General Assembly is held in Minenapolis, Minnesota this year, beginning June 23. GA is always a great opportunity for learning and networking. Not to mention shopping...

Be sure to visit our exhibit table! UU Women and Religion will be sharing a table in the International Section with the ICUUW. Look for Booth #227. Besides the usual curricula, we'll have lots of the "Change the Recipe" t-shirts (at a special GA only price!) and some gorgeous new pendants by Heather Eschbach of The Waxing Moon.

Also plan to attend some of these great events sponsored by the UU Women's Federation: http://www.uuwf.org/uuwfeventsatga2010.html

Hope to see you at GA! If you can't attend, check our website during that week for photos and comments.

ICUUW is a community of Unitarian Universalists and other members of progressive faith dedicated to building global partnerships to enrich women’s lives.

Please join us for Breakfast and Annual Meeting
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Saturday, June 26, 2010, 7-8:30 AM
Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Skyway Suite, 2nd Level
purchase your tickets $25 online at ICUUW.com

Guest Speakers:
Reema Nanavaty, General Secretary, Self Employed Women’s Association, Gujarat, India
Kathy Sreedhar, Director, Holdeen India Program

The new 13-session curriculum, Becoming Women of Wisdom: Marking the Passage into the Crone Years, is now in use in a number of UU congregations and women’s groups. Participants are reporting they find the program very exciting and are getting to know themselves and each other at a deeper level than ever before. One participant commented that she was not happy when the group decided to meet on Sunday afternoons, but once the program started she didn’t want to miss any of the circles.

The curriculum is designed for women who are entering or have passed through menopause and would like to mark this passage or deepen their understanding of what it means to be a wise older woman. The program opens the participant to the power, wisdom, and insight of the mature self.

Imagine entering the labyrinth of your psyche, slowly following its turns in and out as you weave yourself toward the deep center of your essential knowing. As you make your way forward, you will remember the past, integrate its lessons and shed its excess baggage, until you come to the present moment of possibility and transformation. There you will claim the beauty and truth that can be yours and begin your walk out of the labyrinth integrating your new found knowledge and the thirteen guiding principles of a crone as you retrace your steps. Before you reemerge into the world, you will celebrate your new state and assume the crown and mantle of the crone. As a mature woman of action and compassion, you will claim your power as a woman of wisdom.

For more information, contact Dorothy at 781-391-6455 or RevEmerson@aolcom.

 

We had a grand celebration of Margaret Fuller’s 200^th birthday on May 23, 2010. Many congregations and women’s groups celebrated that Sunday or at another time with a special service, conference or other program, and/or by hosting the traveling display, “Why Margaret Fuller Matters.” And we’re looking forward to continuing the celebration through the remainder of the year.

There’s still time for you to be part of this great celebration. Check out www.margaretfuller.org for resources and for upcoming events. You can also make a donation online, if you feel so inspired.

Consider bringing the traveling display to your area. “Why Margaret Fuller Matters” is a series of 10 colorful 24-inch x 18-inch foam core panels with text and images designed to answer the fundamental question of why this great nineteenth-century figure remains important two centuries after her birth. The display introduces audiences to Margaret Fuller’s life, her ideas, her writings, and her vision of a just world.

Just in case you are still not sure who Margaret Fuller was, here’s a very brief statement of why you might want to join in this celebration of her bicentennial. Margaret Fuller was a writer, activist, and futurist who changed the way people viewed the world. One of the guiding lights of the first wave of feminism, she helped educate the women of her day by leading a series of Conversations in which women were empowered to read, think, and discuss important issues. She inspired generations to follow (including those who called the 1848 first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls) through her ground-breaking writings, especially her landmark book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Her dispatches from England and Italy, where she supported the Italian Revolution of 1848, mark her as an early trans-nationalist and a role model for today’s global society.

Many thanks are due to UU Women & Religion for generously serving as fiscal agent for the two grants we have received from the Fund for Unitarian Universalism. Additional funding has been received from the UU Historical Society, Mass Humanities, and numerous individual donors. Without financial support we could not do this work.  We know Margaret, who struggled financially during her life, would be pleased with the support being given to this Bicentennial effort.

Most of all, though, we hope you will join the celebration—and let us know what you are doing to bring Margaret Fuller to life in your community. If you don’t have an internet connect, you may contact Dorothy Emerson at 339-206-0829.