedding!)
1–4 August—BMXnet Berlin
22 September — Autumn Equinox Pull
21 December — Winter Solstice Pull with Sacrificial Fire
Event information
Please note that this is tentative information and that prices may be subject to change.
For the March/September/December group pulls, we are going to follow the same form as the one we did on the winter solstice in 2023. The only group pull with sacrificial fire where we burn all the small trees sacrificed during the year will be in December. Other than that, they will be quite similar. The fee will be NOK 1500 per person, with a limit of 8–10 people. You will be served food and can spend the night if you wish.
Our main summer event in June will follow the same form as years past, have a look at the text for the 2023 summer event if you are interested and want to know more. We have to up the price a little bit due to inflation and will most likely land on NOK 3600 for the whole event. This includes food, camping, a group pull, and at least one suspension. Not to mention that you get to hang out with around 25 other delightful hookers. And three black cats. We will also be performing Smertekirken’s first wedding.
Work for pain
We try to keep the prices as low as we can, but we know that money can be tight for a lot of people these days, us included. If you are in need of a pain ritual but don’t have enough money to spend on it, please reach out to us and ask. We have a million different projects on the farm and can make a deal where you help us make wood, weed the garden, clear brush, etc. for part of or the whole fee.
Status registration as religious community
A quick update on the registration process is that Statsforvalteren i Agder said they saw no reason to change their decision on denying our application as a religious community or answer any of our accusations about their poor work. They sent our protest on to the department above them: Barne- og familiedepartementet. We currently do not know when they will give us an answer.
There might be more dates to come a little later on, we’ll let you know when we know. We do know that we hope to see you around this year, with or without hooks involved!