Back on January 23, 2012, I attended a Key West discussion in the UU One Island Family meeting room. The Rev. Randy Becker gave this introduction, acknowledging that it had been 40 days since the Newtown Massacre: One of the time-honored formulas of many religious traditions is the “40 days and 40 nights” one. Time to sit, live, walk, sleep, dream with the emergent realities of any situation for that period of time, allows for a necessary movement from shock through anger and depression to something more creative. That period is happening, more and more -- one was the Pittsburg high school stabbings. Rev. Randy said that such violent acts bring up questions about our culture, system of rights and privileges, our quest for security and our values.
“Songbird Hunter: What We Each Could Notice in Order to Help” - My thoughts in fictional form
WINTER 2004 WOMUUNWEB
CONTINENTAL ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF UU FEMINIST INSPIRATION
NEWS TO USE FOR MORE THAN JUST PERSONAL GAIN
UU WOMEN & RELIGION CONTINENTAL NEWS
This year’s UU W&R Annual Gathering was held in Orlando, FL, Oct. 1, 2 & 3 (including one of the teleconferencing sessions, Oct. 2). We used a teleconferencing service all three weekend days of the annual meeting sessions: Sept. 25, Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, to allow as many as possible to be included in the decision making. Those women are:
Carol Andros (FL), Laurie James (NYC), Rosemary Matson (CA), Helen Popenoe (MD), Barbara Schonborn (CA), Misty Sheehan (MI), Pat Simon (MA) and Cathy Stanton (FL).
Barbara, as a new co-convener, stated that she is eagerly seeking a co-convener to join her. Misty Sheehan is grassroots development coordinator.
Following are excerpts from the minutes plus updated information:
We would like to operate UU W & R in a way to meet these goals:
To develop our power to continue having influence and credibility, in order to educate, practice and model consensus decision-making, provide spiritual empowerment and raise UU consciousness of the necessity of our work.
Good planning is underway for W&R’s General Assembly (GA) presence. General Assembly is the UUA’s annual meeting and will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, June 23 – 27, 2005. We in W&R will “meet” informally, June 22, while setting up our booth. Our Annual Gathering with its business meeting, meets 9 AM – 4 PM, Thursday, June 23. All interested in the work of the Core Group are welcome to attend these pre-GA UU W&R events. (This means we will have to travel on Tuesday, and stay overnight Tuesday and Wednesday nights. GA opens, formally, after dinner on Thursday. One benefit to us is that we can register for GA early Thursday between work times at the booth.)
Our booth’s theme: “Women & Religion Challenges Patriarchy.”
Barbara says,
South American feminism is different from the US model according to journalist Barbara Frechette. She also adds that in several ways, it is better and could serve as a lesson in unity for all US women today. Her book, Sharing Power, analyzes what was in recent years, a quick efficient and less contentious empowerment of women leaders in Columbia. It demonstrates how, by using their regional feminism, they avoided the US feminist pitfalls. It is proof that since it happened then, it could happen again.
First, Latin American and Caribbean women sought only to share their governing power as citizens in democracies. They never put men in an adversarial position. Nor did they make them feel defensive. By seeking men as working partners and mentors, they avoided “gender warfare.”
On International Women’s Day, Secretary-General, General Assembly President Propose Global Conference on Women in 2015, 20 Years after Beijing
Following is a joint announcement by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser:
The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz al?Nasser, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations would like to jointly propose the convening of a Global Conference on Women by the United Nations in 2015, 20 years after the last women’s summit in Beijing.
Given that women make up half of humanity and given the importance and relevance of women’s issues for global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened. It is all the more important because of the enormous changes the world is going through, with both positive and other implications for women.
The President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General feel confident the international community will welcome this joint initiative. They also hope that the Member States, who have the final authority to convene the proposed conference, could take the necessary steps during this sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly. They believe that the high point that the United Nations reached with the establishment of UN-Women in 2011 can be meaningfully substantiated with a global programme focusing on women that can be articulated at the Fifth Conference.
