News

Select a news topic from the list below, then select a news article to read.

The International Convo website has more and better photos, great videos and reports from the event. Please keep checking back at http://portal.icuuw.com. A DVD is being produced, but no word yet as to when it will be available.

Here are some more tidbits from my experience at the Convo:

Barbara Beach of the ICUUW Advisory Committee announced many of the sessions and introduced speakers. Her wit was wonderful, and her sense of humor infectious.

Dr. Kalpana Kannabiran of India, is Professor of Sociology at NALSAR University of Law. She spoke of inspiration from her mother, whom she has worked with in the struggle for women's rights. She sang a hymn to Sarasvati as an example of that inspiration.

Speakers today were amazing.

Rebecca Adamson of First Peoples Worldwide spoke about the matrilineal culture of her Cherokee heritage. Ruled by the white council, the council of women, in times of peace. The red council ruled in times of war. But the members of the red council get hand-picked by the white council. Because who knows better the leadership qualities of those men than the ones who raised them?

She showed maps of where indigenous peoples are gaining recognition, where their lands are. Indigenous lands comprise 24% of the Earth and they are where the biodiviersity is at its greatest. They are where the big phamaceutical companies are searching for the next wonder drug to come from plants. First Peoples Worldwide is helping peoples take charge of those native plants as their intellectual property, and resisting the drug companies' attempts to come in and steal what's theirs. But there are many indigenous peoples at risk of extinction. Extinction! Why isn't THIS on the nightly news??

Rev Shirley Ranck Wendy Hunter Roberts in her book Celebrating Her remarks, “Of all the signs on the horizon, perhaps the most interesting are the countless homegrown women’s spirituality groups that have sprung up all across the nation and beyond.” The phenomenon of “homegrown women’s spirituality groups” has been especially widespread within Unitarian Universalism as women worked together to implement the Women & Religion Resolution.

Let us not forget that it was the women in our congregations who stood up every time sexist language was spoken until the ministers and worship leaders changed the words. It was the women in our movement who demanded that sexist language not be part of our Principles and Purposes. It was the women who demanded a hymnal free of sexist language. It was the women who brought home from women’s conferences and incorporated into Sunday worship the sharing of joys and concerns; the sharing of the waters collected on summer vacations; the arrangement of chairs in half circles rather than rigid rows; the closing words “Blessed be.”

Tonight the First International Convocation of U*U Women opened. There were greetings in many languages...

Rev Dorothy Emerson Coming soon! A new, year-long, 13-session curriculum to prepare women to take on the important role of Crone / Wise Women in their communities.

This course is designed for women who are entering or have passed through menopause and would like to mark this passage. Other important life transitions such as births, coming of age, marriage and graduations are marked in cultures and are celebrated by the family and community. In European Pagan traditions the stages of a woman’s life are marked as maiden, mother and crone. These ritual celebrations occur in communities and honor both the individual and the group. This 13 session course helps prepare women to participate in a ritual celebrating becoming a woman of wisdom.

Universal Human Rights
Dignity and Justice for All of Us
Simple Guidebook on Women’s Rights Globally
By Elizabeth Fisher and Robert Fisher

Easy to Access, Read and Download at
www.riseupandcallhername.com/humanrights.html

Know your rights! These internationally agreed upon rights provide a powerful framework for advocacy on behalf of women worldwide. Key human rights concerns for women (among many others):

Right to Choice in Family Planning
Elimination of Violence against Women
Adoption by US Congress of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)

Printed copy available $7 including postage and handling. Call Elizabeth Fisher 510-236-9131

Based in part on the UUSC book Gender Justice: Women’s Rights are Human Rights
http://secure.uusc.org/store (scroll down to “books” to order)

At the end of February there will be an International Convocation Of Unitarian Universalist Women In Houston, Texas. (www.icuuw.com) The program will include an amazing collection of speakers including CMwD's own Sharon Welch, Provost from Meadville Lombard. Rebecca Parker (President of Starr King School for the Ministry), Meg Riley (UUA Action and Public Witness) and Laurel Hallman (Candidate for the UUA Presidency) are also on the speaker's roster.

This Convocation is part of the ongoing stream of the Women and Religion movement that began over 30 years ago. In 1978 Paul Carnes began his UUA Presidency by appointing a Women and Religion Committee. The purpose of this committee was to implement the Women and Religion Resolution and to raise the awareness of Unitarian Universalism to the Issues of feminism. At the time, fewer than 5% of our ministry was women. The hymnal used male identified language. Most Unitarian Universalist Churches had women's groups that had day meetings for women who were not employed outside the home. Unitarian Universalism needed to be challenged and encouraged to reflect upon how we could incorporate the issues raised by the women's movement into liberal religion. The first Women and Religion Conference in CMwD was held in 1980 and has grown steadily over time.