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Collaborating for Change

WATER and the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc., convened and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Ministry in Crawfordsville, Indiana hosted “Collaborating for Change” in August of 2006. Twenty-two leaders from women’s organizations that deal with religion, feminism, and social justice spent five days sharing ideas and challenges with an eye toward more systematic and regular work together. The Sister Fund provided a planning grant and WATER’s summer interns had their own exercise in collaboration by doing the staff work that made this meeting such a positive experience.

Representatives from diverse groups including the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, the Women’s Theological Center, the Women’s Ordination Conference, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, the Community Education and Resource Development Network, the Pacific Asian and North American Asian Women in Religion and others from a variety of religious and political starting points looked at programs, organizational structures, budgets and staffing. We mapped out some of the contours of common needs: funding, media training, internships, teaching and research, all components of a movement that we hope will continue to transform the religious landscape by amplifying women’s voices raised in feminist commitments to justice.

One exciting project of WCW is "A Shared Garden" that resulted from joint efforts of Con-spirando in Chile, WATER in the USA and Ivone Gebara on behalf of Pe No Chao in Recife, Brazil. Eight women met in Santiago, Chile to define the program's objectives, methodology and participation. They are Judy Ress, Ivone Gebara, Doris Munoz, Diann L. Neu, Josefina Hurtado, Bridget Cooke, Ute Seibert-Cuadra, and Mary E. Hunt.

Web sites of many of the participating groups are listed below. Please contact WATER (water@hers.com) for more information and/or to be considered to be included in future meetings.

  1. Women’s Theological Center (WTC)
    http://www.thewtc.org/


    Website under construction
     
  2. Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA)
    http://www.jofa.org/

    JOFA is a grassroots non-profit organization established in 1997 to educate and advocate for women's increased participation in Orthodox Jewish life and to create a community for women and men dedicated to such change. An invaluable resource for a community constantly balancing tradition and modernity, JOFA is guided by the principal that halakhic Judaism offers many opportunities for observant Jewish women to enhance their ritual observance and to increase their participation in communal leadership.

  3. Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Religion (FAWR)
    http://www.womeninreligion.org/about.html

    The Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Religion is a charitable organization that raises funds for women who are engaged in progressive scholarship and practice in areas related to religion.

    …The foundation hopes to encourage women who are engaged in religious study and in projects that are born of their religious convictions to enter the debates and challenge the dominant trends in public religion.

  4. Faithtrust Institute
    http://faithtrustinstitute.org/

    FaithTrust Institute is an international, multifaith organization working to end sexual and domestic violence. We provide communities and advocates with the tools and knowledge they need to address the religious and cultural issues related to abuse. FaithTrust Institute works with many communities, including Asian and Pacific Islander, Buddhist, Jewish, Latino/a, Muslim, Black, Anglo, Indigenous, Protestant and Roman Catholic.

  5. Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning Theology and Religion
    http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/home/default.aspx

    The Wabash Center supports teachers of religion and theology in higher education through meetings and workshops, grants, a journal and other resources to make accessible the scholarship of teaching and learning. All Wabash Center programs are funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.

  6. Boarding School Healing Project
    http://www.boardingschoolhealingproject.org/

    The Boarding School Healing Project, a coalition of several organizations around the country, seeks to document Native boarding school abuses so that Native communities can begin healing from boarding school abuses and demand justice.

  7. Moving Traditions
    http://www.movingtraditions.org/

    Moving Traditions inspires people to draw on Judaism at key lifecycle moments and stages – such as birth, adolescence, marriage, parenting, aging, and death. The Moving Traditions logo incorporates the Hebrew word masorot, or “traditions.” Every generation reshapes Jewish tradition – and in that way, it remains relevant. Our contemporary awareness of gender and diversity calls us to move tradition forward, while remaining true to Judaism’s profoundly moving traditions.

  8. Women’s Alliance for Theology Ethics and Ritual (WATER)
    www.hers.com/water

    The Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) began in 1983 in response to the need for theological, ethical, and liturgical development for and by women.

    WATER is a feminist educational center, doing work locally, nationally and internationally organizing programs and projects, publications and workshops, counseling, spiritual direction and liturgical planning which help people actualize feminist religious values in the service of social change.

  9. Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal
    http://bridgesjournal.org/

    Bridges illuminates a variety of landscapes: for activists, Jews, feminists, lesbians, it is both bread and roses. In these pages, contemporary Jewish feminist culture and politics come alive in all their tumultuous diversity.

    Bridges celebrates and illustrates Jewish women's identity and social justice activism with articles by and about lesbians, working-class Jews, Jewish women of varied ethnic backgrounds, and reports on Israeli women peace workers.

  10. Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM)
    http://www.panaawtm.org/

    PANAAWTM brings together Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian women who are interested in theology and ministry. Our goals are:

    • To facilitate the development of theologies in our own voices;
    • To provide a group in which we are able to support one another and exchange ideas;
    • To support our ministry and leadership in our churches, our educational institutions, and the larger society;
    • To increase our contribution to the development of Third World and other liberation theologies;
    • To participate actively in the feminist theological conversations in the United States and Canada.

  11. Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, Boston College
    http://www.bc.edu/schools/gsas/irepm/

    The Boston College IREPM is committed to promoting an atmosphere of mutuality and collaboration among its students, faculty and administration and seeks to:

    • educate students for academic and professional competence in religious education and pastoral ministry,
    • provide resources for the continuing education of ministers, and
    • foster spiritual formation and the opportunities and abilities for human interaction, theological reflection and personal transformation that are needed by leaders in today's church.
       
  12. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (JFSR), Inc.
    http://www.hds.harvard.edu/jfsr/

    The JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION is a channel for the publication of feminist scholarship  in religion and a forum for discussion and dialogue  among women and men of differing feminist perspectives. The JFSR has two communities of accountability: the  academy, in which it is situated, and the feminist movement, from which it draws its nourishment and vision. Its editors are committed to rigorous thinking and analysis in the service of the transformation of religious studies as a discipline and the feminist transformation of religious and cultural institutions.

  13. Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South (RCWMS)
    http://www.rcwms.org/

    Welcome to the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South where we weave feminism and spirituality into a vision of justice for the world.
    When we began in 1977, our goal was to support and connect women who understand their lives and work as ministry. Over the years, we have expanded to include a wide variety of programs on feminism, faith, creativity, spirituality, and justice.

  14. Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC)
    http://www.womensordination.org/

    Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) is the oldest and largest organization working solely for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops into an inclusive Roman Catholic Church. To this end, WOC works to:
    † Bring about justice and equality for Catholic women
    † Create inclusive and accountable church structures
    † Eliminate all forms of oppression against women
    † Support and affirm women's talents, gifts and calls to ministry 

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