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Welcome! The Women and Religion Movement is alive and well in the 21st Century. A grassroots project started by lay leaders in the 1970s as an effort to promote examination of religious roots of sexism and patriarchy within the UUA and beyond, UU Women and Religion officially began as a task force following the unanimously-passed WOMEN AND RELIGION RESOLUTION at the 1977 UUA General Assembly. Although the Task Force was eventually sunsetted, the movement still exists in UU communities that hold Women & Religion programs and gatherings for those who identify as women. It exists at the UU General Assembly, where UUW&R brings our Store to the Exhibit Hall and occasionally hosts a gathering. And it lives in the hearts and lives of people who have been touched by the many changes inspired by this movement.

"We do not want a piece of the pie. It is still a patriarchal pie. We want to change the recipe!" -- Rosemary Matson

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

2013 Brigit Award

Banner by Lydia RuyleLydia RuyleThe Association for the Study of Women in Mythology (ASWM) is honored to offer the 2013 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts to Lydia Ruyle. Lydia is an artist scholar emeritus of the Visual Arts faculty, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, where The Lydia Ruyle Room for Women Artists was dedicated in 2010.  In April 2013, the University presented Lydia with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Few artists can claim to have profoundly expanded and improved contemporary images of women. Lydia is beloved around the globe for her stunning presentation of multicultural goddesses and symbols of divinity. Her Goddess Icon Banner Project began in 1995 with 18 banners created for exhibit in Ephesus, and has grown to include representations of over 150 goddesses.  The Brigit Award recognizes not only this great body of work but also Lydia’s dedicated scholarship in researching these diverse, inspiring images.

Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading: Losing my religion for equality…by Jimmy Carter

Feb 15, 2013: Congresswoman Barbara Lee Introduces Bill to Create Department of Peacebuilding

Women and Mythology - Call for Papers

Association for the Study of Women in Mythology

Lady of Ten Thousand Lakes: Finding Wisdom in Places
Call for Papers
The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology Biennial Symposium
St. Paul, MN, April 20, 2013

Much of mythology is grounded in place. Suggested topics for this symposium might include, but are not limited to, the following:

How do and should the scholarship in Goddess Studies and Women’s Mythology and Spirituality engage with the sense and reality of place? What women’s myths are especially grounded in a place or places? What happens when such disciplines as Natural History, Ecology, and other sciences of place interact with Women and Mythology?

SisterSong Director at UUC Atlanta

monica simpson headshot Both to launch their participation in the UUA’s new commitment to reproductive justice and to celebrate being the host city for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta (UUCA), GA recently invited Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, to be a very special pulpit guest.  On Sunday, January 27, Monica spoke personally and eloquently about the imperatives of reproductive justice: to enable women to have children or not to have children, and to raise them in a safe and healthy environment. She addressed the intersectionality of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other systemic oppressions that block access to the necessary services, supports, and full range of reproductive choices for all women. Read more on the Standing on the Side of Love blog and listen to Ms. Simpson’s sermon here.

http://www.uua.org/justice/

Patricia Monaghan 1946-2012

Patricia MonaghanThe Goddess PathAuthor Patricia Monaghan passed on November 10. She wrote many books, The Goddess Path being perhaps the most well-known.

http://www.patricia-monaghan.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Monaghan says:

Patricia Monaghan, Ph.D., (born 15 February 1946-died 10 November, 2012) [was] one of the pioneers of the contemporary women's spirituality movement.[1] She is the author of more than 15 books of poetry and nonfiction, including the two volume Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. She live[d] in Black Earth, Wisconsin (although she [held] dual Irish and American citizenship), where she and her husband Michael McDermott tend[ed] a vineyard and large organic garden. ... a wine expert,[2] and author of Wineries of Minnesota and Wisconsin, she [was] a founder of and Senior Fellow at The Black Earth Institute,[3] connecting earth, spirit and society through the arts.

A Collection of Sermons, Blogs and other rants

Who is discussing feminism and feminist thealogy among UUs today? Here are some examples we've found:

Sermon by Rev. Arthur G Severance at UU Stockton (CA) March 2012: http://stocktonuu.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/3-4-2012-Women-and-Religion.pdf

Blog entry by Daniel Harper: http://danielharper.org/yauu/2012/03/women-and-organized-religion/

Article by Michelle Mueller: http://www.uucch.org/Websites/uucch1/Images/solstice2%5B1%5D.doc

UUA President Peter Morales April 2012: http://president.blogs.uua.org/liberal-religion/on-womens-rights/

Rev. Susan Manker-Seale 2003: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2003/2003-Sun22-Sermon-Radical-Thea-ologies.pdf

http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2003/2003-Sun36-Sermon-Women-in-Religion.pdf

on the War on Women 1997: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-1997/1997-Sun09-Sermon-Power-Sexism-and-Thealogy.pdf

on Rev. Olympia Brown 1997: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-1997/1997-Sun49-Sermon-Life-of-Rev-Olympia-Brown.pdf

on Earth and the Goddess 1998: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-1998/1998-Sun46-Sermon-Earth-and-the-Goddess.pdf

on sexist language 1999: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-1999/1999-Sun45-Sermon-When-God-Means-She.pdf

http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2000/2000-Sun11-Sermon-Women-Who-Lead-the-Way.pdf

http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2009/2009-Sun11-Sermon-Whats-Up-with-Women.pdf

Barbara Gates on Margaret Fuller 2011: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2011/2011-Sun08-Sermon-Margaret-Fuller.pdf

Rev. Joy Atkinson on Elizabeth Cady Stanton 2011: http://www.mountainvistauu.com/sermon-archive/sermons-2011/2011-Sun46-Sermon-Woman-Suffrage.pdf

Rev Gail Seavey: http://www.firstuunashville.org/sermonblog/?p=8

Rev Kathleen C Rolenz 2005: http://www.wsuuc.org/sermons/05archives/SERDearGoddessMyth.htm

Rev. Roberta Finkelstein on the sixth source November 2012: http://www.uusociety.org/sermons?s=828

Rev. Cynthia Landrum: http://www.libertyuu.org/sermons/SophiaWisdom.mp3

http://www.libertyuu.org/sermons/05-04-08%20-%20A%20Humanist%27s%20Encounter%20with%20the%20Goddess%20-%20Cynthia%20Landrum.pdf

http://www.libertyuu.org/sermons/Goddess.mp3

Rev. Katie Stein Sather: http://www.beaconunitarian.org/sermons/ksather_beyond_feminist_theology.mp3

Rev. Joe Cherry quotes Rebecca Parker: http://www.stanuu.org/where_are_we_going.html

Rev. Joe Cherry on Wonder Woman: "It is deeper and less campy than you might expect."http://www.stanuu.org/wonder_woman.html
quote: [Wonder Woman is …] a hero that tells little girls and little boys that they have gifts … even if they don’t fly and can’t deflect bullets with their bracelets …”

Dr. Jeffrey Allen Nall: http://www.uucfm.org/sermons/sunday-july-29-2012-men-and-feminism-or-what-s-feminism-got-to-do-with-men

Denny Davidoff referring to UUWR and UUWF history in Moral Imagination: 50 Years of UU Social Justice at General Assembly 2011

Rev. Qiyamah Rahman on Healthy and Safe Congregations: http://www.uua.org/safe/handbook/culture/165728.shtml

Universalists and Feminists Saving Paradise by Joyce Beck: http://www.universalist-herald.net/1Reflect.html

Rev. Marilyn Sewell on feminist theology 1987: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19870718&id=4-pYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gI0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6879,4972651

Rev. Roger Bertschausen on Feminist Theology 2005: http://www.fvuuf.org/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=92&Itemid=16838

Rev. Dorothy Emerson's sermon and Water Ceremony: http://uubillerica.org/fpc/sermons-mp3/No%20Place%20Like%20Home.pdf

Some more resources:

http://books.google.com/books/about/Papers_and_Sermons_from_the_MsUU_Confere.html?id=7JvGGwAACAAJ

UU Theologians: http://www.uucollegium.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/UU-Theologians.pdf

paper by M L Joiner: Fresh Thoughts on Public Theology:The Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Unitarian Women

Rev Ann Peart on Forgotten Prophets - UU Women: http://www.unitarian.org.uk/docs/publications/1999_perspectives5.shtml

Rev. Thandeka: http://revthandeka.org/

New UUA Curriculum for Reproductive Justice

Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are called to answer the chilling political debate on reproductive rights with calls for reproductive ‘justice’ and respect for the fullness of every person’s reproductive and sexual life. The election of the 2012-2016 Congregational Study/Action Issue, “Reproductive Justice: Expanding our Social Justice Calling,” is a milestone opportunity for Unitarian Universalists to live into this call. This curriculum was written to help UUs take on this call to action: www.uua.org/reproductive/calling/curriculum
Learn more about the CSAI on reproductive justice here (including the text of the proposal, timelines, etc.): www.uua.org/reproductive/calling

UUA - Social Justice

January 22, 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade case which made abortion legal in the United States. Preaching on this topic would be a great way to launch the curriculum in your congregation. Ministers can sign up for the Reproductive Justice Clergy Caucus and find sermon resources at http://bit.ly/RoeSermonGuide

Subcategories

Reproductive Justice

REPRODUCTIVE-JUSTICE-uu-logo-300px

If you have any questions, please contact UU Women and Religion, info@uuwr.org.

Main resources from the UUA: www.uua.org/reproductive

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