Commentary on the Proposal

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE OA CEREMONY
PROPOSED AT THE 2025 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHIEFS
Consolidated Notes from Attendees

I located a copy of the full text of what claims to be the proposal using a Google search. On the first page, it points out the importance of getting input from lodges. My posting it here is consistent with that request. Note that this is as of the NCOC. They are likely making changes. Here is the link:

New Induction Experience NCOC 2025

If a competent national authority asks me to share a later version, additional information, a rebuttal, or requests that I remove this link, I will do so. Contact me at billhartman@acm.org

Below are my personal comments about the proposal. Corrections by participants and/or national officials are welcome. Send to billhartman@acm.org

Listeners reported that it felt more like a show, not a ceremony.

1. It had a narrator. Instead of being experienced as real, it was presented as a play.
2. It used music in the background while people weren’t talking, much like a movie or play, turning an outdoor ceremony into a pageant. The music was described as pleasant but monotonous. It broke any sense of the outdoors and contributed further to the sense of a stage play.
3. Some lines were in rhyme with each other and felt less serious. Some said that it sounded like Dr. Seuss. Given that our new focus is to appeal to high school-aged kids, this is a strange choice.
4. Delegates were told that lodges will require electricity at the ceremonial ring, which runs afoul of the (formerly?) outdoor nature of Scouting.
5. Instead of candles being extinguished, lights are dimmed. It is presented as a stage, not a natural clearing in the outdoors.
6. It is rumored that it was developed by NOAC shows people, which would explain why it has the characteristics of a show.
7. Content shows little evidence of the deeper meanings and connections found in the existing ceremonies. Either the authors had no such training, or a decision was made to purposely abandon them. Either means that the Ordeal’s impact will be seriously diminished.
8. The ceremony said that going out alone to commune with nature and seek answers (mountain top experiences) are “vain”. Didn’t the writers realize that immediately after this ceremony, those completing it will be going out alone to commune with nature?

Replacement Terminology for the Ceremonial Officers

1. Narrator added. Boring. Documentaries have narrators. Experiences do not.
   
2. The ceremonial officers are called Ambassadors. Ambassador evokes diplomatic bureaucracy, not lived virtue. It’s from the world of press releases, wildly out of place for a youth standing in a forest.
   
3. Renaming Elangomats as “Luminaries” indicates the new role of “patrol leader of candidates” is more complicated. The word Elangomat was meant to be unfamiliar; discovered through experience, not explained. It signifies a friend who leads by example. “Luminary” turns that into a lofty title, more official than companion, and reveals too much.

Other Differences Compared to Current Ceremonies

1. Ordeal Sash is awarded at the end of this ceremony, before taking the Ordeal. It is removed and put back on a number of times.
   1. All three sashes currently represent completion of experiences (the Ordeal, the application of our principles to your unit, and the Vigil experience). It is unclear what the logic is for the Ordeal sash to no longer represent an OA experience.
   2. What happens if someone decides not to complete the Ordeal? Are they members anyway? Do you take the sash back? We don’t give insignia for awards that have not yet been earned.
   3. Giving the sash early would change the entire character of the experience. Is no one involved concerned about this?
      
2. Total elimination of all Native American words.
   1. Must we rename 25 of the 50 US states because their names are based on Native words?
   2. Rather than be replaced, the admonition is defined to be its translation, “to love one another” and is no longer whispered. [5]
      
3. Candidates are sometimes referred to as such, othertimes as “Newly Chosen”.
   
4. The “Newly Chosen” are asked to respond that they understand after being told what is expected of them at the Ordeal. But one report said that they were asked to accept each principle (such as Brotherhood), rather than each physical challenge of the Ordeal. The purpose of the Ordeal is to teach our principles, so such acceptance is premature.
   
5. The Ambassadors’ apparel was based on the black robes of the earliest ceremonies. This seems an appropriate approach. But we are often asked by candidates if we are a cult. Are we trying to confirm this misconception? Do we really want to give it a Satanic feel?
   
6. Some who are expert in the current symbolism noticed that perhaps the relationships between the officers (Ambassadors) and the principles of the Order, and symbols, might be different than current practice. Ambassador of Brotherhood is also concerned with adding wood to the fire? This is inconsistent with the Brotherhood ceremony.
   
7. Lights are dimmed (equivalent to candles extinguished) and the Scout Oath and Law lauded at the end of this ceremony. Current practice leaves them lit until the end of the Brotherhood ceremony to symbolize that the induction does not end until then. The Ten Inductions Principles require following symbolic progression, not doing things before their time.
   
8. The Obligation was changed significantly, which upset many of the chiefs.

The Ordeal

1. Silence is limited to the Night Alone. Ends in the morning. Since we are typically silent when sleeping alone at night, it essentially eliminates this challenge from the Ordeal experience.
   1. This would be a major fracture in the character of the Ordeal. Dr. Goodman went through a lengthy process to select the four tests using experimentation. We believe we know better?
   2. Yes, this test makes it more difficult to do the service. That is its objective. To force us to pay more attention to each other while working. It teaches Brotherhood.
      
2. There was an incredibly strange and awkward challenge where Scouts were told to laugh, sing, and dance for a period of time, with nothing said that was funny. Some quotes: [4]
   
   “Let’s see what happens if we consciously laugh for 30 straight seconds. I’ll keep a timer. All you need to do is try to muster up laughter for that long and while you do, see what happens and how you feel. Perhaps seeing other people will make you laugh too! We’ll start on the count of three and go for thirty seconds. OK? Let me hear you laugh in one… two… three…”
   
   “Here’s how it is going to work. I’m going to start singing the first few lines of a song, and once you know it, start singing along. If you don’t know it, then try to pick it up when we sing it the second time.Here we go…In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight”
   
   “Now there’s one more step in this morning’s activities. You’ve laughed. You’ve sang, I want to see what happens if you move and dance. When I say go, you are free to move to the music. You can simply sway. You can clap. You can wave your arms or do turns or wave your arms while doing turns”
   
3. The period of service would be significantly shorter than in current practice. [1] [2]
   
4. In the proposal, in the absence of extensive training and exceptional skills for every Illuminary, the Ordeal will visibly fail. A shortage of trained Illuminaries will require large groups. Or even a single group. This would change the candidate’s weekend from an intimate small group experience into an impersonal extravaganza. In particular, the placement of candidates out for the night will become rushed and they will not be alone, as was the practice decades ago before the introduction of Elangomats. By comparison, Elangomats require little training and few skills. [3]

Conclusion

The proposal is not a ceremony. It is a multimedia spectacle. The BSA is rebuilding its programs around entertainment and instruction instead of lived experience.

Why is this wrong? Because shows are everywhere—on TV, on phones, on demand. That is not an experience. That is passive consumption. Scouts aren’t leaving because the program isn’t “modern” enough. They are leaving because it is less real, less primitive, and less authentic.

The power of Order of the Arrow ceremonies is that they are uniquely Scoutlike, involving campfires. In the wilderness. With natural, imperfect surroundings. And simple physical props. We can see multimedia spectacles on our phones at any second of the day, on demand. The unique draw of Scouting is that it works without internet access or electricity. It is genuine. Today’s media is not. Neither is the proposal.

Version 4 01/25/2026

REVISION HISTORY

[1] 11/20/2025 – CORRECTION – The proposal does not include shortening the Ordeal.
[2] 01/08/2026 – CORRECTION – Although the same time is used, most of it is NOT in service projects. So the original statement is correct; service is shortened.
[3] 01/09/2026 – ADDITION – Issues with the amount of training required for an Illuminary vs an Elangomat will result in much greater effort needed to hold an Ordeal, or will turn a small group experience into something impersonal.
[4] 01/25/2026 – ADDITION – Details of the laugh-sing-dance event.
[5] 01/25/2026 – CORRECTION to treatment of the Admonition.