UU Congregation of Fairfax, Virginia Women's Spirit Circle presents two performances of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues on Jan 30 and 31, 2009 at 8pm. Money raised through ticket sales go to V-Day 2009 Spotlight The Women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and two local agencies that work to end violence against women and girls, Artemis House and Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance.

Weaving Our Sacred Tapestry
Unitarian Universalist Church of Peoria, IL
February 20-22, 2009

Our Keynote Speaker/Presenter is singer/songwriter and educator Shelley Graff

You are welcomed to build, share and "weave" your Inner Feminine Divine. Take part in a variety of workshops and gatherings to celebrate both common and individual beliefs and practices. Many vendors and artisans will be there to present their talents. Join us also for community meals to share and enjoy. Come weave your spiritual tapestry -- with connectedness, safety, and joy.

Questions? E-mail the Registrar.

To be added to our mailing list, contact Gretchen.

Presented by the Women and Religion Committee of the Central Midwest District Unitarian Universalist Association and the WWS 2009 Retreat Committee.

Gather Together to Explore Ways We Can Improve Women’s Lives around the World…

The call we hear today is not unlike the one issued nearly a century and a half ago, by Julia Ward Howe:

"Arise all women who have hearts…Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel…Let us then solemnly take coun­sel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace."

The Convocation focuses on education, faith, action and transformation:

• Celebrate with, worship with and learn from extraordinary women with inspiring stories about women’s successful action in local communities in many cultures;
• Energize the U*U Global Village network, a primary Convocation initiative;
• Learn about grassroots organizing for women\'s rights and social justice through education, healthcare and safety, leadership development, and economic empowerment in the context of sustainable environments;
• Bring these strong messages back to your home congregations and organizations;
• Develop action ideas and plans that can continue, ignite and expand local initiatives that improve opportunity and women’s lives in your communities and in locations across the globe; and
• Enjoy art, culture, worship and music along the way!

Pacific Central District Women & Religion Annual Retreat. “Generations of Women: Past, Present, and Future.” Enchanted Hills, Napa, CA. Click the URL for a retreat flyer in PDF format! Co-conveners: Barbara Schonborn & Jean Nickell Mark the date - join a caring circle in a time away from the everyday world. Two nights lodging, 6 delicious meals, superb program, beautiful scenery. Program includes: workshops, dance, yoga, tai chi, meditation, games, boutique, book swap, silent Auction, and more - what a Retreat!

At its September meeting, the UU Women's Federation board extended the proposal deadline for the 2009 cycle of both their Equity and Justice and Margaret Fuller Grants Programs from October 15, 2008, to March 15, 2009.

March 15 will then become the new deadline for future funding cycles.

Questions? Contact Ellen Spencer, Executive Administrator, at espencer@uua.org or Linda Lu Burciaga, President, at lldaffodil@comcast.net.

See your blessings of life’s lightness dawning from Spring's horizon. Picture your new balance and growth. It's wake-up time. All over age 10 welcome. All asked to bring snacks/drinks and drinking cups. Our circle gathers in the Fireside Room, upstairs, River Road UU Congregation www.rruuc.org.

A Drumming Workshop

Saturday, March 28th from 10 am to 2 pm

at the UU Fellowship of Harford County
2215 Churchville Road, Churchville, MD 21028

Jaqui McMillan of Drum for Joy! will lead the workshop.

If you can say it, you can play it! Bring your own drum or percussion instrument. Jaqui will also bring some to share. Bring a friend or neighbour, your sister, daughter or granddaughter over 10 years Bring a brown-bag lunch, too. We'll supply drinks!

$20 for adults; under 16: $15

Send your check made out to The JPD of the UUA to
Laura Paligo, 298 Superior Street, Havre de Grace, MD 21078
(or pay at the door)

A variety of activities will be held on May 22, including guided tours, speakers, and period entertainment, both at First Parish and at other sites in the Transcendentalist community in Concord, MA. (Details to follow.) Margaret Fuller's life and work will also be the focus of both worship services on Sunday, May 23, at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. at First Parish, 20 Lexington Rd., Concord, MA 01742. All welcome!

It is time for folks to begin sending in deposits for the retreat in September. I can save stamps and paper if people just fill out the form I am including here and send it back to me with the deposit. Please share it with any friends you want to invite to the retreat. There are already a number who did not come last year who are interested this time, so get your spot lined up with a deposit. I will try sending it as an attachment and also in the body of the email.

A reminder that I always have copies of Carolyn's cds or can get them for you easily. I am currently carrying around O Beautiful Gaia, My Heart Is Moved, As We So Love, Sorrow & Healing, and one set of The Long Road of Music which has all the old cds in it.

Together in Song, Peggy

REGISTRATION FORM

Carolyn McDade Retreat
September 25-27, 2009


Name_____________________________  phone________________

Address___________________________  e-mail ________________         

             ___________________________


Cost for the retreat is $235, which includes food (4 meals) lodging (2 or 3 nights)  song books and of course Carolyn’s presence and work with us. We encourage all to plan to stay on site. However, if you must return home at night, the fee would be $135. The units have ample bathrooms and cooking facilities, as well as good beds. We will be able to accommodate special needs if you indicate them.

A deposit of at least $50 is due by June 1 to reserve your spot. The remainder is anticipated by August 1, so we can pay the deposit due on the site and other bills. If you need to bring the remainder when you come, you may do so. Just give us a call to arrange it. Deposits and costs are all refundable until August 12. After that date, if you need to cancel, we must keep the $50 deposit unless you find a replacement. If we can fill your spot, you get all your money back.

We anticipate that some who wish to come might be able to contribute a bit extra to help bring sisters with limited means. If you can be so generous, we will make sure the extra is well...

Head, Hands and Heart

UU Women's Connection Spring Conference
at Pilgrim Park, Princeton, Illinois will feature keynote speaker Rev. David Owen O'Quill of Micah's Porch, a progressive church experience emerging in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. They don’t meet in a church building but in the Chopin theater. For more information about Pastor Dave and the work of Micah's Porch.

Plan to make your spring pilgrimage to the UU Women's Connection fourth annual Spring Conference at Pilgrim Park.

The natural setting of Pilgrim Park and stress free schedule lends time for communing with nature and your sisters.

Brochure and Registration: Spring Conference brochure is included in the Spring Voices of Women Newsletter Mailing date: April 3. Or download it from the Connection website.

Salt Lake City, Utah

General Assembly (GA) is the annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Look for a display and resources on the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial at the UU Historical Society and U Women’s Heritage Society booth (# 532), plus additional resources at the Southwest UU Women and UU Women and Religion booth (# 731). The 2010 General Assembly will feature programs on the Margaret fuller Bicentennial. Keep track of women's events and activities through our blog! http://www.uuwr.org/index.php/general-assembly-2009

Weekend-long retreat at Ronora Lodge in Watervliet, Michigan. Join your sisters in a relaxing exploration of women\'s spirituality in a safe and cozy setting. An annual event in the same location each year.

Fall Seminar. A five session seminar entitled "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" is being presented this fall by the UU Women's Federation at the Hillcrest and South Bay campuses of First Church of San Diego, California. The seminar was created for those interested in exploring women's [thealogical] history. Sessions are on Sept. 10, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 and 3. Contact Georganne Hoctor at (619) 265-7274 or hoctor1@cox.net. [from the San Diego Area Churches newsletter]

Fall Seminar. A five session seminar entitled "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" is being presented this fall by the UU Women's Federation at the Hillcrest and South Bay campuses of First Church of San Diego, California. The seminar was created for those interested in exploring women's [thealogical] history. Sessions are on Sept. 10, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 and 3. Contact Georganne Hoctor at (619) 265-7274 or hoctor1@cox.net. [from the San Diego Area Churches newsletter]

Fall Seminar. A five session seminar entitled "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" is being presented this fall by the UU Women's Federation at the Hillcrest and South Bay campuses of First Church of San Diego, California. The seminar was created for those interested in exploring women's [thealogical] history. Sessions are on Sept. 10, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 and 3. Contact Georganne Hoctor at (619) 265-7274 or hoctor1@cox.net. [from the San Diego Area Churches newsletter]

Fall Seminar. A five session seminar entitled "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" is being presented this fall by the UU Women's Federation at the Hillcrest and South Bay campuses of First Church of San Diego, California. The seminar was created for those interested in exploring women's [thealogical] history. Sessions are on Sept. 10, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 and 3. Contact Georganne Hoctor at (619) 265-7274 or hoctor1@cox.net. [from the San Diego Area Churches newsletter]

Fall Seminar. A five session seminar entitled "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" is being presented this fall by the UU Women's Federation at the Hillcrest and South Bay campuses of First Church of San Diego, California. The seminar was created for those interested in exploring women's [thealogical] history. Sessions are on Sept. 10, 17, 24 and Oct. 1 and 3. Contact Georganne Hoctor at (619) 265-7274 or hoctor1@cox.net. [from the San Diego Area Churches newsletter]

Anne Mason and Sonny Ditzler will lead a weekend workshop using vocal and rhythm techniques to help you reclaim the power of your body and your voice.

We will use meditation, breathing, singing, drumming and other activities as pathways to our inner creativity and energy. Come experience the transformative power of rhythm.

Anne Mason, a recent graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminary, is the director of music at the UU Church of Lancaster. She has been singing and teaching voice for 20 years.

Sonny Ditzler, with 12 years of drumming experience, is a performer, teacher, workshop leader, and public speaker on rhythm and healing.

Bishop Claggett Center
P.O. Box 40, Buckeytown, M.D. 21717
(near Frederick, MD)
Check it out!
www.bishopclaggett.org

WOMEN TOGETHER 2009

"Discovering the Muse Goddess Within You"
October 23 (Friday) to 25 (Sunday)
Camp de Benneville Pines, Angelus Oaks CA

Click here to download a registration form

Click here to download a workshop proposal form

More details on the website!

Come "Celebrate Samhain" with the women of the Northern New England district October 30th-November 1st.  We will be honoring the sacredness of the time when the veil between the worlds is thin, remembering our loved ones that we have lost and divining our futures.  We will also be embracing the playfulness of Halloween during our last weekend at Rockcraft.

Workshops will likely include:

Following your intuition
Casting Runes
YogaDance
Sacred Circle Dancing
Pumpkin carving/painting
Croning 2010 planning
Yoga

We still need a few volunteers:

*We need someone to plan a "Halloween party" for Saturday night (making decorations will be the art project this weekend)

*We need someone to lead the worship service with the theme "Day of the Dead/or All Souls Day"  It is a beautiful but simple service and I can help if direction is needed.

* We need someone to lead the Water Ceremony.  Again--simple--just a few words of introduction and closure.

Jennifer and I are really excited about this retreat--it is shaping up to be a great one!

Take care,
Leslie

Save the date and join us November 6-7-8, 2009 on the beautiful fall campus of George Williams College/Aurora University, Williams Bay Wisconsin.

Hosting women of the Oak Park, Illinois Unity UU Temple congregation have announced the retreat title: "It is What it is...Healing in Hard Times.

Keynote: Reverend Rebecca Armstrong of Chicago

Reverend Armstrong has graduate degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Unitarian seminary and Chicago Theological Seminary that have prepared her to work with rigorous intellectual and spiritual honesty. Her passion for interfaith dialogue has led her around the world, including a pilgrimage to India where she met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Hosts for this fall weekend on the lake are the women of the Oak Park, Illinois Unity UU Temple.

Take advantage of the NEW RETREAT PAYMENT PLAN announced this spring by the UU Women's Connection. This plan also offers opportunities to attend through scholarship and grants. So do not miss this opportunity to refresh, revive, retreat in this beautiful fall retreat's 28th year on Lake Geneva. Click Here To Read More....

First held in Chicago in 1893, the Parliament of the World’s Religions brings together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

As the world’s largest interreligious gathering, the Parliament will

We'll be exhibiting at Winter WomanSpirit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2010 SOUTHWEST UU WOMEN’S CONFERENCE

 

When: Fri PM, February 26--Sun Noon, February 28, 2010

Where: Holiday Inn Select, Dallas, TX. Room rate $79.
MAKE RESERVATIONS ONLINE!
or call 800-972-2518 and give them the 3 letter group code: SU1

Free parking and shuttle service from DFW Airport

Registration fee: $165 before 1/15/2010, $180 after
(Includes 3 meals and unlimited beverage service-non-alcoholic on Saturday,
and breakfast on Sunday)

 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

GINI COURTER,
Moderator of the UUA

 

Music by Amy Carol Webb,
Singer/songwriter, www.amycarolwebb.com

 

Please join us for a weekend for women. We will explore women’s issues while having fun with music, art, and dance.

 Details, registration instructions, workshop and vendor applications to be available in November 2009!

Contact Co-conveners Mary Overton and Kathy Calhoun at \n conference@swuuw.org

Download a FLYER to print and post at church!

Joseph Priestley District Women and Religion
and Soul Sisters of the Main Line Unitarian Church

are pleased to present

A Drumming Workshop

Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 10am to 3pm

at the Main Line Unitarian Church
816 Valley Forge Road, Devon PA 19333

(For directions go to mluc.org)

Jaqui McMillan of Drum for Joy! will be our workshop leader.

“If you can say it, you can play it”…

In this Drum For Joy! workshop you will learn the language of the drum, basic hand drum technique and how to make your drum sing. Jaqui presents drum songs in a way that make it fun and easy to learn. This workshop is suitable for beginning and experienced drummers.

Bring your own drum or percussion instrument. Jaqui will also bring some to share.

Bring a friend or neighbour, your sister, daughter or granddaughter over 10 years

Bring a bag lunch: drinks and dessert will be provided.

*************

SAVE $5! Advance registration and payment (mail by March 1, 2010)

Advance Tix: $20 per person, $10 for your guest under 16 years

At the door, $25 for adults, $15 for 16 and under

Send your check made out to The JPD of the UUA to

Laura Paligo, 298 Superior Street, Havre de Grace, MD 21078

Questions? call Laura at 410-942-1292 BEFORE 8 pm

We'll be exhibiting at

Women's Leadership Day, Third Unitarian Church Chicago

Female spiritual heritages of Crete, Greece, & the Aegean
a visual presentation by Max Dashú
Ancestors, goddesses, priestesses, and women's ritual, 6000 BCE to 200 CE. Female figurines, Cycladic marbles, Cretan frescos and seals; bee seeresses, snake women, bear girls, shamanic dancers and crone masks; archaic Hera and Artemis, the Mistress of Animals, Hekate, Gorgons, the Furies, Medea—and patriarchy's impact on mythology. This isn’t the Greece we were taught!
Rare images from the legendary Suppressed Histories Archives collection.
Suggested Donation: $15. to $5.
www.suppressedhistories.net

Wheel of the Year Beltane (Mayfest) ritual, River Road UU Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland.  May pole, other circle dances and the sharing of thoughts. Celebrate the spiritual gifts that bloom along with the emerging shoots and opening blossoms of springtime. Can nature's fertility and exuberance inspire us to both activity and contemplation?  Longer days, shorter nights -- as Earth rushes toward the longest day of the year, how do we re-balance our own lives?  Bring a spring treat and/or drink to share and your own cup.

Are you a woman constantly on the go? Do you wish there was a place for you to reconnect with your spirit? UU Womenspirit is a spiritual retreat at The Mountain in North Carolina. This Spring, May 12 – 16 “Women Reaching” a five day event (options for 2 or 3 days) for women 18 years and older to celebrate the divine feminine at The Mountain in Highlands, NC to nurture and affirm your spirit. For more information, please go to http://www.uuwomenspirit.org/Spring%20events.html

Where: First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor

Cost: $60.00
Contact: Call Lori Fithian at 734-426-7818 or email womensretreat@uuaa.org

You're invited to the Women's Retreat "Spring Release" gathering! Come and enjoy a day of letting go, letting loose, and having fun. This day-long event is being held right here at church and will be full of activities and opportunities to connect. Join us for workshops & discussions, walks & meditation, community ritual, catered lunch and dinner, music, singing, drumming and dancing, and maybe a bonfire and stargazing! UUAA is an inclusive community - we honor and welcome all women along the gender continuum.

Register by May 8
Download the registration form, fill it out, and send it or bring your payment (cash or check only) to the church no later than May 8!

UU Women's Connection
2010 Spring Conference
June 4-6
Pilgrim Park Retreat Center
Keynote: Teri Freesmeyer
Hosts: The women of Abraham Lincoln UU Congregation.
Co chairs, Meg Schnake and Brenda Wade.

Pilgrim Park near Princeton, Illinois, just off I-80, is an oasis of peace and green with a rustic and natural setting, lovely chapel with trees all around, pleasant staff, wholesome food and comfortable accommodations. On June 4-6, 2010 add your SISTERS to the mix.

Download our NEW FLYER
Click to Open Flyer

June 11-13
Geneva Point Conference Center
http://www.genevapoint.org/index.html

We'll be exhibiting at

General Assembly, Minneapolis Minnesota

Please join us for our Annual Gathering at General Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We'll have breakfast, networking and program at the Millennium Hotel, right across the street from the GA convention center. Cost of $25 includes breakfast. Online registration is available here:

Or call Gretchen at 269-369-1114 to rsvp.

We'll be exhibiting at

Summer WomanSpirit in Watervliet, Michigan

August 6-8, 2010
You are invited to join us for our annual Summer WomanSpirit retreat held at Ronora Lodge and Retreat Center in Watervliet, Michigan! Workshops, woods, walking, worship and more.

“Sowing Seeds of Gratitude” is our Summer WomanSpirit theme. We all have so many things for which we are grateful, and each one is a viable seed to plant and nurture allowing others to share in the labors which created the seeds.  During this retreat we will take a special look at the gratitude we have toward the Earth and all she provides.  We will also look at things for which we are grateful on a personal level, sharing what we are comfortable sharing and learning how those around us perceive their own gratitude.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A BROCHURE SNAIL-MAILED TO YOU CALL Gretchen at 269-369-1114

Register online: www.regonline.com/SWS2010

Fall retreat will be held at The Mountain.

Womenspirit gathers each Spring and Fall and offers two sessions: The Institute and The Gathering. Each session focuses on sharing sacred time together through worship, learning, and individual and group activities. Women may choose to attend Institute or Gathering or both.

Special Croning edition of the Fall Retreat:
September 24-26
Geneva Point Conference Center
http://www.genevapoint.org/index.html

This October 15th & 16th, the St. Lawrence District will be holding its First Annual Women's Spirituality Conference at May Memorial UU Society in Syracuse. Registration starts at 5PM on Friday and is followed by dinner, vespers and a concert. Saturday starts with breakfast followed by a panel of speakers who will be discussing "How I put my spiritual beliefs into action." There will be workshops in the morning, then lunch, followed by two additional workshop times with topics including Sacred Movement, Art & Spirituality, Journaling, Healing, Bodywork, Yoga and many others. We'll close with worship. For more information please contact Planning Committee Chair Jody Brown at jfb523@gmail.com or (315) 476-0447. Information will also be on the SLD website. Here's the Brochure and the Registration Form. Please print out a FLYER and post it at church! More information at: www.slduuwr.org

Dear Global Sisters-- Read more...

Save the date and join us October 22-23, 2011 in a new location - Kenosha, Wisconsin! Plans are in the works for a brand-new kind of retreat experience -- stay in a hotel with a view of Lake Michigan.

Fall on Lake Geneva
Williams Bay, Wisconsin
November 5,6&7, 2010

Plans are afoot for this year's event which will be planned again by the Connection Council.

Stay turned for news as the program develops.

Save the date and meet your sisters there again November 5-7, 2010.

The meaning of our lives depends on the quality of our relations. There are those who are deceased who make it possible for us to be our best selves, even after death.  We will gather to each remember such a loved one. Please, bring:

a candle in a holder,

snack &/or drink to share, (don’t forget to bring your own cup),

warm clothing to help you enjoy being outside on Helen’s porch for the service and,

in the eye of your mind, a choice of a place you have in your life that allows you peacefulness for fond memories.

Go down the driveway (past the red, white and blue streamers) to reach the porch.

You are invited to share a weekend with other women of the Northeast Cluster.  Our goal is to share, learn, laugh, reflect and generally strengthen our connections to one another.  This time together will take place at the Canterbury Conference Center in Oveida Florida February 4th, 5th and 6th 2011.  One of the activities, for those interested, will be to discuss reactivating the Florida chapter of UU Women and Religion.  There will be structured time as well as time to just hang out alone or with friends.  Final program details to be determined; your input is welcome.  Cost: $220.00 per person which includes double occupancy accomodations, six meals, hospitality bar (coffee, tea, water, soda fountain, whole fresh fruit) and use of the conference facilities.  The grounds are lovely and will offer the opportunity to enjoy the natural surroundings.  Check out the facility online at www.canterburyretreat.org.

Please email Allie if you are interested in attending.

A nonrefundable deposit of $20 is due by July 1st with final payment due October 1st, 2010.Checks are made out to Northeast Cluster with UU Women's Retreat on the memo line. Checksto Allie Gore 8062 SW 81st Loop Ocala, Fl 34476

 

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Elkhart Indiana, featuring Margot Adler

Margot's keynote address will have the same title. She'll ask:
How do we use our power for good?
How do we relate to people who have more or less power, status or resources than we do?
How do we negotiate the power in our own lives?
How do we use our power to preserve and protect the Earth?
How do we build a sturdy spirituality in the face of these issues?

Join us to explore the answers in this retreat's sacred circle! More info is HERE.

Read more...

We'll be exhibiting at

SW UU Women's Conference, Dallas, TX

Building the World We Dream About

Enchanted Hills - Napa, California

Join a caring circle in a time away from the everyday world. two nights lodging, 6 delicious meals. Weekend includes: friday spa, workshops for the mind, body and spirit, conversations with old and new friends, shopping at the annual book swap, boutique, and silent auction. Beautiful surroundings, nurturing community.

 

2011 Retreat registration form

 

 

Birthing One’s Quest

Now, with the balance of Equinox, let’s check our life journeys as we embark into springtime’s growth. Could you describe your use of your precious life as a quest? Look back in terms of how your life combines childhood parenting influences you received. How are you “doing life better” than what your caregivers could do with their lives? This unique Spirit of Life you hold might even be given a name by you. Ka is such a name in Egypt, Nat from Burma and Caw from Thailand. Let’s use our mythic imaginations.

Marguerite Beck-Rex, Merry Urbia and Helen Popenoe, hpop@verizon.net

6307 Wiscasset Road, Bethesda, MD 20816

Join us for relaxation, socializing, learning, meditating, crafts, music and more on April 9 and 10, 2011 at Pallottine Renewal Center in Florissant, Missouri.

 

Our theme this year is 'Loving Oneself'.

Women's Weekend features a wonderful variety of workshops, Sunday service, a White Elephant Sale, massage, indoor swimming, games, kareoke and time for relaxation and socializing.

Don't Delay! Register today. The registration deadline is Sunday March 27, 2011.

30th Annual
Women and Spirituality Conference

• Call for Proposals
  

We'll be exhibiting at

April 29-30, Central Midwest District Assembly, Bloomington, IL

 

Deep Roots, Soaring Branches:  Strength in Balance

 

A five day retreat May 11th to May 15th (options for 2 or 3 days) for women 18 years and older.  For thousands of years, people have revered groves of trees and set aside sacred locations in forests which were protected and allowed to remain in their wild state.  There's a connection and a wholeness that we can access more easily in these sacred places.  Join us as we explore our "tree nature" from our roots to our cores to our branches and the fruit they bring forth.  For more info, please go to www.UUWomenspirit.org and click on SPRING.

Spring 2012 - OUR 25th ANNIVERSARY!!!

Gather the Women in Celebration!

May 16-20, 2012

The Planning Committee (Nancy Hagman, Lisa Sherman, Kate Stockman , Rose Coon, Sharon Bennett, and Liz Kuemmerer ) is excited and enthusiastic with all the encouragement, ideas, and interest generated about this event.

Gather the Women in Celebration! is the theme for this Silver Anniversary and we plan to celebrate our sisters, from those birth mothers who had the creative vision through 25 years of sisterhood. Our Tracks, Workshops and Worship Services will offer reflections from the past, awareness of ourselves, and challenge us to envision our influence in the future. There will be time to make new relationships and to re-connect with UU Womenspirit sisters from the past.

We are designing a ?Photo Board to display pictures of individuals that are unable to attend the event. So if you are unable to attend but would like to be spiritually present please send your picture to a friend that is attending the event or send your photo to Nancy Hagman. We will also be displaying pictures of individuals that are no longer with us in physical presence but in spirit only.

This year, for the first time, you can pre-register. Space is filling up quickly, so send in your pre-registration to reserve a spot!

If you would like to Pre-Register for Spring 2012, please click here to download the pre-registration form.

Please check back for more information in early 2012.

Mary Kelly To Give Keynote Address at ASWM Midwest Symposium

Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) presents "Art and Inspired Scholarship," its 2011 Midwest Symposium on Thursday, May 19, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. The keynote speaker at this event is Mary B. Kelly, internationally known textile scholar and artist, who will present a 7:30 p.m. lecture entitled Goddess. Women. Cloth: Inspired Ritual Textiles from Around the World. This evening lecture will feature slides and a unique hands-on experience with the textiles.

Within folk cultures across the world, women make textiles, inspired by goddesses, and use them in rituals to honor deities, contact spirits or protect families and communities. This presentation features an overview of the textiles in the context of history, rituals and religious beliefs. Ms. Kelly explores cultures worldwide, sharing her extensive knowledge and research on local textile traditions.

Ms. Kelly’s presentation will follow a day of presentations and workshops, including a teleconference with Layne Redmond to explore sacred bee symbol and ritual frame drumming.  Panels will consider such topics as Women/Ritual/Cloth Goddesses in World Culture and Healing and the Arts.

The symposium, which runs from 9 am to 9 pm and includes lunch, will be held at the Madison Sheraton Hotel.  Registration begins at 8 AM on Thursday, May 19.   For more information and links to online registration and hotel, see the Association’s web site:   www.womenandmyth.org

Gaia's Womb presents
"The Sacred Feminine - Changing the Paradigm"

A Summer Retreat for Women
June 3, 4, & 5th, 2011
Siena Retreat Center, Racine, WI

Featuring:

• Karen Tate
• Judika Illes

We'll be exhibiting at

General Assembly in Charlotte, NC

Wednesday, June 22
3:00 - 7:00 p.m. and 8:45 - 10:00 p.m. (50th Anniversary Reception)
open to GA registrants only

Thursday, June 23
11:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
open to GA registrants only

Friday, June 24
11:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
open to GA registrants only

Saturday, June 25
11:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
open to GA registrants only

Sunday, June 26
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
open to the public

YOU ARE INVITED

UU Women and Religion Annual Gathering

“Magic Is Afoot”

The St. Lawrence District will be holding its Second Annual Women's Spirituality Conference at May Memorial UU Society in Syracuse. "Connecting Women's Spirits."

CMwD W&R invites you to join us for our
18th Annual Summer WomanSpirit:
Women of Strength
August 5 - 7, 2011

Each of us has our own level of strength, and has a different way to show that strength. This year, we gather together to share our personal strength and the women in our lives who taught us about feminine strength. As a special treat, some of our very own Wise Women will be taking part in a panel on Saturday night to share information and insight from the women who have influenced them in their lives.

In the Company of Women
August 13 - August 19, 2011

Keep a song in your heart.
Let it be a key to your soul.
Let it open you wide and bring you back to whole.
-- song lyrics by Linda Koehler

For seven years In The Company of Women has been welcoming ALL women to a week of fun in the sun by the ocean. We have gathered to sing, dance, do art, drum, write, swim, kayak, bike, eat ice cream, and play games. We also have luxuriated in doing nothing but napping and reading on the porch! We have shared our stories, affirmed one another's gifts, and voiced our dreams. We have renewed old friendships and opened to new ones. We have created a place that can "bring us back to whole."

 

Ferry Beach Park Association • 5 Morris Avenue, Saco, ME 04072 • fbregs@maine.rr.com
Year Round: 207.282.4489 • Summer: 207.284.8612 • Fax: 207.283.4465

 

Women Circles:
A Community of Heart and Spirit

Aug 27 – Sept 1, 2011

Register Online

Donate to the WomenCircles Crone Fund

A magnificent spark happens each summer when we bring together the WomenCircles community and the glorious spirits of Rowe land.  We arrive from all directions and life styles to create an ancient temple for a unique women’s healing program. For over 35 years, women have returned to this land to explore and be a part of the powerful evolution of WomenCircles’ sacred mysteries. It is a place where old friends bring new friends and together find time to enjoy each other’s company and mystical spirits. We create our own Brigadoon or Mists of Avalon that we can return to each year to heal, to rest, and to retreat into our mystical selves.

Together we build on ancient myth and explore new ways of looking at hidden messages. We apply what we learn to our lives and the world. Through a carefully designed program developed by a powerful core staff of women, we embrace the magical experiences surrounding the summer’s goddess as we learn ways to claim her transformative powers for our own and to commit to her healing work. We will listen to the resonance of the voice and seek with eyes of the wise and above all we will learn to include the unknown as a valid way of being strong.

We ask only two things from each participant: to be present in the moment and to stay in her heart.
This year we will experience the special quality of Tara of the ancient stones found in Ireland and other lands. The Tara we will call upon belongs to the megaliths. We will touch upon an ancient sovereignty found through the path of the four queens of the Tarot/Tara. We will build foundations that we need for our lives and name them our thrones. We will become strong within ourselves and learn what it means to rule our lives with compassion, discipline, necessity and splendor.

Eclipse Fey is an activist, author, healer, and founder of the Magaian apprenticeship program. She serves as a consultant for a community city...

There is powerful magic in ‘calling Her name.’ We call out to the ancient goddesses whose presence is felt around the world to help us transform what is broken, what is incomplete and crying out for wholeness in ourselves, bringing us into Balance. This alchemy of transformation can change the dis-order afflicting our planet. Greed and selfishness have overcome good sense and long term goals for the Earth and her peoples. May we conjure the conditions for a place where we all may flourish.

During the Fall 2011 event, let us experience both magic and transformation. The Institute track, [Wednesday night, Thursday, all day and Friday morning] being offered by Barbara and Geneva Green will consist of four sessions adapted from the Rise Up and Call Her Name curriculum, focusing on the feminine divine throughout the world. These constitute both a journey around the globe to different culture’s depictions of the Goddess and an inner journey about the transformation and changes we each experience.

We will travel from visiting these ancient world goddesses to dancing with stardust in the cosmos. Led in worship by Tarleton Brooks and Lisa Sherman, let us conjure magic out of the dust of stars through music, dance, and storytelling; casting us between the worlds for a spell. Magic, delicate as stardust but with the power to heal, delight, and transform the everyday to the miraculous.

Gathering workshops either all day or half day on Saturday, September 17th will further enhance this theme of transformation, addressing the needs of our hearts, hands, and heads.

DOWNLOAD the brochure!

"Merlin Stone is dead. She died on the 23rd of February, 4:52 a.m., in Daytona beach. She was ill for three years with much pain. . Thanks for the books Merlin,”When God was a Woman” and “Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood.” You changed my life for the better." - Z Budapest.

Stone was a sculptor and professor of art history at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Her 1976 book “When God Was a Woman” is often credited with being responsible for one of the major contributors to the rise in Goddess spirituality and feminist thought during the 1980s.

Mama Donna Henes writes, "I met Merlin in 1975 when we worked together on the Great Goddess issue of Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics. Since then, she has been a friend, mentor, supporter and role model for me. She was especially helpful when The Queen of My Self was first released, generously sharing her experience, expertise and encouragement. She will be sorely missed... Merlin, dear, rest in in peace, embraced by the arms of the Goddess."

Zsuzsanna Budapest has asked UUW&R to pass along the details of her memorial service: It will be held on September 24, 2011 at the UU Church in Clearwater, FL. She adds, "We are still in the process of organizing for the event,but you can share the www.MerlinStone.net website with everyone so they can monitor the events and projects happening."

UU Women's Fall Retreat

September 30 - October 2, 2011

Geneva Point Conference Center

Moultonboro, NH

The Women & Religion Committee of the NNED will be offering its fall retreat entitled Creating Connections at Geneva Point Conference Center in Moultonboro, New Hampshire, on the shores of beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. Whether you are a regular attendee or a new comer please join us for camaraderie, inspiring workshops, sisterly pampering, feminine energy, fun, and the opportunity to deepen connections with women from your home congregations as well as from across the district. For more information regarding the schedule, please contact Faith Barnes. Registration questions should be directed to Susan Gorman.

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Here we are, on the cusp of our third year- - The Goddess Diaries feature eight inspiring stories from women and girls -- aged 11 to 66 -- telling personal accounts of key milestones in their lives. From surviving bridal registries to letting go of bad husbands, the Diaries tell entertaining and compelling stories, intermixed with drumming and dance, and all for a good cause: Since its creation in 2009, The Goddess Diaries has raised thousands of dollars helping women in our community. Coming to Harris Theatre, October 7th and 8th, at 7:30 pm at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, the latest incarnation promises new stories along with your favorites. In the spotlight monologue, two women share their astonishing story of courage and strength after facing abuse by a trusted staff member of a local church. All proceeds from October’s performances go to the George Mason University Victims of Violence fund, to provide funding for medical assistance, transportation, personal counseling, and safety services to student victims who face sexual and domestic violence. This fund is administered by Mason’s Sexual Assault Services Office. Tickets go on sale September 1st. Go to www.goddessdiaries.org and http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/866 for more information.

Best, Carol Campbell carol@goddessdiariesmonologues.org 703/901-9010

Here we are, on the cusp of our third year- - The Goddess Diaries feature eight inspiring stories from women and girls -- aged 11 to 66 -- telling personal accounts of key milestones in their lives. From surviving bridal registries to letting go of bad husbands, the Diaries tell entertaining and compelling stories, intermixed with drumming and dance, and all for a good cause: Since its creation in 2009, The Goddess Diaries has raised thousands of dollars helping women in our community. Coming to Harris Theatre, October 7th and 8th, at 7:30 pm at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, the latest incarnation promises new stories along with your favorites. In the spotlight monologue, two women share their astonishing story of courage and strength after facing abuse by a trusted staff member of a local church. All proceeds from October’s performances go to the George Mason University Victims of Violence fund, to provide funding for medical assistance, transportation, personal counseling, and safety services to student victims who face sexual and domestic violence. This fund is administered by Mason’s Sexual Assault Services Office. Tickets go on sale September 1st. Go to www.goddessdiaries.org and http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/866 for more information.

Best, Carol Campbell carol@goddessdiariesmonologues.org 703/901-9010

Breathe: A Lake Side Experience!

The UU Women’s Connection
29th Annual Fall Retreat
Oct. 21-22, 2011
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Join Sisters at the edge of beautiful Lake Michigan as we gather to relax and enjoy the blessings of community, new inspiring workshops and eclectic waterfront delights.

Brochure

Registration Form

Join us at the Drum Hut with energetic drummer and teacher, Kenosha's own Heather Poyner.

Keynote speaker, Rev. Georgette Wonders of the Bradford UU Church in Kenosha will offer a Saturday talk titled "She Who is Not Busy."

Newly announced Workshops:

--Claudine Miller, St Louis, MO.: "Listen to Spirit."

--Heather Poyner, Kenosha, Wi.: Digeridoo--making and playing.

--Karen Carnabucci, Olympia Brown UU, Racine WI.: Family Constellation--Ancestors--Therapy

--Racine's and Olympia Brown's "Singing Sisters" Chanting and singing workshop.

We'll be exhibiting at

UU Women's Connection Retreat in Kenosha, Wisconsin

Join us on this journey to reconnect and remember the heart of the sacred wisdom of the ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and other Celtic countries. Discover traditional methods of honouring and connecting with the Sacred Otherworld realms through shamanic journeys, chants, rituals, meditations, and prayers in the Celtic languages. 

Learn about the sacred principles of the Celtic spiritual and shamanic traditions, including the eternal presence of the Celtic Otherworld (known as Tir na n’Og, Annwfn, or Avalon); the powers of the gods and goddesses (the Áes Síde); the training and powers of the druids, bards and poeté-seers; and the importance of ancient ideals in Celtic society: wisdom, skill, truth, honour, and courage. 

Explore traditional Celtic practices associated with healing and seership, including herb lore, sacred wells, charms, and divination. Discover village healers and fairy doctors, whose special connection with the inhabitants of the Otherworld enabled them to see into the unknown and restore balance. Much of this indigenous knowledge was preserved and maintained well into the twentieth century, and some of it is still practiced to this day. 

By tapping into the magic and lore of the Sacred Tree of Knowledge, we honour past wisdom keepers, bring their ways forward in time, and offer you the opportunity to answer a call to become a fer dána or ingen dána, a man or woman of spiritual skill and enlightenment. 

Trained in Celtic Studies at Harvard University, she specialized in Celtic mythology and religion, as well as the Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and early British languages. She has presented work at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, University College Cork in Ireland, the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Smith College, and the Harvard Study Group on Ancient Magic and Religion.

 

Sharynne NicMhacha is a Celtic priestess, scholar, and bard of Scottish, Irish, and Welsh ancestry and a direct descendant of Clan MacLeod, long recorded to have connections with (and blood of) the...

The connections between women and plants are ancient, and throughout time women have had a gift for finding imaginative ways to use plants.  Reclaim our ancestral knowledge by “reweaving the healing cloak of the ancients.” Our days and evenings will be rich with stories, songs, and ceremony, in addition to the unending stream of information about plants that never stops in Susun’s presence. In the Wise Woman tradition, all beings are interconnected, sacred, and whole and our bodies can be trusted. There will be time to share, time to go deep within, time to listen to your own wisdom.

We will use shamanic trance states, active imagination, and stories to reconnect with wisdom that’s been dormant for centuries. Gather in the circle of the Ancient Ones, who live in every one of us.  They are eager to be invited out and in, so we will slow to their pace,  and throw wide the doors of imagination, engaging our own creative pulse so our hearts may beat as one with our Grandmothers’ hearts. For decades Susan has had a connection with her Ancient Wise Woman Within and shares the wisdom of her guide – Grandmother Growth – in her wildly popular Wise Woman Herbal Series.  

This workshop and playshop is designed to welcome your inner child, your risk-taking teen, and your wisdom-gathering wise woman. Susun has a bold, dramatic, and direct teaching style that, like her ally nettle, can sting, but there are also generous amounts of humor and abundant nourishment. Profound and practical, confident and clear, scientific and psychic, she loves to reveal the earth’s abundance, showing us that all we need for health and nourishment is close at hand. Bring your journal or a blank notebook and colored pens or pencils.   

 

Susun S. Weed is an internationally-known herbalist, author, green witch, and a high priestess of Dianic Wicca who loves weeds, goddesses, and goats. Her encyclopedic knowledge of herbs and health and her dynamic presence make her workshops life-altering events. She is the director of the Wise Woman Center,...

The Unitarian Universalist Women’s Association and The Women & Religion Committee of the New York Metropolitan District,
and The Women’s Group of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock
"Walking Sacred Paths"
A Two-Part Workshop on Labyrinth Journeys combined with diverse meditation activities that allows us to go within and find the missing “Peace”

DOWNLOAD FLYER/REGISTRATION

Jalaja Bonheim is a masterful group leader, a midwife of women souls, and a delightful storyteller. This weekend, she will share some of her favorite goddess myths from India and the Middle East with us and help us explore how they intersect with our own life stories.

The ancient goddess myths we’ll work with this weekend are as fresh and relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. Like timeless maps, they can help us walk our path with grace, beauty, and power—provided we know how to read them. Integrating journaling, chanting, movement, ritual, and other practices, Jalaja will help us decipher these ancient maps and harvest the wealth of guidance encoded in their symbols, images, and colors.

We’ll not only commune with the goddesses that live within us, but also embody them, allowing their light and beauty to shine through us, heal and transform us. Expect a weekend of magic, mystery and enchantment! are mirrors that reveal important aspects of our essential feminine nature: our sensual, erotic power, our indomitable courage, our untamable wildness, but also our heart-breaking vulnerability.

Jalaja is completely intimate with the spirit of the circle, speaking of it as her ally, guide, teacher, and friend. What she calls the spirit of the circle, others experience as a field of tremendous love as compassion, growth and learning, renewal and healing

We will not only commune with the goddesses that live within us, but also embody them, allowing their light and beauty to shine through us, heal and transform us. Expect a weekend of magic, mystery, and enchantment!

Equal parts priestess and teacher, Jalaja Bonheim, Ph.D., spent several years studying Indian temple dance and Eastern spirituality in India before moving from her native Germany to the United States. She is the author of four books, with a fifth coming soon. The founder and visionary director of the Institute for Circlework, she is internationally known for her groundbreaking use of circle gatherings as a tool for empowering...

The route to sexual healing is like the route to many of life’s deep mysteries. It begins with exploring new emotional landscapes beyond society’s conventional standards so we can trust the profound wisdom of our own bodies. It means moving beyond learning how to please a partner and daring to know what we really want ourselves.  It means giving ourselves the time and space to mourn old hurts and to celebrate moments of pure joy.

On this retreat we will create a safe, confidential circle where we can share our stories of desire, betrayal, longing, and connection. We will explore the dynamics of relationships from the perspectives of the body, the mind, the heart, and the spirit. We will practice sacred ceremony and shamanic journeying.  We will discover creative ways to open heart-to-heart communication, expand our capacity for loving touch, transcend guilt, shame, and “good-girls-don’t” messages, revamp personal juiciness, and restore our faith in a benevolent universe. 

Our work together is based on four principles:

• Sex is energy—and in this culture we experience only a limited amount of our sexual potential
• Erotic connection begins with self-esteem
• The core power of sexual satisfaction is its ability to transform our lives—at any age, with or without a partner
• A supportive circle of women sharing information about sex can be life-changing

Please bring two objects to place in our circle, one to represent an aspect of your sexual story you want to keep, the other to represent an aspect you want to move beyond. We’ll introduce ourselves with these objects on Friday night, and you will take them home with you on Sunday. (Earning 15 AASECT CEs or other CEUs is possible.) Women of all ages and all sexual and spiritual orientations are welcome.

 

Gina Ogden,a long-time Rowe presenter, is an AASECT-certified sex therapy diplomate and supervisor, a shamanic practitioner, and a master teacher who has touched the lives of women all over the world through her workshops, trainings, and teleseminars. She...

Earth Traditions Presents: Coming Home; A Winter Solstice Event Saturday, December 17th, 2011
  11am - 6pm
  RSVP REQUIRED
DIRECTIONS TO VENUE PROVIDED IN RESPONSE TO RSVP
  Cost is $10.00 per person to help cover expenses.
  Children Under 16 are free.

Calling All People of the Earth!
  It is the time of the Winter Solstice -

In friendship and the gathering of kindred spirits, we find the essence of civilization, and the art of living.

Like a dear old friend, the soft cloak of darkness embraces us once more. The waning crescent moon rises as Mother Nature slumbers beneath her frosty blanket. The time of the Winter Solstice is near and all the Earth is still -- waiting.

All about the village, homes are decorated with wreaths of holly and fir, and the evergreen is honored as the promise that all is well, that sleep is not death but, a pause for dreaming. Inside their homes the ‘People of the Earth’ gather round the hearth fires for the remembering and telling of the legends and lore of ancient days, for the sharing memories of and stories, creating hand crafts and honoring traditions; to knead bread, roast meat and stir soup pots, allowing the delicious and mouthwatering scents to waft through the home. This is the time for planning and musing, for the whispering of wishes, hopes and dreams, under down comforters and woolen blankets; a time for the snuggling of children and pets.

This year, we are called together to celebrate a time of gratitude and community in a way reminiscent of yester-year. We invite you to experience the magic that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance weaving a spell of nostalgia.

Join us down a forested lane in Marengo, IL for feasting, carols and lore, as “The Sisters” open hearth and home for a true community celebration.

Learn the origins of the beloved seasonal elves, with Paula Alejandre and Drake Spaeth. Create a Yule log for your own home and learn its story and purpose with Nancy Halwix. Kindle a candle from the community bonfire, to...

Metro NY Women and Religion: Annual Luncheon/Lecture
Location: Community Church of New York UU (Manhattan) www.ccny.org

Speaker: Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President, Planned Parenthood

Contact: Reena Kondo at reenakondo@verizon.net

Recovery from sexual abuse is usually referred to as “hard work.” For a survivor, being hard on yourself is all too familiar. Have you ever experienced how much more efficient your journey can be when someone helps you feel completely at ease? This workshop will explore tools for you to become that gentle person. You will have the opportunity to share your strengths as well as your vulnerabilities. Expect to be heard. Expect to feel feelings. Expect good laughs and the welcome relief of learning that you are not alone.

Mostly we will talk and we will listen. If it's not hidden under drifts of snow, we'll walk Rowe's labyrinth and then explore the quality of your self-care. It’s possible we will use guided meditation to heighten awareness of self. Collage materials will be supplied for you to create a non-verbal reflection of some part of your experience. We’ll be a small community from Friday evening through lunch on Monday. It is a precious gift for incest and rape survivors to live among peers for a whole weekend, especially a long holiday weekend. Donna is grateful to Rowe to have this opportunity to return to nurture another small community of women survivors, and Rowe is grateful to Donna for doing this work with such love and the brave people who come, for we know it is not easy. You are welcome here.

Many women want to facilitate their daughters’ and other young women’s transition into womanhood, but feel stopped by a lack of experience with such rites. In this gathering, women will deepen their understanding of how creating powerful nature-based initiatory experiences for girls and women can help us heal and uplift our culture. Too many people in modern industrialized societies are cut off from their innate connection with the natural world, which supports the development of resilience and provides a context for the authentic self to emerge.

Each woman will discover her place on the wheel of life and be mentored into the next steps on her journey. She will gain knowledge of what rites of passage are and the structure and preparation needed for providing meaningful experiences. She will also learn how to connect with girls in ways that empower them, and heal the wounds from her own adolescent experiences. This gathering is an opportunity for women to witness and celebrate, as well as become part of a nationwide network of women seeking to revitalize nature-based rites of passage in their communities.

We'll be exhibiting at

SW UU Women's Conference, Houston, TX

"Exploring the UUniverse of Women's Spirituality" with speaker Meg Barnhouse.
Please join us at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake for the 2012 SWUUW Conference Feb 24-26 2012.
Where is that? Clear Lake City is really a part of Houston but don’t think of the downtown skyline or busy freeways. The 2012 SWUUW Conference will be held in the beautiful Hilton hotel overlooking Clear Lake and across from NASA Space Center. It is located 25 miles south of downtown Houston, 17 miles from Houston’s Hobby Airport and is a perfect place to relax, rejuvenate, reconnect and join us in Exploring the UUniverse of Women’s Spirituality.
Full details are on our website and REGISTRATION IS OPEN, www.swuuw.org. Contact conference@swuuw.org if you have questions.

When Dance Becomes Prayer is an invitation to explore movement, and come to the joy of a “lightened” embodied being.  

Using various practices, we will open to several spiritual traditions and to modern techniques that bring mind, body, heart, and spirit together. Spontaneous free form dance becomes meditation; with eyes closed you dive deep into your own being; it is an opportunity to transform self-judgment into compassion and acceptance. 

Inspired by the Alexander Technique, we will explore sacred ways to move and to touch and be touched.  

Most children know the experience of whirling around and around. 

With innocence and wonder, that experience takes them somewhere. What is that wonder?  Why has it been performed as a spiritual practice for hundreds of years? We will do a simple form of the Sufi turn. We will also deepen into a sacred Sufi chanting practice.

Exploring the joy and power of a circle we will dance the Paneurhythmy, a circle dance developed by Peter Deunov, a Bulgarian mystic.  It is a transformational process, a healing for the dancer and for the earth.   

Mystic poetry will enhance this workshop, uplifting and opening our hearts and our spirits. We will take time to have conversation, create art, to journal, to spend time alone, to be in nature, to heighten our senses.  As Rumi said, “There are many ways to bow and kiss the earth.”  

 

Rupa Cousins loves movement, dance, and the body/mind connection, and has been offering workshops in them for over 30 years. She is a Senior Teacher of the Alexander Technique, a somatic-psychotherapist through the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, and co-founder of the North East Psychoneuroimmunology Institute.  Rupa has studied deeply several spiritual traditions, was initiated as a whirling dervish by the Threshold Society in 1990, and has been teaching Paneurhythmy since 1994. She has worked with teenagers and adults in countries dealing with war and conflict, is president of Associated Psychotherapists of Vermont, and facilitates an Interfaith...

Annual UU Women's Retreat

Members & Friends of all ages welcome!

• Registration includes ALL MEALS & lodging (that means no cooking, just come and RELAX)
• Connect with other UU Women, in a beautiful setting

Attend workshops & outdoor activities, read a book, or just sit by the fire

If you haven't been before, it's a lot of fun and also a chance to connect with other UU women and just "renew your spirit" in a beautiful woodsy setting on the shores of Puget Sound (but with modern amenities). This weekend is yours to use as you wish: Engage with others, spend time in quiet contemplation – or do both!

• OUTDOOR activities: hiking, archery, boating, climbing wall
• WORKSHOPS: chocolate appreciation (the sequel), getting healthy & staying healthy, Pierce County Suffragettes, journaling your life, book sharing, nature walk, art, yoga & more
• EVENING WORSHIP: a time to gather with other women and re-center yourself
• FRIDAY KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  Lisa Voso, trial attorney, trainer & speaker

Registration form

Gaia's Womb presents
Invocation

A Winter Retreat for Women
March 2, 3, & 4th, 2012
DeKoven Center, Racine, WI

Featuring:
•  Avia Venefica
•  Juniper Talbot

http://www.gaiaswomb.com/event-mar12.htm

The PCD W&R Spring Retreat will be held at at Enchanted Hills Camp near Napa, California. We are planning to offer an extended option, in addition to the regular Friday afternoon through Sunday retreat. We do not yet know exactly what it will be. All dates are tentative while waiting for confirmation. Check our website or at the Retreat Forum for more information as it becomes available.

Update: Registration for the W&R PCD 2012 retreat, Welcoming Spirit - Remembering Our Herstory is currently open. You can find the latest information and register online at our new website, www.womenandreligionpcd.org.

This year you may arrive as early as 10 AM on Friday; lunch will be provided. Prices remain the same as last year. Mail-in registration closes 2/4/12. Online registration with PayPal payment may continue as late as 2/23/12. Visit the website for further details.

"Gratitude"
UU Women's Retreat March 2-4 2012!
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, 3700 East Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, MI
Come spend a relaxing and fun weekend with other UU women in our region.
Guests are the Reverends Jill McAllister and Cassandra Howe
Contact Stephanie Measzros to register/ ask questions: 269-373-2917/
measzros@yahoo.com

With Nan Moss & David Corbin at Rowe Center in Western Mass

This workshop will emphasize the classic shamanic journey, one of the most remarkable visionary methods used by human beings to explore the hidden universe, otherwise known mainly through myth and dream.

You will learn how the journey can be utilized to restore spiritual power and health and how shamanism can be applied in contemporary daily life to help heal oneself, others, and the planet.

Spend the weekend at Rowe Center, nestled in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains. Stay in our dorm-style housing or treat yourself to a private room. Build community over the delicious meals, and learn from outstanding teachers in a small, intimate forum.

We'll be exhibiting at

Heartland District Assembly in Lansing, Michigan

Join the Association of Universalist Women for a rejuvenating weekend of fun, fellowship and relaxation! Focusing on balance and achieving what Emerson called that sense of "divine unity", the retreat will be an opportunity to participate in workshops, guided meditation, yoga, art projects... or perhaps just a chance to carve out the quiet time you've been seeking.

Women's Weekend Was a Blast

Fifty-six women attended the 2011 Women's Week-end on April 9-10th. The weather was warm and sunny which made it easy to be outside for a change. Several hiked at Sioux Passage County Park and found the riverfront to be beautiful and full of energy. The Pallottine Renewal Center is under new management and newly-painted walls and carpeting created a warm and inviting place. We felt a community among women in the generations from 20+ to 80+ years.
Many thanks for the WW Committee who pull to-gether a great event. We raised over $450 in the White Elephant Sale, which allows us to give scholarships for women to attend the event. Save the date for the next Women’s Weekend: April 21-22, 2012 See you then.
~Carolyn Burke, Director

April 21 and 22, 2012
Saturday and Sunday
At Pallottine Renewal Center
15270 Old Halls Ferry Road

http://www.eliotwomensweekend.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114537605233916

We'll be exhibiting at

Central Midwest District Assembly in Oak Brook Hills (Chicago), IL

Florida District Women
are invited to join together in retreat
April 27-28-29, 2012
at
DaySpring Episcopal Conference Center
Ellenton Florida
DaySpring, located conveniently off I-75, offers a wooded setting on a cove of the Manatee River. Bring UU women together in a setting which provides opportunities for conversation, sharing herstories, laughter and music, add nature trails, rocking chairs on screened porches, bicycles, a campfire, drumming, more laughter and conversation and you create a memorable experience! We gather together to create and enhance our connections to one another. We will also enjoy good food. Special dietary concerns can be met with prior notification.
Eight women share a cottage which provides four semi private rooms,
a common area and screened porch.
In addition to the cozy cottages, the center offers two larger buildings which,
if needed, can house an additional 12 and 22.
Cost will be the same as last year $220.00 for a semi private room, six meals, and all fees. Private room $272 inclusive. A nonrefundable deposit of 20% will be due with the registration form in September.
A registration form will be emailed to all who express interest.

Exciting news ! Please save the dates ! May 11-14, 2012 !

The Association for the Study of Women in Mythology (http://womenandmythology.wordpress.com) and the Matriarchal Studies Clan are joining together for a Symposium May 11-14, 2012 at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. May 11 will be a Matriarchal Studies day with Vicki Noble as the moderator. The co-created day will be a discussion on the future of matriarchal studies. All ideas are welcome. Heide Goettner-Abendroth will speak. ASWM events will be featured May 12-13. Visiting sacred sites in San Francisco is planned for May 14.

All attendees will be responsible for their own expenses. ASWM will have a special hotel rate for the event. More details will be available in the fall. Please help spread the word.

For questions, info, etc. please contact Joan Cichon: cichon@oakton.edu

Transforming Women’s Spirits

 

Third Annual St. Lawrence District

Unitarian Universalist Women & Religion

 

Women’s Spirituality Conference

 

May 18-19, 2012

5PM Friday – 5:30PM Saturday

$75 Registration due by May10th

 

First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse

109 Waring Road, Syracuse, NY 13224

 

The Women and Religion Movement is alive and well in the 21st Century. It exists in UU Districts that hold Women & Religion programs and gatherings. And it exists in the hearts and lives of women who have been touched by the many changes inspired by this movement.

 

Check out our website: www.slduuwr.org

 

SAVE THE DATE!

A woman becomes luminous when she lives by her own inner light. She rests confidently in her  original essence and genuinely appreciates the gifts and beauty of others. She is not afraid of her own shadow. She recognizes that we all have impulses and emotions that can be transformed into fuel for living a rich, creative, and purposeful life.

The luminous woman celebrates the uniqueness of her story and how every experience has brought her to the place where she stands today. She is not overly identified with her wounds. She gathers their gold, learns the lessons, and moves on, developing a sense of trust in the transcendent power which orchestrates all of life.

The luminous woman loves deeply, but with an open hand. She is not afraid of solitude. She lives with courage and integrity. She inhabits, enjoys, and cares for her body with appreciation all the days of her life. She relinquishes her attachment to the body of her youth as the years pass and grows more deeply beautiful because she has cultivated her depths and continues to experience the greening power of the soul.

This retreat is about women’s journey of Individuation, and the unique challenges that women face along this journey. We will look at significant Archetypes of the Feminine, how they live in us, what we wish to let go of, and what we wish to claim. We will step into a new way of being. with a deeper experience of our unique beauty, deep wisdom, and archetypal power.

Chelsea Wakefield is a Jungian oriented psychotherapist, dream worker, and retreat leader who draws from a depth of training in clinical and transpersonal methods to help people integrate the insights of personal work into daily living. When she encountered the work of Carl Jung, she felt an immediate affinity with his intersection of psychology and spirituality and became deeply interested in the world of dreams and archetypes. She is the author of Negotiating the Inner Peace Treaty, a method of inner work that helps people define their Inner Cast of Characters and...

We'll be exhibiting at

CMwD UU Women's Connection Retreat in Pilgrim Park, IL

June 1-3, 2012
Pilgrim Park Retreat Center, Princeton, Illinois
Keynote: Pam Blevins Hinkle

Come discover the power of your own voice and your own creativity with musician Pam Blevins Hinkle.

"Expressing our essential and singular beauty is a sacred task. We must find and unleash our unique voice, personality, and calling in the world. The biggest barrier? Our own fear!" --PBH

Pam is a classically-trained flutist, choral director of college and community choirs, and arts administrator. She plays (flute, percussion, kazoo, coffee cans and colanders!) and sings in a band called THIN AIR, whose performances are entirely improvised. Experience the power of group singing and the fun of musical games that create sounds from sublime to hilarious!"

Also featuring: Bonnie Ettinger, ALUUC's talented pianist, who joins Pam each summer at MUUSA to provide an extraordinary musical experience to Summer Assembly attendees.

Pilgrim Park Retreat Center near Princeton,Illinois is the beautiful and natural setting for this relaxed Spring Conference. Join friends, old and new, as we celebrate music, our own voices and time together.

REGISTER ONLINE! Pay by credit/debit card, PayPal account, or by check!

PRINTABLE Registration Form

If you have any questions, please contact the Registrar, registrar@uuwomensconnection.org.

UU Women's Connection
www.uuwomensconnection.org

We will not be exhibiting at General Assembly this year

Margot Adler has been coming to Rowe for close to 30 years, bringing exuberant ritual, song, and laughter, a philosophy of joy even in the face of uncertainty and doubt. She sees divinity within and as part of the sacred earth on which we live. This retreat for women will use the tools of ritual, singing, and the consciousness raising techniques of the seventies to explore unfolding new journeys.

 

For many of us, the past few decades have been filled with feelings of a dark hopelessness, but now we are experiencing tiny stirrings of hope. Long suppressed feelings of joy are rising again. How do we embrace this new possibility, this special moment, and use it well?

 

A priestess of Wicca, or the old religion, Margot has looked for the sacred in the here and now, in the immanent, life force that connects all creation. She merges the sacred and the secular, but always with her unique blend of exuberant ritual, ribald laughter, and irrepressible New York spunk. Come with open minds and open hearts, bringing drums, rattles, and your voice. We’ll build a community altar, so bring something personal as a way of sharing your own story — anything from a stone or shell to a computer disc. Together we will reclaim the juice and the mystery of the wild and free.   

Margot Adler has been coming to Rowe for close to 30 years, bringing exuberant ritual, song, and laughter, a philosophy of joy even in the face of uncertainty and doubt. She sees divinity within and as part of the sacred earth on which we live. This retreat for women will use the tools of ritual, singing, and the consciousness raising techniques of the seventies to explore unfolding new journeys.

 

For many of us, the past few decades have been filled with feelings of a dark hopelessness, but now we are experiencing tiny stirrings of hope. Long suppressed feelings of joy are rising again. How do we embrace this new possibility, this special moment, and use it well?

 

A priestess of Wicca, or the old religion, Margot has looked for the sacred in the here and now, in the immanent, life force that connects all creation. She merges the sacred and the secular, but always with her unique blend of exuberant ritual, ribald laughter, and irrepressible New York spunk. Come with open minds and open hearts, bringing drums, rattles, and your voice. We’ll build a community altar, so bring something personal as a way of sharing your own story — anything from a stone or shell to a computer disc. Together we will reclaim the juice and the mystery of the wild and free.   

Befana Factory presents

The Goddess Diaries

Playwright: Carol Lee Campbell

Choreographer: Sabrina Haritos

Directed by Stacey Jones

Featuring: Susan Bennett, Kay Campbell, Alex Geller, Jeff Gilliam, Olivia Herbold, Sabrina Haritos Kheradmand, Brittany Martz, Bethany Michel, Annetta Sawyer, Cami St. Germain, Kim Scudera, Patricia Talmadge, Mike Wingo

Show length: 75 minutes

Website: goddessdiaries.org

From a first visit to the gynecologist to surviving bridal registries and bad husbands, seven true stories chronicle key milestones in the lives of girls and women, storytellers ranging in age from 11 to 65.

Genres: Drama/Performance Art/Monologues And Performance

Recommended for kids ages 13 & up
Washington, DC Premiere
Handicap Accessible featured
From VA

Venue: Mountain - at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church

• Jul 13th 8:00 PM
• Jul 14th 9:45 PM
• Jul 18th 6:15 PM
• Jul 22nd 5:30 PM
• Jul 28th 2:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Befana Factory presents

The Goddess Diaries

Playwright: Carol Lee Campbell

Choreographer: Sabrina Haritos

Directed by Stacey Jones

Featuring: Susan Bennett, Kay Campbell, Alex Geller, Jeff Gilliam, Olivia Herbold, Sabrina Haritos Kheradmand, Brittany Martz, Bethany Michel, Annetta Sawyer, Cami St. Germain, Kim Scudera, Patricia Talmadge, Mike Wingo

Show length: 75 minutes

Website: goddessdiaries.org

From a first visit to the gynecologist to surviving bridal registries and bad husbands, seven true stories chronicle key milestones in the lives of girls and women, storytellers ranging in age from 11 to 65.

Genres: Drama/Performance Art/Monologues And Performance

Recommended for kids ages 13 & up
Washington, DC Premiere
Handicap Accessible featured
From VA

Venue: Mountain - at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church

• Jul 13th 8:00 PM
• Jul 14th 9:45 PM
• Jul 18th 6:15 PM
• Jul 22nd 5:30 PM
• Jul 28th 2:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Befana Factory presents

The Goddess Diaries

Playwright: Carol Lee Campbell

Choreographer: Sabrina Haritos

Directed by Stacey Jones

Featuring: Susan Bennett, Kay Campbell, Alex Geller, Jeff Gilliam, Olivia Herbold, Sabrina Haritos Kheradmand, Brittany Martz, Bethany Michel, Annetta Sawyer, Cami St. Germain, Kim Scudera, Patricia Talmadge, Mike Wingo

Show length: 75 minutes

Website: goddessdiaries.org

From a first visit to the gynecologist to surviving bridal registries and bad husbands, seven true stories chronicle key milestones in the lives of girls and women, storytellers ranging in age from 11 to 65.

Genres: Drama/Performance Art/Monologues And Performance

Recommended for kids ages 13 & up
Washington, DC Premiere
Handicap Accessible featured
From VA

Venue: Mountain - at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church

• Jul 13th 8:00 PM
• Jul 14th 9:45 PM
• Jul 18th 6:15 PM
• Jul 22nd 5:30 PM
• Jul 28th 2:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Befana Factory presents

The Goddess Diaries

Playwright: Carol Lee Campbell

Choreographer: Sabrina Haritos

Directed by Stacey Jones

Featuring: Susan Bennett, Kay Campbell, Alex Geller, Jeff Gilliam, Olivia Herbold, Sabrina Haritos Kheradmand, Brittany Martz, Bethany Michel, Annetta Sawyer, Cami St. Germain, Kim Scudera, Patricia Talmadge, Mike Wingo

Show length: 75 minutes

Website: goddessdiaries.org

From a first visit to the gynecologist to surviving bridal registries and bad husbands, seven true stories chronicle key milestones in the lives of girls and women, storytellers ranging in age from 11 to 65.

Genres: Drama/Performance Art/Monologues And Performance

Recommended for kids ages 13 & up
Washington, DC Premiere
Handicap Accessible featured
From VA

Venue: Mountain - at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church

• Jul 13th 8:00 PM
• Jul 14th 9:45 PM
• Jul 18th 6:15 PM
• Jul 22nd 5:30 PM
• Jul 28th 2:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Befana Factory presents

The Goddess Diaries

Playwright: Carol Lee Campbell

Choreographer: Sabrina Haritos

Directed by Stacey Jones

Featuring: Susan Bennett, Kay Campbell, Alex Geller, Jeff Gilliam, Olivia Herbold, Sabrina Haritos Kheradmand, Brittany Martz, Bethany Michel, Annetta Sawyer, Cami St. Germain, Kim Scudera, Patricia Talmadge, Mike Wingo

Show length: 75 minutes

Website: goddessdiaries.org

From a first visit to the gynecologist to surviving bridal registries and bad husbands, seven true stories chronicle key milestones in the lives of girls and women, storytellers ranging in age from 11 to 65.

Genres: Drama/Performance Art/Monologues And Performance

Recommended for kids ages 13 & up
Washington, DC Premiere
Handicap Accessible featured
From VA

Venue: Mountain - at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church

• Jul 13th 8:00 PM
• Jul 14th 9:45 PM
• Jul 18th 6:15 PM
• Jul 22nd 5:30 PM
• Jul 28th 2:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Gaia's Womb Presents:

Breath & Shadows - A Summer Retreat for Women

August 3, 4, & 5th, 2012

DeKoven Center, Racine, WI

Featuring: Barbara McGraw, Sylvia Braillier

A human being is only breath and shadow. ~Sophocles

Welcome Home!

Breath is the ultimate expression of life. It is composed of inspiration - to inhale, (life) and expiration - to exhale, (death). To breathe in is to draw creativity, imagination, and spirit to us. To breathe out is to stand in the place of endings, death, and destruction. It is from this space of silence that new life is born.

Shadows are the images created behind an object upon which light has fallen; nothing that stands in the light does not cast a shadow. The shadow has much to reveal: it is the twin to light, its more obvious sibling. The shadow allows for greater knowledge of events, ideas or images of that which is hidden, mysterious, or dark. By depriving us of full eyesight, it allows us to put our other senses to use. The

shadow is also often the place that conceals the part of us that needs healing and helps us recover what is lost to us.

Join us as the women of Gaia's Womb gather once more, bringing together two powerful speakers to celebrate Summer at Dekoven Center,

on the shores of Lake Michigan. Sing, drum, dance, swim, shop - breathe the breath of life.

Most of all, relax, have fun! Become re-acquainted with yourself, feed your spirit, experience the sisterhood, and find comfort, knowledge

and strength in breath & shadows.

Dr. Barbara A. McGraw is Director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism and Professor, Social Ethics, Law, and Public Life at Saint

Mary's College of California. Her ongoing work is dedicated to advancing the idea that the fundamental shared value and unifying

principle of the American political system, as originally conceived, is pluralism itself. In addition to this work, she was also a member

of Chalice, a women's instrumental and vocal ensemble.

Sylvia Brallier is an author, dean of the Tantric Shamanism Mystery School,...

For eight years In The Company of Women has been welcoming ALL women to a week of fun in the sun by the ocean at Ferry Beach in Maine. Gather to sing, dance, meditate, do art, drum, write, swim, kayak, bike, eat ice cream, exercise, and play games. Luxuriate in doing nothing but napping and reading on the porch! Share stories, affirm one another's gifts, and voice your dreams. Renew old friendships and open to new ones. Create a place that can help open the gates of our hearts to our true selves.
http://ferrybeach.org/reg/conferencedetails.php?conferenceid=60

http://itcwmaine.blogspot.com/

A Community of Heart and Spirit

August 25 - 30, 2012

Register Online

WORKSHOPS AND CELEBRATIONS * HEALING * YOGA * HIKING * MAGAIAN TECHNIQUES * MEDICINAL HERBS * DIVINING * POLITICAL ACTION * THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES * FIRE DANCE * DREAMING * CRONE WISDOM AND MORE

If you are looking for a community that will embrace your uniqueness and at the same time invite you to grow, WomenCircles is the place. If you are seeking paradigm shifts - the “ah has”, that last long after the experience, we will help create vessels for this to happen.

We ask you to come, be present on the beauteous land of Rowe and to stand strong with your heart vision in a circle of women who care. Come discover the singer, the dancer, the artist, the priestess, the adventurer! Come learn fire dance, Circle dance, or just dance as if no one was watching. Come take workshops with professional artists or just relax in a studio with crafts beyond your wildest dreams.  Do you want to study astrology with skilled astrologers, explore journal making lead by published authors, learn nutrition with a certified nutritionist, or experience an amazing dream workshop with a Jungian Analyst? We have events both indoors and outside, evening entertainment, a Croning Ceremony to honor our elders, and rituals to the goddess of the year...

UU Women's Alliance at First Unitarian Society - Madison WI • Tuesday, September 11 • 12:30 p.m. “How Wisconsin Women Win with Health Care Reform” The UU Women’s Alliance September luncheon will take place at Oakwood Village West on Mineral Point Road. Catered by Nancy Deer, luncheon charge will be $12 per plate. Please make reservations before September 8, by contacting Kathy Nix at 836-5616 or nixkl@tds.net.
Our guest speaker will be Sara Eskrich, FUS member and Health Care Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. Sara’s talk about affordable care will inform our responses to the upcoming discussion of the U.S. health care system.

In this workshop, Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker will teach us about forgotten strands of Christianity: their rituals, their art, and their spiritual practices that celebrated paradise in this world.

 

Paradise is in this world—not in the Garden of Eden or in Heaven after we die—but in an elusive but real place in which life flourishes in justice and peace. This belief is taught by many ancient religions, including early Christianity.

 

We will explore this history and what it means in our time, when paradise is threatened by environmental irresponsibility, our economic systems, and war. How can we defend paradise against all that threatens it? Can we live as citizens of paradise? Paradise is here and now. It is entered through a life that practices generosity and non-violence. It builds communities where we care for each other in the face of injustice and brokenness. It rejoices in life’s exquisite goodness.

Creating Connections
UU NNED Women & Religion Fall Retreat

September 21 - 23, 2012

Geneva Point Conference Center
Moultonboro, NH

Please join the women of the UU Northern New England District for a weekend of connections and community building. This weekend we will be offering several workshops including Laughter Yoga, Sacred Circle Dancing, Writing and Discussion, Art, and Yoga Dance. In addition we will have time for pampering and foot soaking, the Water Ceremony on Saturday evening, entertainment by us, and a Worship Service and business meeting on Sunday morning. Remember that this is your weekend and you may participate in as many or as few of the workshops, events as you want.

Early bird discount if you register and pay prior to June 15, 2012.

Schedule (pdf)

Online Registration

Mail-In Registration (pdf)

Mail-In Registration (Word)

If you have any questions please contact Faith Barnes at faithb.56@gmail.com or at 207-729-3032.

More information about Geneva Point Conference Center.

As Unitarian Universalists, we are the inheritors of a 50-year history of reproductive rights advocacy. We also share a firm commitment to racial and social justice. At the convergence of these interests, we are called to widen the current debate from “reproductive rights” to “reproductive justice.”

Join the webinar – offered exclusively to UU Women’s Federation and UU Women and Religion members - to find out more about this issue, which is the newly-elected UUA Congregational Study/Action Issue (2012-2016).

• Monica Simpson, Interim Executive Director, SisterSong
• Rev. Marti Keller, President, Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation
• Jessica Halperin, Women's Issues Program Associate/UUWF Clara Barton Intern, Unitarian Universalist Association

EMAIL GRETCHEN to get the link to register.

Woman’s Journey

Finding What Works

What nourishes your spirit? We’ll explore various ways we can enrich and nourish our lives as we navigate life’s changes and losses. You are invited to share your own nourishing practices.

 

Saturday September 29 & Sunday September 30, 2012

Senexet House Woodstock CT

Directions: from the intersection of routes 44 and 395 in Putnam CT, Drive one mile west on Rt 44 to Rt 171, turn right, go two miles to Senexet Road and turn right, go 1.4 miles, Senexet House is on the left.

Please park snuggly, end to end, as the lot is small.

 

Please bring snacks to share (wine is OK); a favorite beverage cup for a water Ritual;
Goddesses & other items to adorn our Altar; books & music to share.

*Volunteer for Senexet: 1) an Herb Garden out front, please bring herbs and tools;
2) washing inside of windows (bring gloves); 3) polishing silver (bring gloves).

Choose any tasks or the Spa. This is YOUR Retreat! Do what nourishes you!

Send registration to Ms. Mary McRae, 33 Common Street, Scituate MA 02066

Name…………………………………………………
email……………………………………………………

Address………………………………………………

Town/State/Zip…………………………………

Menu: regular…..vegetarian…

allergies…………………………………………

tel #………………………………………………

Registration deadline Monday, September 17, 2012
Partial scholarships available

Schedule

Saturday

10am  Registration & Coffee
10:30am  Circle of Decades
11:30  Road Map of Life
12:30pm  Lunch
1:30pm Free Time
2:30 pm   Spiritual Nourishment
4pm  Spa or Volunteer for Senexet House*
5:30  Social Hour
6pm  Dinner
7pm  Free Time
8pm  Movie

Sunday

7am  Heart Chakra
8am  Breakfast
9am  Free Time
10am  Gifts of the Four Queens of Tarot
Noon   Lunch
1pm  Celebration with the Queens
3pm   Closing Circle

Womensphere is a Sacred Circle gathering for women

of the Ballou Channing District of The Unitarian Universalist Association

Come, Come, Everyone Come... Enriching Our Community in Fall 2012
Join us as we continue to celebrate our 25th anniversary at the Fall 2012 event from October 10-14 at The Mountain! We'll be enjoying fabulous views of fall color, the sounds of women’s singing and laughter, and the magic of the UU Womenspirit community!
We want everyone to participate and enjoy this silver celebration! Our Institute worship theme draws inspiration from a Rumi poem; Institute worship will focus on inclusiveness and peace (inside and out) and will flow into Gathering's worship services based on “Enriching Our Community”. During Gathering worships, we will build on that theme of community: our personal com-munity, connecting our communities, and strengthening our community. During worships and throughout the event, we will share personal stories, perform ritual, and take home personal me-mentos of our explorations.
BROCHURE is online, and we have ONLINE REGISTRATION this year! Be sure to register early so you will be able to attend all the sessions that you want! We expect this event to fill quickly.
We are excited and proud to be creating this hallmark event for sisters in our spiritual community! We hope to see you all back on the Mountain in October! So, come, come, everyone come!
Katie Bloedau, Event Coordinator
Linda Bloedau, Tracks/Workshops Coordinator
Helen Rogers, Gathering Worship
Kate Stockman, Institute Worship
Iris Padgett, Sales and Activities
Rebecca Adams, Scribe

UU Women’s Connection Fall Conference

October 19-21, 2012

DeKoven Center in Racine, WI

Join us the weekend of October 19-21 for our annual Women’s Connection Fall Conference! This year we will be meeting at a great new Retreat location - the DeKoven Center in Racine Wisconsin. The Center is within walking distance of Lake Michigan, and everything (meals, meetings, and lodging) will be held in one building.

The Keynote speaker will be Geri Schrab who will speak on “Accessing Ancient Wisdom through Rock Art.” Her ideas stem from the knowledge that a woman's body is a macrocosm of Mother Earth's body and that respect for the Earth and respect for woman goes hand in hand.

Geri Schrab is a artist who has traveled throughout North America to explore ancient sacred sites. She states “The focus of my art-work is the study of petro-glyphs and pictographs which are images pecked, carved and painted on rock surfaces by the ancient indigenous people of North America. I have found al-though the style and execution of the original rock art images may vary from area to area, there is an underlying unity. This ancient unity echoes our common heart and essential connection to Mother Earth.”

In the year 2012, we think about renewal and honoring our past and what it can teach us.

In the fall of the year we join together and connect to gather inner warmth for the winter to come. Join us!

We will offer hands on workshops and meditative ones. If you have a workshop you want to share, please contact the committee. We look forward to seeing you! This is wonderful week-end to see old friends and make new ones. Want to CONNECT with other like minded women? We would love to have your help organizing this upcoming Retreat!

Contact us to discuss what you would like to offer to help make this Fall Retreat on the edge of Lake Michigan a great experience for other women like yourself. 

How do I create a spirituality that is authentic, immanent, and transcendent enough to sustain me? How do I move from conditioned, dualistic thought patterns into original thinking that is unifying, meaningful, and supportive to the well-being of myself, others, and the planet? If you resonate with any of these quesitons, please come to this retreat.

Margot Adler has been coming to Rowe for close to 30 years, bringing exuberant ritual, song, and laughter, a philosophy of joy even in the face of uncertainty and doubt. She sees divinity within and as part of the sacred earth on which we live. This retreat for women will use the tools of ritual, singing, and the consciousness raising techniques of the seventies to explore unfolding new journeys.

A priestess of Wicca, or the old religion, Margot has looked for the sacred in the here and now, in the immanent, life force that connects all creation. She merges the sacred and the secular, but always with her unique blend of exuberant ritual, ribald laughter, and irrepressible New York spunk. Come with open minds and open hearts, bringing drums, rattles, and your voice. We’ll build a community altar, so bring something personal as a way of sharing your own story — anything from a stone or shell to a computer disc. Together we will reclaim the juice and the mystery of the wild and free.

We'll be exhibiting at

SW UU Women's Conference, Corpus Christi, TX

http://www.gaiaswomb.com/event-mar13.htm

Gaia's Womb presents

Solace - Winter's Treasure

A Winter Retreat for Women

March 1, 2, & 3rd, 2013

DeKoven Center, Racine, WI

Featuring: Vajra Ma, and Kellianna

"What better place to find solace than in the company of sisters?" ~ Barbara Walker

Welcome home! For the most part by the time February is through with us, we find ourselves fatigued, drained and uninspired by our monochrome world. It is at this time, as in the tradition of the past 11 years, Gaia's Womb calls the sister-tribe together for a heartwarming and spirit satisfying, Winter weekend retreat.

We the nurturers, the care-givers, the over-scheduled and the overwhelmed, carve out this niche in time to set aside the mundane and become fully present in our bodies, in the moment, to refresh our minds, rejuvenate our spirits and to renew our connection to Gaia; primordial Mother Earth, who raises our feminine energy. In doing so, we keep each other grounded, supported and affirmed; we become allies and we embrace the strength, inspiration, and comfort, the solace found in that space.

Throughout the weekend and long afterward, we come to know that we are capable of amazing things. We watch as our relationships with other women are changed as we come to realize that we are not alone in our experiences. We find that we stay grounded longer and become stronger and more centered, focused, soft, and fluid, more easily able to go with the flow and meet life's challenges. Most of all, we relax, and have fun!

On March 1, 2 & 3rd, we gather at Dekoven Center, on the shores of Lake Michigan, to connect, share stories and learn. We discover Solace - the most precious treasure of winter. Magic happens when the sister-tribe gathers. Won't you join us?

Vajra Ma - For over 20 years, Vajra Ma has integrated Goddess knowledge and feminist spirituality with experiential body wisdom. She combines subtle movement explorations of Continuum and other dance studies including Middle Eastern, Sufi, folk and ballet. Vajra has...

Florida District Women
are invited to join together in retreat
DaySpring Episcopal Conference Center
Ellenton Florida
DaySpring, located conveniently off I-75, offers a wooded setting on a cove of the Manatee River. Bring UU women together in a setting which provides opportunities for conversation, sharing herstories, laughter and music, add nature trails, rocking chairs on screened porches, bicycles, a campfire, drumming, more laughter and conversation and you create a memorable experience! We gather together to create and enhance our connections to one another. We will also enjoy good food. Special dietary concerns can be met with prior notification.
Eight women share a cottage which provides four semi private rooms,
a common area and screened porch.
In addition to the cozy cottages, the center offers two larger buildings which,
if needed, can house an additional 12 and 22.
A registration form will be emailed to all who express interest.

Please email or phone your interest to Allie, indigo8062@earthlink.net or 352-861-6303

--------------------------

They held their first retreat in 2011:

http://www.uuwr.org/womuunweb-news/200-florida-ne-cluster-womens-retreat

...and another for 2012.
http://www.necluster.uufg.org/attachments/105_Northeast%20Breeze%20June%202012.pdf (see page 5 for a detailed report and photos)

 

REVIEWS:

from uuvaldosta.org:

"Creating Connections - UU Florida District Northeast Cluster Women’s Retreat: 

Rose Baker attended this retreat the first weekend in February [2011]. She reports that beginning on Friday evening, February 4 and concluding on Sunday, after lunch, on February 6, thirty-four UU women talked, listened, sang, made some musical noise with various instruments (some homemade), made a life collage, danced, ate and shared a common UU thread between themselves.  She rode from Ocala, FL with Allie Gore, one of the conference organizers, and another attendee to Oviedo, FL to the Canterbury Resort and Conference Center.

Rose roomed with a retired music teacher who played the piano...

We'll be exhibiting at

Prairie Star District Annual Conference

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

http://www.psduua.org/AnnualConference2013

 

UUW&R will also be presenting a workshop on Cakes for the Queen of Heaven curriculum.

Journeying The Wise Woman Path

If you are a woman in your middle years or older, this is the weekend you’ve been longing for! 

Ruth Barrett and Shelley Graff would like to invite you to discover, honor, heal, and celebrate your changing self as you deepen into the mysteries of your wise woman years!

During this weekend of female empowerment, we will share discussions, writings, songs, ritual, movement, and art while we experience the joyful transformation of our evolving selves as we journey down the wise woman path. Also, we will individually and collectively challenge internalized and voluntary messages of the dominant culture that devalue women as they age.  Naturally, there will be time for reflection and connection as we savor the bounty of the vistas and the beauty of the land called Hope Springs.  Hope Springs Institute is an intimate retreat center with delicious meals, cozy rooms, and starry nights!

Friday 5pm - Sunday 2pm

Cost: Sliding Scale - $330-$350

Room, Board and Supplies Included

We'll be exhibiting at

Heartland District Annual Assembly

http://www.heartlanduu.org/District_Assembly_Pages/assembly_home.html

 

UUW&R will also be presenting a workshop on Reproductive Justice. http://www.uua.org/reproductive/

Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) is proud to present our 2013 Symposium:

“Lady of Ten Thousand Lakes:  Finding Wisdom in Places”
ASWM Regional Symposium, St. Paul, MN, April 20, 2013

Our keynote speaker is Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett, Ph.D.,  a Native American scholar and licensed clinical psychologist on the faculty of DePaul University School for New Learning.  Her presentation is “Honoring the Web:  Indigenous Wisdom and the Power of Place.”

In addition, Lydia Ruyle will be on hand to receive the 2013 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts.  Lydia’s Goddess Icon Banners have flown all around the world, bringing goddess imagery to new audiences.

Panels include Methodology, Place Wisdom. Matriarchal Studies, and Art and Artists.  There will also be a showing of “Things We Don’t Talk About,” a documentary of the Red Tent movement by Isadora Leidenfrost.

Registration is now open for the Symposium.  Continental breakfast and our networking luncheon are included in the registration fee.

Watch for more info about the Symposium and our 2014 conference:
ASWM Third National Conference, San Antonio, TX, March 28-30, 2014

The goal of ASWM is to support the work of those whose scholarly/creative endeavors explore or elucidate aspects of the sacred feminine, women and mythology.

You’ll find posts about all this and more on our Blog Posts.

Our most recent event was our 2012 Conference in San Francisco.  Check our blog for responses and links to conference presentations.

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

We'll be exhibiting at

Central MidWest District Assembly

www.cmwd-uua.org/da

 

UUW&R also hopes to be presenting a workshop on Reproductive Justice. http://www.uua.org/reproductive/

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

Remember Your Essence

We invite you to come and shed your worries;
Leave your troubles and everyday stress behind.
Join us at the UU Womenspirit 2013 Spring Institute and Gathering to
Celebrate, rejuvenate, connect, reconnect and…
Remember Your Essence

 

DOWNLOAD BROCHURE

Spring 2013 Planning Committee:

• Event Coordinator: Wendy Lineberger
• Tracks and Workshops Coordinator: Edra Van Valkenburgh
• Worship: Dale Cost and Sue Hand
• Sales and Activities Coordinator: Quinn Hazelbaker
• Scribe: Jenny Paveglio

The Institute offers 60 women an intimate and intensive environment in which to explore life’s journeys, joys and experiences. We will gather for meals, worship rituals and a wide variety of evening activities. Institute Registration begins at 3:00pm on Wednesday.

The Gathering begins on Friday evening as our numbers and energy swell. For Saturday, you may choose either an all-day, or two half-day workshops covering a spectrum of subjects. We will again gather for meals, worship rituals, and a wide variety of evening activities. The Gathering registration begins at 3:00pm on Friday afternoon, followed by Social Hour at 5:00 to give the 100 plus women a chance to introduce themselves to one another and the Membership Meeting at 6:00 to review business operations. One of our most popular Saturday evening activities is the traditional Saturday night Womenspirit Cabaret. Provide entertainment or just join in the applause. Be it poetry, song, music, dance, or performance art, all are welcome in this safe, fun, supportive environment.

UU Womenspirit Institute and Gathering are held at The Mountain, just outside of Highlands, NC.

Questions? Contact our Membership Chair Membership@uuwomenspirit.org
 
www.uuwomenspirit.org

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

Unitarian Universalist District Women’s Retreat: Second Half of Life
Friday, May 17 – Saturday, May 18, 2013
Waycross Episcopal Camp and Conference Center
www.waycrosscenter.org
Registration Form (PDF)
When you find the courage to change at mid-life,” Angeles Arrien teaches, “a miracle happens.” Your character is opened, deepened, strengthened and softened. You return to your soul’s highest values. You are now prepared to
create your legacy: an imprint of your dream for our world — that can fully come true in The Second Half of Life.
Reverend Mary Ann Macklin will facilitate this reflective, experiential, and exploratory retreat. Participants are expected to read Arrien’s book, The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gateways of Wisdom prior to the retreat date.
$100 includes: double room occupancy, Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast & lunch.
Questions? Please contact Retreat Registrar Sheri Benham, sbenham@steppingstones-inc.org or (812) 336-7196.

 

Unitarian Universalist Church
Attn: Office Assistant
2120 N. Fee Lane
Bloomington IN 47408

10th Annual Spring Fling Drum Thing!

May 17-19, 2013, Oakwood Retreat Center, Muncie, IN

Make plans now for Spring Fling!

Join us for the 10th annual WomenDrum Spring Fling Drum Thing Women’s Drumming Weekend at Oakwood! WArrivals begin at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday and we end on Sunday after lunch. Djembes and ashikos are available for rent ($15) or purchase.

http://www.womendrum.org

 

http://www.oakwoodretreatcenter.org/

http://usguu.org/events/reproductive-justice

 

 

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

Six sessions — Wednesday Evenings 7PM to 8:30PM 4/24 through 5/29
Last summer, at the Justice GA in Phoenix, the delegates chose Reproductive Justice as the study/action issue to engage over the next four years. Noting that reproductive rights and health services are seriously under attack nationally, the topic asks us to look at a broader range of issues, insisting that "Reproductive Justice represents a broader analysis of racial, economic, cultural, and social constraints on women's power," and asserting "The right to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments is a human right."
4/24 Session 1 — Introduction: What is Reproductive Justice?
5/01 Session 2 — Sacred Sexuality
5/06 Session 3 — Inherent Worth and Dignity

Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church
4936 Brownsboro Road Hwy. 22
Louisville, KY 40222

http://www.tjuc.org/

office@tjuc.org

We'll be exhibiting at

UU Women's Connection Spring Retreat

 

UUW&R also hopes to be presenting a workshop on Reproductive Justice. http://www.uua.org/reproductive/

We will be exhibiting at General Assembly

in Louisville, KY

 

Would your UU women's group like to add your voices to our display? Contact Gretchen, info@uuwr.org

 

Reproductive Justice:
Who's In Charge?

First UU Church of Detroit (Forest and Cass)

SAVE THE DATE: July 13, 2013

 

Michigan UU Social Justice Network is planning a Reproductive Justice conference with partner organizations, including Planned Parenthood, Mothering Justice and the United Church of Christ.
The conference will be open to the public and will address the following aspects of Reproductive Justice:

Religious grounding for working for Reproductive Justice;

How reproductive injustice affects different people, e.g., women, men, LGBT community;

Discussion of barriers to RJ, e.g, racism, poverty, oppression, etc.

RJ resources for congregations;

Training on current RJ issues and how to advocate with legislators

Direct action!

We expect to charge a modest fee to help cover costs of lunch, facility and materials. For more information or to sign up for Reproductive Justice conference calls, call Randy Block at 248-549-5170.

 

DOWNLOAD FLYER:  MUUSJN RJ conference July 2013 (60.07 kB)

 

The Goddess Diaries feature eight inspiring stories from women and girls -- aged 11 to 66 -- telling personal accounts of key milestones in their lives. From surviving bridal registries to letting go of bad husbands, the Diaries tell entertaining and compelling stories, intermixed with drumming and dance, and all for a good cause: Since its creation in 2009, The Goddess Diaries has raised thousands of dollars helping women in our community. In the spotlight monologue, two women share their astonishing story of courage and strength after facing abuse by a trusted staff member of a local church. 

 

https://www.capitalfringe.org/festival-2013/shows/15-the-goddess-diaries

 

Here’s a quick way to get some insight into the story behind the show. Host Kady Chiu works to promote women’s stories through YouTube interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcREDmBEV0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Go to www.goddessdiaries.org for more information.

Best, Carol Campbell carol@goddessdiariesmonologues.org 703/901-9010

The Goddess Diaries feature eight inspiring stories from women and girls -- aged 11 to 66 -- telling personal accounts of key milestones in their lives. From surviving bridal registries to letting go of bad husbands, the Diaries tell entertaining and compelling stories, intermixed with drumming and dance, and all for a good cause: Since its creation in 2009, The Goddess Diaries has raised thousands of dollars helping women in our community. In the spotlight monologue, two women share their astonishing story of courage and strength after facing abuse by a trusted staff member of a local church. 

 

https://www.capitalfringe.org/festival-2013/shows/15-the-goddess-diaries

 

Here’s a quick way to get some insight into the story behind the show. Host Kady Chiu works to promote women’s stories through YouTube interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcREDmBEV0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Go to www.goddessdiaries.org for more information.

Best, Carol Campbell carol@goddessdiariesmonologues.org 703/901-9010

The Goddess Diaries feature eight inspiring stories from women and girls -- aged 11 to 66 -- telling personal accounts of key milestones in their lives. From surviving bridal registries to letting go of bad husbands, the Diaries tell entertaining and compelling stories, intermixed with drumming and dance, and all for a good cause: Since its creation in 2009, The Goddess Diaries has raised thousands of dollars helping women in our community. In the spotlight monologue, two women share their astonishing story of courage and strength after facing abuse by a trusted staff member of a local church. 

 

https://www.capitalfringe.org/festival-2013/shows/15-the-goddess-diaries

 

Here’s a quick way to get some insight into the story behind the show. Host Kady Chiu works to promote women’s stories through YouTube interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcREDmBEV0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Go to www.goddessdiaries.org for more information.

Best, Carol Campbell carol@goddessdiariesmonologues.org 703/901-9010

Gaia's Womb presents The Red Tent - Lifting Each Other Up

A Summer Retreat for Women

August 2, 3, & 4th, 2013

DeKoven Center, Racine, WI

Featuring:
ALisa Starkweather
Angie Buchanan
and a Guest Appearance by
Dr. Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost

The Wheel She Turns and we find ourselves at the height of summer.

Waking in the morning seems much easier in summer; the light is golden, the air more gentle. We feel an urgency to go on early morning walks, to meet friends for breakfast, show off pedicures in sandaled feet and, luxuriate in days that stretch long into the night. Flavors are light and fresh from the garden, meals enjoyed at cooler temperatures. Simplicity prevails. Since 1998 Gaia's Womb has heralded the sister-tribe to come together for a spirit satisfying, Summer weekend retreat. We the nurturers, the care-givers, the over-scheduled and the overwhelmed, carve out this niche in time to set aside the mundane and become fully present in our bodies, in the moment, to refresh our minds, rejuvenate our spirits and to renew our connection to Gaia; primordial Mother Earth, who raises our feminine energy. In doing so, we keep each other grounded, supported and affirmed; we become allies and we embrace the strength, inspiration, and comfort to be found in that space.

Registration is now open.

http://www.gaiaswomb.com/event-aug13.htm

Artwork by Julie Cuccia Watts

Rockford Red Tent is honored to announce a screening of Things We Don’t Talk About: Woman’s Stories from the Red Tent -  a groundbreaking 72-minute documentary film by award winning filmmaker Dr. Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost. The screening will be held the afternoon of October 6 at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 4848 Turner Street in Rockford, and will be followed by a reception and discussion with the filmmaker.  Doors open at 1:30 and the film will begin at 2:30. A boutique of merchandise from premium Red Tent themed artists and crafters will be open before and after the film screening. Spontaneous and organic, a Red Tent is a red textile space where women gather to rest, renew, and often share deep and powerful stories about their lives. The Red Tent movement is changing the way that women interact and support each other by providing a place that honors and celebrates women, and by enabling open conversations about the things that women don’t want to talk about in other venues. More information is available at https://www.facebook.com/events/285497061590436/ or by emailing rockford.redtent@gmail.com.

Join our facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/352139938231206/

All are welcome to join us at the
St. Lawrence Unitarian Universalist District

Women's Spirituality Conference

Empowering Ourselves and Each Other

October 11-12, 2013

7PM Friday – 6PM Saturday

$75 Registration until Sept 17

$85 until Oct 3

after that, $100.

First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse
109 Waring Road, Syracuse, NY 13224

For a schedule of events or registration information,
please contact Jody Brown at sld@uuwr.org or (315) 476-0447.

SAVE THE DATE FLYER |   BROCHURE

REGISTER ONLINE!

Thresholds - Gateways to Consciousness

 

There are times in life when we feel like we are in a tunnel leading up to a threshold. The threshold can be planned or sudden, with either light or dark on the other side. How we choose to move through our thresholds is the key to developing consciousness. In school we are presented with a lesson and then tested on what we learned. In life, our lessons lead to thresholds that open us to new understandings and new choices, which move us to other thresholds and choices. Come join us at Fall 2013 Womenspirit to explore our journey through thresholds at The Mountain, a lovely retreat center near Highlands, NC, in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains.

Institute ~ October 16-18
Gathering ~ October 18-20
All meals, lodging, and programming $240.00 for each

 

The Institute offers 60 women an intimate and intensive environment in which to explore life’s journeys, joys and experiences. We will gather for meals, worship rituals and a wide variety of evening activities. Institute Registration begins at 3:00pm on Wednesday.

The Gathering begins on Friday evening as our numbers and energy swell. For Saturday, you may choose either an all-day, or two half-day workshops covering a spectrum of subjects. We will again gather for meals, worship rituals, and a wide variety of evening activities. The Gathering registration begins at 3:00pm on Friday afternoon, followed by Social Hour at 5:00 to give the 100 plus women a chance to introduce themselves to one another and the Membership Meeting at 6:00 to review business operations. One of our most popular Saturday evening activities is the traditional Saturday night Womenspirit Cabaret. Provide entertainment or just join in the applause. Be it poetry, song, music, dance, or performance art, all are welcome in this safe, fun, supportive environment.

UU Womenspirit Institute and Gathering are held at The Mountain, just outside of Highlands, NC.

 

Download a flyer!

Questions? Contact our Membership Chair Membership@uuwomenspirit.org...

Singing in Sacred Circle
2013 Fall Conference • October 18-20

 

DeKoven Retreat Center
600 - 21st Street, Racine, WI 53403

 

Join us the weekend of October 18-20 for our annual Women’s Connection Fall Conference! This year we will be meeting at a great new Retreat location - the DeKoven Center in Racine Wisconsin. The Center is within walking distance of Lake Michigan. The lodging and dining hall are in Taylor Hall. Most of the workshops will be in Taylor Hall, too. Our opening and closing ceremonies, keynote, several workshops, and our vendor area will in the Assembly Hall in East Building - a short, well-lit walk across the quad from Taylor Hall.

The Keynote speaker will be Shelley Graff - feminist singer, songwriter, guitarist and Singing in Sacred Circle facilitator.

 

“We are fortunate to have Shelley Graff among us. She is generous of heart and skill -- infused with love for the promise that comes when women sing together.” - Carolyn McDade

In the fall of the year we join together and connect to gather inner warmth for the winter to come. Want to CONNECT with other like minded women? See old friends and make new ones. Join us for our 31st Fall retreat!

 

LISTEN to one of Shelley's songs!

 

We will offer hands on workshops and meditative ones. We look forward to seeing you!

Want more info? Want to help with planning?

 

Call Diana DeWeese – 217-546-5834 or email registrar@uuwomensconnection.org

Join the Reproductive Justice Advocacy Community for their January webinar: Reproductive Justice Ministry with UU Men! Guest speakers will discuss their personal and professional commitments as male allies in the movement, bringing diverse perspectives around sexual orientation and age.  What does reproductive justice mean for men? How/why be an ally in this field? Invite your friends, or join as a small group! January 13, 2014 at 3:30pm Eastern.

Every month, during the first week of the month, there’s something happening in our community!  To join these events, sign up for the twice-monthly Reproductive Justice Alerts email list or contact Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) staff person Hanna Christianson (socialjustice@uua.org).

• February Conference Call
  February 3 or 4, time TBD
  Strategic Planning and Funding Opportunities
• March Webinar
  Reproductive Justice in the Trans Community
• April Conference Call
  Mama’s Day
• May Webinar TBD

Special Three Day Workshop January 24 - January 26, 2014

For the creators of Women of Wisdom, this fall is a time of preparation for the opportunity we will have to share our work in person with those who gather for our weekend workshop at Rowe Conference Center in western Massachusetts. We hope you will join us there.

Join the authors of "Becoming Women of Wisdom," Melody Lee, Karen Edwards, and Dorothy Emerson, for a program at the Rowe Camp & Conference Center's January conference. The program helps women connect with the wisdom of their life experience as they grow older, and helps to imbue their "crone" years with new-found grace, humor, and well being. Participants will use journaling, collage, music, dance, and ritual to help them claim their crone wisdom.

For additional information, and to register, go to www.rowecenter.org.  You can also view an informational video about the program.

For more on "Becoming Women of Wisdom," go to www.cronecurriculum.net.

Wisdom for the Journey:
A Weekend with Sue Monk Kidd

February 7-9, 2014
DuPage UU Congregation, Naperville, IL

Writer Sue Monk Kidd is one of the foremost explorers of the feminine divine and spiritual creativity for women.
Her fiction works dance on the edges of magical realism as she celebrates the con-nection between writing, creativity, and soul, and her non-fiction writings have provided a map for women seeking to expand and reclaim their own spiritual power.
Come spend a weekend laughing, learning, and growing at Winter WomanSpirit 2014, with Sue Monk Kidd and the women of the Central Midwest District. Explore your inner goddess with us!

The Art of Sisterhood
A Winter Retreat for Women

DeKoven Center, Racine, WI

www.gaiaswomb.com/event-feb14.htm

Featuring: Alison Nappi & Shelli Mullins

Sisters by blood or sisters by choice, from the outside looking in, you can never understand it. From the inside looking out, you can never explain it. It’s the magic that happens whenever the women of Gaia’s Womb gather together with open hearts to share knowledge and ideas, to create; to weave the red and golden threads of laughter and understanding into a rich tapestry of healing, comfort and growth.

Join us as we bring together two powerful presenters for a winter weekend retreat on the shores of Lake Michigan in a place reminiscent of Hogwarts.

Alison Nappi has spent her whole life preparing to fulfill her creative purpose. She believes in the privilege of madness and the ecstasy of creative living. She is the founder of Write with Spirit and she coaches conscious creative people who are ready to share their stories, and discover the micro-stories underneath the current of their ordinary lives. There is gold in everyone, and Alison is determined to help you harvest the deep riches within you.

Shelli Mullins is an organic vegetable and medicinal herb farmer. Her connection with nature has expanded into a passion for beekeeping and horsemanship. Shelli directs a women's spirit circle and hosts small workshops on her farm. Stewardship and service to Mother Earth & her fellow sisters is her life's passion. She loves to connect women with their primal instinct (the one who knows) and share the ways for women to find the creative river that all women have flowing through them.

---------- Pricing Structure: ----------

$350.00. ($325.00 for those who register and pay before February 1, 2014.) Please note there is a $5.00 processing fee to use PayPal so add that to your total.
The price includes programs, meals, and accommodations.
Rooms are semi-private. Bathrooms are shared.
There are no refunds.

To Register For The Event:

1. Go to this link...

Women & Religion PCD Annual Retreat

Celebrating Gaia:
Connecting with Mother Earth

The Women & Religion PCD
2014 Annual Women's Retreat

Women & Religion, Pacific Central District
Unitarian Universalist Association

February 28 - March 2, 2014

At Enchanted Hills Camp in the hills above Napa, California

Registration is open — Click for details

Pricing remains the same -- $250 if returning ($230 if you register by 2/1/14) or $200 if registering for the first time. A partial scholarship may be available if you have attended a retreat in the past. New options are Thursday evening arrival ($30 extra, dinner not available) and a new Saturday-only registration ($50, 3 meals, no lodging, discounts, or scholarships). Please note the new date!

Questions? Comments? Post them on our website or contact us at info@womenandreligionpcd.org.

Every March 8, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. International Women’s Day is a unique opportunity to raise awareness of women’s issues, and work together to build an international Unitarian*Universalist women's movement.

We ask that you reach out to your congregation to join us in celebration, education, and offering in observance of International Women’s Day 2014.

Read more...

The 2014 program is being planned by women from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft Myers.

The theme is Women and Power.

During our weekend together we will share stories and inspirations and explore the many aspects of power in our lives and in the lives of women of the world.

DaySpring Episcopal Conference Center, located conveniently off I-75, offers a wooded setting on a cove of the Manatee River.

$220 per person covers expenses, including semi-private room and six meals. A non-refundable deposit of $20 will reserve your place.

For more information and an application, contact Rita Sizemore:
rsrsizemore@gmail.com or call 239-437-1014.

Breaking News:
There are several openings for the retreat as a few women are
now unable to attend, so there will be reduced tuition for five women (first come, first served). The fee will be reduced by 50% for those who get in touch with Helen Leddy at helen.leddy@gmail.com

This is the Florida District annual women's retreat! Keep an eye on the NE Cluster website, http://necluster.uufg.org/ for more information.

“Borderlands:  Scholarship as Pilgrimage and Mystery”

San Antonio TX, March 28-29, 2014.

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology invites you to its International Conference for lively discussions about the divine feminine.  Keynote speakers are Jean Shinoda Bolen, Sylvia Marcos, and Jemez Pueblo artist Laura Fragua-Cota.  Panel speakers include Lydia Ruyle, Vicki Noble, Kay Turner, and Miriam Robbins Dexter.  We will explore such diverse topics as Corn Mothers, Black Madonnas, Matriarchal Studies, European Folk Tales, Gender Borderlands, and Horse Mysteries.  Join us on the River Walk for panels, workshops, films, roundtables, and community.  Learn more about the conference:  www.womenandmyth.org and register here: http://aswm.conferencetime.com

Ix Chel goddess banner by Lydia Ruyle

Come enjoy the fellowship of UU women and experience mindfulness through Art, drawing for relaxation, inspiration and fun.

Women's Weekend

April 26 and 27, 2014
Saturday and Sunday
At Toddhall Retreat Center
320 Todd Center Drive
Columbia, Illinois 62236-3245

 

You have a choice to spend one night or just come for the day. Women`s Weekend features a wonderful variety of workshops, Sunday service, a White Elephant Sale, massage, icebreaker and board games, great food and time for relaxation and socializing.

This retreat is open to all UU women and friends.

Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) is proud to present our Symposium and our 2014 conference:
ASWM Third National Conference, San Antonio, TX, March 28-30, 2014

The goal of ASWM is to support the work of those whose scholarly/creative endeavors explore or elucidate aspects of the sacred feminine, women and mythology.

You’ll find posts about all this and more on our Blog Posts.

 

Join us the weekend of May 2 - 4, 2014 for A Women's Retreat at UbarU Camp and Conference Center:  Deep in the Heart.

This is a weekend to recharge your spirit in the fellowship of Unitarian Universalist women.

This is a weekend where you will have no responsibilities other than to be your own true beautiful authentic self.

This is a weekend where you can deepen your relationship with old friends and also build new friendships.

This is a weekend to sing, meditate, dance, take a walk in the hill country, visit the labyrinth or do whatever else your spirit needs.

This is a weekend free from workshops and classes.

This is a weekend you won't want to miss!

Our spiritual advisor will be Scottie McIntyre Johnson. Scottie recently served as intern minister for the Denton UU Fellowship and graduated from Perkins School of Theology (SMU) with a Master of Divinity degree. She has a passion for helping people connect with each other and to the divine.

UbarU is a Unitarian Universalist Retreat and Conference Center in the rugged ranch land of the Hill Country near Kerrville, Texas.

Join us!

The cost for the weekend is $110.  After April 7th the cost goes up to $140.  You may pay with PayPal or by mail.  The details of how to pay will be given in more detail upon completion of registration.

To register CLICK HERE.

Save the Date!

Are you going to General Assembly this year?

UUWR will have a large booth - plenty of room for the Store, for a Red Tent, for conversations and more!

How about a Goddess Tour of Providence?

Watch our site for details as we finalize everything.

"Other"

That Which Exists Outside of Time, Space and the Five Senses
A Summer Retreat for Women.

Featuring Jessica Macbeth and Sandra Kynes

REGISTER NOW

A whisper in the woods, quiet laughter from the corner, a soft glow in the trees at night - a flash out of the corner of an eye, or perhaps just a thought that seemingly comes randomly but, makes oh-so-much sense. We call them Spirits, Faeries, Entities or "Other." They are that which exist outside of time, space and the five senses and they influence our world, our environment, and our lives in many ways. There have been legends and stories about them through the ages and across cultures. They can be helpers, or mischief makers who bring messages that are insightful and revealing. Join us as we bring together two powerful teachers to show us new ways of understanding and interacting with these energies and entities.

Jessica Macbeth

Jessica Macbeth is an accomplished metaphysical teacher and the author of the acclaimed, international best-selling book and card set, Brian Froud’s The Faeries’ Oracle praised as “the best modern oracle deck ever produced.” She is also the author of the books, Moon Over Water and Sun Over Mountain, two guides to meditation, imagery and self-discovery. She lives Port Townsend, WA.

“Some years back I was given a mission, which is to help bring people back to nature – back to the natural world, back to connection with Earthmama and the nature spirits of Faery, back to our own true nature. I guess that will keep me busy for a while.” – Jessica Macbeth


Sandra Kynes

Sandra Kynes is an explorer of Celtic history, myth and magic, a writer, yoga instructor, Reiki practitioner, and a member of the Bards, Ovates and Druids. Her inquisitiveness has led her to investigate the roots of her beliefs and to integrate her spiritual path with everyday life. She likes developing creative ways to explore the world, which serves as the basis for her books. Originally from New York City, she has lived in Europe, England, and now resides in coastal New...

WomanSoul 2014: The Year of Sacred Beauty

August 23-28, 2014

 Register Here

After 27 years of profound evolution Woman Soul is a camp, a mystery school, and an intensive all wrapped up in one. Our mission is to build an authentic heartfelt community of powerful women visionaries. This year, we’ll celebrate the ancient Roman goddesses Flora, known as she who astounds us with beauty, and Fauna, known as she who teaches us to understand. Together, as Dreamers, Visionaries, and Seekers, we become like the priestesses of old, creating a place where tired warriors and the wounded come to heal and rest.

Experience the mystic’s path through techniques offered exclusively at Woman Soul. Discover the healing patterns in nature with flower geometry. Share in a fire dance and a circle dance. Through song and sound, attune your inner voice. Develop your psychic gifts for the wild. Explore eco-feminism and spirituality, honor our elders (We believe we have the most beautiful honoring ceremony for our elders in all of New England!), and engage in sacred play. Relax with music and entertainment. Each morning, explore your revelations in our Priestess Labs, applying ancient myth to the world at large. Come join us, and your spirit will be forever grateful. For more information, click on the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/WomanSoulACommunityOfSacredTrust

Eclipse Fey is a Magaian priestess, a visionary activist, artist, and author of Motherghost: A Journey to the Mother; The Moon in Hand: A Mystical Passage; Wing & Bough; Journey to the Heart cards; and The Singing Forest Divination Deck. She leads programs on cosmic alignments, and several tribal traditions have honored her as a "Vision Keeper.” Currently she is designing innovative bully-prevention programs for educational communities.

Register Here

This program will run concurrently with WomenCircles. Each will offer its own separate program, but the women attending will share mealtimes and free time.

WomenCircles: Priestesses of Peace

August 23-28, 2014

 Register Here

In its nearly 40 years, WomenCircles has drawn together women who are diverse in lifestyle, cultural background, age, sexual orientation, and spiritual path to forge a community in which women’s spirits are expressed, celebrated, and honored. As you step forward onto new paths of power, this community can offer guidance and support. This year, join with us in sacred circle for peacemaking and peace sharing. We’ll “priestess” together as we learn how to use the circle to create and nurture webs of connection that will nourish your life. When we create peace within ourselves, we can create peaceful relationships, peaceful communities, and a more peaceful world.

You’ll meet other wonderful women, share in deep discussions, sing, lie in the sun, walk in the woods, create in the art room, enjoy good food, and have the chance to slow down. In some of the workshops we’ll walk the medicine wheel, learn about the wisdom of the sacred circle, and dream about the peaceful blood of the Red Tent. During the nights, we’ll have singing, dancing, deep inspiration, performances, and a ceremony to honor ourselves as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and as Priestesses of Peace. You’ll leave refreshed and renewed through sisterhood, beauty, and joy. For more information, go tp the facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/WomencirclesPriestessesOfPeace

 

Marie Summerwood is a ritualist, author, playwright, herbalist, and composer of women’s sacred music. Marie and her staff are committed to modeling how women can come together to share leadership and wisdom and hold the energy of the circle together. For more details and up-to-date information about specific workshops and teachers as they are posted, please visit www.rowecenter.org and www.facebook.com/WomencirclesACommunityOfHeartAndSpirit

 

Register Here

This program will run concurrently with Woman Soul. Each will offer its own separate program, but the women attending will share mealtimes and free time.

Womensphere UU Fall Retreat for Women

“Uncaged Women Sing”

10 am Sept 27 – 3 pm Sept 28, 2014

Senexet House, Woodstock, CT

 

In the wake of the passing of Maya Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, we offer an opportunity to recognize the times in our lives when we uncaged our voices and became Phenomenal Women.

 

DOWNLOAD FLYER

 

Join us for a day of women only Community and ritual. Keynote speaker Nancy Vedder-Shults will give a talk on women's spirituality and we will have several workshop offerings including yoga, reproductive justice, and a red tent!  Our event is Saturday October 4 from 9:30-5:30 at the UU Congregation of Binghamton.

Please contact Christine Smith at stinesmith@gmail.com for more information.

Our facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/pages/SLD-UUWR/107703245986986

Join us the weekend of October 10 – 12 for A Women's Retreat at UbarU Camp and Conference Center: Deep in the Heart.

• This is a weekend to recharge your spirit in the fellowship of Unitarian Universalist women.
• This is a weekend where you will have no responsibilities other than to be your own true beautiful authentic self.
• This is a weekend where you can deepen your relationship with old friends and also build new friendships.
• This is a weekend to sing, meditate, dance, take a walk in the hill country, visit the labyrinth or do whatever else your spirit needs.
• This is a weekend free from workshops and classes.

Our rate will be $110 if registered by October 1st, and $125 after that.

This is a weekend you won't want to miss!

Our spiritual advisor will be Scottie McIntyre Johnson. Scottie recently served as intern minister for the Denton UU Fellowship and graduated from Perkins School of Theology (SMU) with a Master of Divinity degree. She has a passion for helping people connect with each other and to the divine.

Join us!

Click HERE to register.

Minnesota State University's annual Women & Spirituality Conference:

The Women and Spirituality Conference was born in 1981 and the purpose was to provide a supportive and nurturing setting for a dialogue of caring and mutual respect between and among women and men from many spiritual and religious traditions.

 

http://sbs.mnsu.edu/women/conference/

Rhythm of Being

Logo design by Kathy Kemerait

We are always together in the place of blessings,
flourishing on the bank of the calm mind,
filled with our song of satisfied creation,
radiant in the pulse of all that is,
of all that ever was,
of all that ever will be.
-- Layne Redmond

Our theme for this event, Rhythm of Being, seeks to explore our connection as women to the cycles and rhythms of the natural world in her many forms. Please consider submitting proposals for Institute Tracks and Gathering Workshops to Kate Wolverton, Volunteer Coordinator on the CoCo, at wolvkat27@gmail.com.

From left to right: Tammy, Claire, Arianna, Lisa, Katie and Tarleton

Fall 2014 Planning Committee:
Claire Crutchley — Event Coordinator
Arianna Bara — Worship
Lisa Sherman — Worship
Tarleton Brooks — Sales and Activities
Katie Bloedau — Tracks and Workshops
Tammy May - Scribe

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Registration Steps
First, read this: Fall 2014 Brochure
Next, read this: Instructions for UU Womenspirit online registration
Finally, go here: Online UU Womenspirit Event Registration

 

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Financial Assistance: UUWomenspirit is proud to offer some financial assistance to those who need it. Check our website for more information and a form..

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Location: UUWomenspirit Institute and Gathering are held at The Mountain, just outside of Highlands, NC. Please use these links to get more information.

Directions to the Mountain
Information about coming to the Mountain

If you have any questions about UU Womenspirit, please contact our Membership Chair via email: Membership AT uuwomenspirit DOT org

Rosemary Matson's memorial service is October 25, beginning at 2:00pm at the Community Church of Monterey Peninsula, 4590 Carmel Valley Rd., Carmel Valley, CA 93923.

Women of Wisdom at Rowe
Winter Retreat December 19 - 21 2014
Join the authors of "Becoming Women of Wisdom," Melody Lee, Karen Edwards, and Dorothy Emerson, for a winter solstice retreat, “Tending Your Inner Fire” at the Rowe Camp & Conference Center from December 19-21, 2014. Connect with other women at mid-life or beyond to reflect on the wisdom gained from your life experience -- that inner fire that warms and guides you through even the darkest time.

The program helps women connect with the wisdom of their life experience as they grow older, and helps to imbue their "crone" years with new-found grace, humor, and well being. Participants will use journaling, collage, music, dance, and ritual to help them claim their crone wisdom.

Watch this video describing the program! For additional information and to register, visit rowecenter.org.

"The Call To Conscious Feminine Leadership"
Speaker: Mary Pierce Brosmer
Mary is a poet and social entrepreneur who dreamed, and then created Women Writing for (a) Change, a movement which supports the lives of women and girls who are working to commit life to language, in the belief that the truth of the feminine Is a resource for healing and renewal of culture and nature.
Mary encourages women and girls to use the material of our lives to support the truth telling necessary for healing, inspiration and personal empowerment. From this form of personal soul transformation, life sustaining and life giving leadership in organizations, communities, workplaces and homes, can be born.
Location:
Lake Country UU Church
Hartland, WI. 53029 (one half hour south of Milwaukee)
Early Registration $150.00 until March 15. Register by going to:
http://www.regonline.com/w2015

"Our Sacred Springs"

SWUUW Conference 2015

San Marcos, Texas

March 6-8, 2015

Musician: Terri Hendrix

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Parker

 

REGISTER NOW!

www.swuuw.org/register 

 

http://www.uua.org/ga for information and to register.

 

UUW&R will be in Portland, OR for the 2015 General Assembly. We'll have an exhibit booth, #218, right next door to the UU Women's Federation! What a great opportunity for some cross-pollination of ideas. Be sure to come and see us, and find out what these national UU women's organizations have to offer.

Unfortunately we won't have room for a Red Tent this year... booth prices went up substantially in 2015 for the larger spaces. We will have new items for sale: hand-knit scarves and shawls created and donated by a long-time W&R supporter. New this year: we won't have much inventory in the booth so we'll offer FREE SHIPPING to anyone ordering curricula, books or CDs at GA.

Both groups are looking for members and friends to help staff the booths during the week of GA, June 24-28. If you are going and are interested in volunteering for UUW&R, please contact Gretchen at 877-342-0850. or info@uuwr.org. For UUWF, contact Kirstie Lewis at uuwf@uuwf.org.

5th Annual Florida Unitarian Universalist Women’s Retreat
March 20 - 22, 2015
Cedarkirk Conference Center
Lithia Florida

 

Reserve Your Space Now!

 

Through structured and unstructured activities, attendees will discover ways to connect to themselves as they are today, see others in new light, and delve into the spiritual and natural universes. Take a new look at the labyrinth, create a private centering display, and experience mental and possibly physical challenges with leaders through Pathfinders. Spend time with some new others or see old friends in a deeper way. Such will compose the weekend. See you there.

 

Registration is limited to 40 Participants – reserve your space now !

 

The retreat is moving to Cedarkirk as DaySpring is not available.

 

The retreat begins at 5pm Friday afternoon and concludes at noon on Sunday.

 

Both private and semi private rooms are available. Meals included in your registration fee are Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast. Our new location is less expensive! $155 semi private room with $20 deposit $175 first floor semi private room $20 deposit – limited number available $200 private room with $30 deposit – limited number available

 

Final payment is due by January 15, 2015

 

For more information and a registration form contact: Helen Leddy helen.leddy@gmail.com

 

We look forward to another great retreat and hope you will be able to join us this year!

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgcfjcwf6v920na/FL%20UU%20Women%27s%20Retreat%203-2015.pdf?dl=0

AUW members enjoy the benefits of early registration beginning on Sunday, February 8th and a reduced member rate for this popular annual event.

Registration deadline is March 20th. No refunds after this date.

Registration and membership forms may be completed on Sunday mornings at the AUW table in the Social Hall. Checks will be accepted in person or can be sent to the church office.  Make checks to "AUW" and send to: AUW at First Universalist Church,3400 Dupont Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

AUW offers partial scholarships. Gifts can be added to the total fee to help others attend.

Scholarship applicants will be contacted by March 20th regarding a partial scholarship.

 

http://auw-springretreat2015.bpt.me/

Susan Griffin, Z Budapest, and the Women of We’Moon are featured at the 2015 Symposium “Tales and Totems:  Myth and Lineage in Goddess Scholarship.”  Susan Griffin’s keynote presentation is "Who Is Telling the Story? A Few Remarks on the Mythic Imagination."

Panels include Oregon women’s lands, cultural identity, Mary Magdalene, gender in myth, and re-framing European and Asian goddess myths.  Workshops focus on indigenous water myths and  Greek goddesses.. A panel of regional artists discuss “Imagining Mythic Female Presence.”

On April 10, the evening before the symposium, is a discussion “Can the Blessed Virgin hold the hearts of goddess women?” This event includes readings from Patricia Monaghan’s Mary:  A Life in Verse and first-person accounts of Mary’s influence on women’s lives.

Following the symposium in the same location is a “Sacred Shindig” with art, poetry, storytelling and performance.  It’s “A Sharing Circle, with Goddess play, Goddess stories, songs, jokes and other shenanigans” hosted by Women of We’Moon. The event features Bethroot Gwynn, Lea Bayles, Nancy Vedder-Shults, Naomi Littlebear Morena and Izetta Smith.

The sponsoring organization, the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, will present the Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts to the Women of We’Moon for their annual creation of artistic datebooks featuring art and words of over 200 women.  Z Budapest, visionary author and ritualist, will receive the Saga Special Recognition for Contributions to Women’s History.

The symposium and related events take place at the Red Lion on the River (at Jantzen Beach) in Portland, OR.  For more information or to register womenandmyth.org

Answering the Sacred Call: Daylong for Women Who Want to Live & Lead with Spirit

 

Led by: Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., Founding Director, Seven Sisters Mystery School & Joy Reichard, Healing with Joy

Date & Location: Sat April 11, 2015 • 9:30 am – 5 pm • Unitarian Universalist Church of San Mateo, San Mateo, CA

Description: In this daylong, you’ll learn how to pursue your role as a woman of world transformation more fully by gaining new & upgraded tools & understandings for spiritual growth & personal healing. Day includes teachings on communicating with the subtle realms, receiving energetic empowerments, enhancing intuitive knowing, and amplifying self-care.

For more information & to register, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/601757923258917

 

 

 

57th Annual Spring Conference
Pilgrim Park Conference Center, Princeton, IL
June 5-7, 2015

Journeys of the Spirit

Featured keynote speaker Marsha Forrest

Our 2015 Spring Conference Keynote is a health and wellness consultant.
In her own words:
I am a woman of Mohawk ancestry who was born and raised on the Six Nations Reservation in Ontario, Canada. I was encouraged by a large extended family to pursue my goal of becoming a Registered Nurse. I lived in Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands of B.C., for thirty three years, and was adopted into the Ts'aalth Clan of the Eagle Clan of the Haida. I moved with my husband from Haida Gwaii to Southern Illinois and I am working with the Cherokee and women's groups in that area.

I have always had a strong sense of helping and being a support to others as they go through both minor and major transitions in their lives. Now as a Health and Wellness Consultant, I support people in ways to help them discover their own strengths and responsibility for their well being and their environment. I hold the vision of a holistic view of health which finds the balance of the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental aspects of one's own being as they grow towards their full potential. I believe every person has an opportunity to make a positive difference to others and our precious world, just by their willingness to be compassionate, respectful and loving. I am now retired from nursing and most of my career took place in a hospital setting. It has been fulfilling to continue to incorporate both western and complimentary techniques into my work. Some of these techniques include acupressure, reflexology, polarity therapy, massage and traditional healing practices. I have been taught by many native Elders over the last thirty years and have been grateful to learn about the traditional teachings and ceremonies. I have been encouraged to share these teachings with others and I do this with individuals or with groups. I have traveled local, national and international with the Elders...

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Red Tent Weekend in Racine WI
Friday, October 9, 2015 3:00 PM

SAVE THE DATE: October 9-11, 2015

A Red Tent Weekend with Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost, PhD
Award-winning filmmaker who created Things We Don’t Talk About:
Women’s Stories from The Red Tent, a groundbreaking documentary film.
We’ll be at the DeKoven Center in Racine Wisconsin!

www.uuwomensconnection.org  

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2015 UUFC Women's Retreat near Corvallis OR
October 16-18
Silver Falls Conference Center

Near Corvallis, Oregon

Our lives are filled with callings. Whether as a child, a wife, a mother, a crone, we have a focus that is outward and giving. At the 2015 UU Women’s Retreat we are looking inward, exploring and nurturing our inner best self. Come join us for our planned program with Rev. Jill. The weekend will be packed with conversations, exploring nature, and connection with others and yourself.

Registration: Full Retreat includes lodging for 2 nights in a shared room, six meals and an opportunity to create a Retreat weekend of your choosing. There are two (2) private, single occupancy rooms for an additional $50 each. Private rooms are not eligible for scholarships. *W2W Scholarship details are below.

Day Tripper Retreat includes lunch, dinner, and Saturday activities. Day trippers activities begin on Saturday morning after breakfast, at 8:30 am. Mothers with non-separating infants are welcome as day trippers.

Your received payment will confirm your reservation. ($185 Full weekend, $45 Day tripper) Take advantage of the Early-Bird discount ($20 off full, and $10 off day tripper) by registering by July 1. You may also choose to register at a W2W level to help provide scholarships. (See below) Space is limited so register soon. A wait list will be kept of registrations received after all spaces are full.

Refund policy: Full refunds will be made for cancellations received by July 20, 2015.

Women 2 Women In Community - Because of a long history of generosity in helping women who might not otherwise have been able to attend the UUFC Women’s Retreat, the Retreat Committee has created W2W registration levels. Anything you pay over the Early Bird cost will go to Scholarships or subsidy to keep the cost of the Retreat at a doable level for all.

Thank you all for your generosity!

http://www.uucorvallis.org/uufcwomensretreat/2015%20UUWR%20Registration%20-lotus2.pdf

 

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UU Womenspirit Institute and Gathering in NC
October 14-18, 2015

UUWomenspirit-Love-MattersUU Womenspirit is an all women organization formed from UU traditions with an emphasis on exploring and celebrating the Divine Feminine in her many forms. We offer bi-annual spiritual retreats in the fall and spring that are conceptualized and planned by members of our organization who volunteer their time and talents.  Each event has a distinct theme, and we offer workshops and daily worship services that provide opportunities for self-exploration while making connections with other like-minded women.

Our theme for the Fall 2015 event is "Love Matters", and was inspired by a recent conversation between long time friends wherein one proclaimed that she believed "the purpose of life is to love yourself and others." This statement seems so basic, so simple, and yet so easy to forget. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is way too easy to fall into patterns of self criticism and judgment. During this event, we will take time to unwind, decompress and explore how love matters in our interactions with others and our feelings about ourselves.  

The event consists of two distinct offerings.  The Institute runs from the afternoon of Wednesday, October 14th through lunchtime on Friday, October 16th.  The Gathering picks up where The Institute left off and begins the afternoon of Friday the 16th and runs through noon on Sunday, October 18th.  You can attend The Institute, The Gathering, or both!

http://uuwomenspirit.org/Events/fall-event/

Want to know what you can look forward to experiencing at our events? Take a look at the About Events page.

Financial Assistance:  UUWomenspirit is proud to offer some financial assistance to those who need it. Check back here closer to the event for more information and a form..

Location:  UUWomenspirit Institute and Gathering are held at The Mountain, just outside of Highlands, NC. Please use these links to get more information.

Directions to the Mountain
Information about coming to the Mountain

If you have any questions about UU Womenspirit, please contact our Membership Chair via email: Membership AT uuwomenspirit DOT org

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