Well, I was unable to attend but from what I have read and what I have been told (by those who were there) it went better than expected but there was at least one incident where police had to be involved.
The news article in LancasterOnline.com is titled 'Bewitched, without incident' but it seems that reporter left before the incident! The RPW were greeted by praying/protesting Christians.
"Religious freedoms and convictions became the point of contention and some shop owners decided to close their businesses Saturday. Most, however, remained open. Gift shop owner Phyllis Cook said her shop is open every day but Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When asked if she considered closing for the event, she said, "I have had great business today."ARTICLE
An antique shop owner in the village left a message with the Sunday News on Friday evening saying that her business, and others, would be closed in protest.
The proprietor, who did not want to be identified, said businesses and community leaders were neither notified nor consulted about the event until they read about the festival in the paper. The business owner said many churches would have people coming out to "circle the area in prayer."
Ephraim Renno and Luke Martin, of Denver, were among those who did just that.
"People will always try to fill the vacuum of life," Martin said. "Without God, they will turn to other religions." Martin and Renno were at the festival with about 10 other people from Ephrata Christian Fellowship.
They were among several others from nearby churches who came to the festival to pray and "witness to those who have questions," Martin said.
He said they were there to show God's love, not to make the practicing witches and pagans feel attacked. He believed his group was effective because he said he was able to talk with people there. "Some of them were searching for the truth," he said.
"Satan is the father of lies," Martin said. "There is none righteous, no not one," he added, quoting Romans 3:10.
Jen Anderson-Wenger, president of Reading Pagans & Witches, said several church groups "laid hands on us and prayed." She said she was pleased at the turnout, and said her group was received "very peacefully."
Anderson-Wenger said having the church groups come, and pray over them, was an "amazing spiritual experience."
Apparently these groups did corner several children and ask what religion they were. According to one of the members of RPW:
"There were protesters preaching, at first just to adults, some blocked commerce and were asked to move to an unused canopy, which everyone was fine with. The trouble really started when some of our teens were approached. Within an hour of the start, I had a young woman come to me for help, after being preached too, she was shaking with upset... another young lady was surrounded by 5 men preaching, she was frightened and told them to leave her alone and her mom saw her, called her over and they didn't persist, thankfully. Every one of our 4 kids present were approached, the final one being Cat's son who did JUST as he was told... say no thanks, walk away and if pursued, get security - only when he walked away the guy followed and then he got scared, started to run, tripped, scraped his ankle and the protester ran off the premises... police were called in by the Village's official and they took a report.
So that's that. Thank you Saffire, for giving an account fro your first hand experience.
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Sadly, some of our young people in our youth group ARE Christian and saw the dark side of it yesterday and were VERY upset by folks identifying as Christian, acting 'un-Christ-like'... we were VERY glad we had our two 6 yos stay with my mom, though the protesters did seem to hone in on adults first, then our teenagers and didn't seem to go much younger than 12... all in all though the day was a success and hopefully opened a few eyes."