Author Archives

• The Philadelphia Eleven: A Documentary by Margo Guernsey

  By Guest Contributor on June 17, 2019 • ( 3 )

  

  Storytelling is as old as humanity. We tell ourselves stories – about who we are as individuals, about our families, and about our people – to understand who we are. A lot of narratives are told by a dominant segment… Read More ›

• Re-Imaging Three Marys by Janet Sunderland

  By Guest Contributor on June 11, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  The recent #metoo movement, along with young women entering Congress, has pointed to an important question. Why, in this 21st Century, are these achievements remarkable? Why has it taken so long for women to be recognized as capable for these… Read More ›

• How Can Change Happen If We Can’t Imagine It First? by Darla Graves Palmer

  By Guest Contributor on June 10, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  More than one hundred years ago, a small group of women joined together and decided to create their own village, one rooted in relationship and guided by spirit. They weren’t the first such women-led town in the country – there… Read More ›

• Climate Change as a Socio-Spiritual Feminist Issue (Or 10 ways to be a leader in the era of climate change) by Nurete Brenner

  By Guest Contributor on June 4, 2019 • ( 5 )

  

  Authorities have observed that climate change is a feminist issue because it disproportionately affects women. Among these, the United Nations has gone further to acknowledge that climate change is a feminist issue because women are on the forefront of adopting… Read More ›

• Advocating Respect for Goddess by Susan de Gaia

  By Guest Contributor on May 30, 2019 • ( 26 )

  

  I served as general editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture Across History (2018/19 ABC-CLIO). It was an honor and a pleasure to work with a hundred and thirty wonderful scholars, many with… Read More ›

• Women’s Bodies and the Bible by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on May 20, 2019 • ( 16 )

  

  Trigger Alert:  The bible on its face is quite violent to women. Amidst the ugliness that is American politics in general and abortion politics specifically, I began to look for guidance to understand what is happening. I ended up pulling… Read More ›

• The Tree as Mother by Mama Donna Henes

  By Guest Contributor on May 19, 2019 • ( 9 )

  

  Arbor Day, Earth Day, May Day and Mother’s Day are deeply connected conceptually, etymologically, culturally and emotionally. The tree, with its roots buried deep in the earth and its branches reaching upward toward heaven, spread wide to embrace all of… Read More ›

• May is the Month of Mary by Mary Jane Miller

  By Guest Contributor on May 18, 2019 • ( 4 )

  

   Mary Icons There are three classic prototypes of Mary Icons, their collective messages point toward a new contemporary kind of trinity. Perhaps the concept of Mary is still undeveloped, as our society has changed her message is still provocative and… Read More ›

• The Legend of Arawello, the Somali Goddess by MaryAnn Shank

  By Guest Contributor on May 16, 2019 • ( 14 )

  

  I did not intend to find her.  In fact I wasn’t even looking.  But there she was, soaring before me, on my last night in Baidoa.  This majestic Somali woman reached high into the heavens, engulfed in a glorious wraparound… Read More ›

• “Closer to Fine:” Trans Femme Reflections on the Sacred Found in Lesbian Music Culture by Nathan Bakken

  By Guest Contributor on May 8, 2019 • ( 15 )

  

  “I’m trying to tell you something about my life.” I joke with my friends that if the 1990’s weren’t so transphobic, I would have thrived as a trans lesbian. Citing my knowledge of the L Word, Pacific Northwest flannel sensibilities,… Read More ›

• Slippery Package: A prayer poem by Isabella Ides

  By Guest Contributor on April 24, 2019 • ( 3 )

  

  She speaks a various language.   Bound in the bardo bereft vaguely present, almost dead. For fucking shining aloud let me   back in. Come again, sweet terror Carve my shadow on your cave walls Render me a soul, source me… Read More ›

• Storytelling as a Spiritual Practice by Nurete Brenner

  By Guest Contributor on April 10, 2019 • ( 15 )

  

  “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Audre Lorde Question: What tools do we have that are powerful enough to dismantle the Master’s house? Answer: Storytelling. Storytelling does not belong to the “master.” Storytelling is subversive because it… Read More ›

• Why Pro-Life Stops at Birth: Who Really Supports Life and Why by Winifred Nathan

  By Guest Contributor on March 31, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  The patriarchal Catholic Church claims to be pro-Life.  But is it pro-Life?  Or is it pro-Birth?  A Catholic Benedictine sister outed the pro-Life movement. Her position: the pro-life crowd shows little if any ongoing interest in life after birth.  They’re… Read More ›

• A Letter to Senator Feinstein by Sarah Robinson-Bertoni

  By Guest Contributor on March 30, 2019 • ( 5 )

  

  Dear Senator Feinstein, I distinctly remember celebrating the 1992 historic victory when you and Barbara Boxer were elected as the first female Senatorial duo from any state in the union.  My father brought my sister and me to an election… Read More ›

• Liam Neeson and White Toxic Masculinity by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on March 29, 2019 • ( 34 )

  

  Several weeks ago, Liam Neeson was doing a press tour for his latest movie. He caused quite a stir by bringing up an event from his life from 40 years ago. Actually, it was an event that happened not to… Read More ›

• Sawbonna: Godde and Another Route to Forgiveness by Margot Van Sluytman

  By Guest Contributor on March 21, 2019 • ( 3 )

  

  From the day my Father, Theodore, was brutally and callously murdered in Toronto, on Easter Monday, March 27, 1978, I wanted to meet his killer. I wanted to know how it was possible to do such a horrific thing. I… Read More ›

• Ariel, just fighting to get above water…by Yara González-Justiniano

  By Guest Contributor on March 12, 2019 • ( 7 )

  

  I am all for the critical deconstruction of Disney Princesses, especially since now I see more of a commercial push for them as a collection than when I was growing up in the late 80’s. However, I too had a… Read More ›

• Recognizing Abuse by Karen Tate

  By Guest Contributor on March 8, 2019 • ( 8 )

  

  I’ve been thinking a lot about abuse.  Of course, most of us know about the domination, exploitation and  need for control meted out by patriarchy, but I wonder if we have actually normalized many abuses?  Abuse in the home, in… Read More ›

• Eve by Any Other Name… by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on March 5, 2019 • ( 9 )

  

  This title isn’t entirely true. Eve would need an exceptionally well thought out replacement for Her name to be as sweet as it already it. That is because Eve’s name is unique, multi-dimensional and integral to the Bible’s mysteries. The… Read More ›

• Leading by Mandala by Nurete Brenner and Elizabeth Meacham

  By Guest Contributor on February 17, 2019 • ( 9 )

  

  Lake Erie Institute The old myths and images that sustained us in earlier periods are no longer serving us during this time of breakdown of the old and the uncertainty about the future. The lone wolf, the frontiersman, the all-powerful… Read More ›

• Eve is the Hero of the Garden of Eden, Part 2 by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on January 26, 2019 • ( 21 )

  

  The serpent in the Bible is treated as Eve’s partner in crime, a malevolent seducer who is responsible for humankind’s expulsion from paradise. But did you know there are serpents who figure positively in the Bible? There are serpent priests,… Read More ›

• Eve is the Hero of the Garden of Eden, Part 1 by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on January 25, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  She is a tree of life to those who embrace her and those who lay hold of her are blessed. Proverbs 3:18 (Berean Study Bible) Eve’s story, as it has been passed onto us from the Bible, makes Her responsible… Read More ›

• Creatrix Mundi: Speculating The Godma by Isabella Ides

  By Guest Contributor on January 19, 2019 • ( 24 )

  

  What does it mean to approach the idea of a Godma, a mother-of-all, as an act of the imagination, as a pure act of speculation? I particularly love the word speculator: one who is mining for the diamond, one who… Read More ›

• Mantra and Meditation in Buddhist Hospice Chaplaincy to Alleviate Anxiety by Karen Nelson Villanueva

  By Guest Contributor on January 5, 2019 • ( 15 )

  

  Mantras are not just the prescribed sound formulas or sentences found in Eastern religions, but they can also be thought of as the words or phrases that we continually repeat to ourselves. The word mantra comes from Sanskrit and its… Read More ›

• What Gender is God Anyway? by Janet Rudolph

  By Guest Contributor on December 30, 2018 • ( 24 )

  

  Adult Daughter (“AD”): Hi Mom, Alex said to tell you “hi.” Me: That’s nice. How is she? AD: How are “they?” Alex uses “they,” mom. Me: Oh right, sorry. I am having some trouble wrapping my head around using “they”… Read More ›

• Virgins with Pregnancy Scares: Feminist Reflections on the Annunciation by Lauren D. Sawyer

  By Guest Contributor on December 23, 2018 • ( 12 )

  

  There I was in the bathroom, peeing on a stick. “It’s a rite of passage,” my friend Kelsey told me. She was the one wishing me luck from the other side of the door; she was the one who brought… Read More ›

• The Santa Goddess from The Goddess Project: Made in Her Image by Colette Numajiri

  By Guest Contributor on December 22, 2018 • ( 17 )

  

  Frau Holda Poem Hail to Frau Holda, the beautiful and bright, Crowned and clothed, all in glistening Winter white. Ay seeking and searching, She sweeps o’er the land, Scourge for the slovenly, held firmly in hand. As Holda fares forth,… Read More ›

• Priestesses at the Parliament by Rae Abileah, Bekah Starr & Chaplain Elizabeth Berger

  By Guest Contributor on December 18, 2018 • ( 5 )

  

  During the first week of November 2018, 12 graduates and current students of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada. The Parliament is a conference with a 125-year-old history that has grown… Read More ›

• A Moment of Change in Our Church by Janice Poss

  By Guest Contributor on December 11, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  On September 12, 2018, Roman Catholic Bishop David O’Connell helped move the Episcopate into a new day. A healing Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Claremont, California was celebrated for the victims of clergy sex abuse. They… Read More ›

• Clerical Male Mess! by Janice L. Poss

  By Guest Contributor on December 4, 2018 • ( 8 )

  

  “I am sorry!” “I am guilty of sex abuse” “I have hurt many young children!” “I have ruined lives!” “We are sorry for hiding sex abuse in the Church!” “We are criminals!” “We want to make amends!” We, in the… Read More ›