Co-Creating a New Universe-Listening Deeply through Communologue
Jan 14, 2010
This month’s program offers an experience of Communologue , a dialogue process for creating safe communication and connection in groups. Deep listening is a creative process that makes it safe for us to show our true selves and become wonderfully alive. In Communologue, all points of views are held in a circle of respect, and specific guidelines are followed.
Communologue will be facilitated by WII Board member Ani Nadler Grosser, LICSW, a relationship therapist in private practice in Lenox and a member of the Imago Peace Project. The Imago Peace Project is composed of couples’ therapists who developed Communologue after 9/11 believing that safe communication can help bring peace to the world. It has been used in many settings, from Board meetings to the United Way, among Jews and Palestinians in Israel, with the Rwandan UN Delegation, and in Croatia.
Food and Faith
Feb 9, 2010
Katherine Miller will be speaking about food and faith from her experience as a practitioner of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Food and faith are two things we all need for our daily sustenance that bring us together with others. Sharing food in the context of faith brings to the fore all the different dimensions of our humanity, from the physical to the spiritual. Katherine will lead us in reflecting on different aspects of faith and food and how our experience of them is evolving and changing. Some of the questions she will address are: How do our motivations and preferences change as our understanding of life evolves? Is the way that we care for our physical being – our health and vitality – reflecting the understanding that we are here for a higher purpose? If so, what do we eat?
Since this evening will be a perfect reflection of coming together to share food in the context of faith Katherine would like everyone to think about the food they are bringing as a reflection of your highest understanding of life. Think energy, color, taste, texture, light!
As the executive chef of EnlightenNext, Katherine Miller is pioneering new ways of understanding health and wellness in the context of conscious evolution and spiritual enlightenment. Her insights and experience have been influenced by spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, founder of EnlightenNext, whom she has been a student of for 19 years. Her first insight into spiritual life began 28 years ago with the study of Aikido and then Iyengar yoga, which she still practices and teaches today. Her passion for gourmet vegetarian food and optimum health has led to a unique style of cooking that integrates various principles of raw food “cooking,” macrobiotics, and the newest scientific research into nutrition. Katherine is currently collaborating with other health professionals on the “Health is Wealth” initiative, a program whose mission is to engender evolution in regards to food and our spiritual, moral and ethical values.
Founding Director of Women’s Interfaith Institute, Rev. Allison Stokes PhD., will Present Slide Show and Lecture on Women’s History
Mar 11, 2010
“Drawing Inspiration from Our Pioneering Foremothers” : A lecture and slide presentation that covers the first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls to the first Parliament of World’s Religions in 1893 in Chicago.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke out in 1848 against women’s exclusion from religious leadership and theological education. By 1893 things had changed for the better as many remarkable women were ordained religious leaders, scholars and teachers. Sadly, that forward momentum stalled, and several generations of nineteenth century progress for women in religion was ignored and forgotten. (Not until the 1970s did the movement forward begin again.) This slide presentation recovers the remarkable story of our foremothers.
Rev. Allison Stokes, Ph.D. is Founding Director of the Women’s Interfaith Institute—established in the Berkshires (1992) and in the Finger Lakes (2002). A scholar activist, she is currently Director of Religion and Spiritual Life at the University of Rochester, where she teaches a course on “The Interfaith Movement.” While living in the Berkshires, Stokes served as Pastor of the West Stockbridge Congregational Church. She looks forward to returning to the Berkshires, reconnecting with long-time friends and
making new ones on March 11th.
Multicultural Women and Their Faith
Apr 13, 2010
Come Join us for our second Women’s Interfaith Institute and BRIDGE collaboration, Multicultural Women and their Faith, to hear about and experience the many traditions and customs of Muslim and Catholic women from different parts of the world, all living here together in the Berkshires. Again we invite you to bring a heritage dish, this time consider a dish associated with a faith practice personal to you. Bring a postcard that names the faith tradition, the dish and the connection. Join us in expanding our understanding of all faith practices and the connection with food. Food provides for us all as does a sense of faith within ourselves, our families, our communities, our world and beyond! Gwendolyn Hampton Vansant, WII board member, and Executive Director of BRIDGE will share with you her experience of the national conference “United by Faith” held by the Womens Funding Network as to inspire us all for our next steps as WII!
Women Weaving Community Together: Sharing Our Gifts
May 6, 2010
An Experiential Evening of Sharing Our Gifts
The Women’s Interfaith Institute continues exploring the Communologue process in this evening’s potluck program on “Women Weaving Community Together”. You are welcome to join us for an interactive and generative experience following our monthly potluck dinner. We will be sharing some of the diverse interests that make our hearts sing and that help us come alive. We’ll do so in ways that support our creating deeper connections with one another.
Ani Grosser, psychotherapist and WII board member, and Rosa Zubizarreta, social worker and WII board member, will be co-facilitating this evening’s program.
WOMEN, the ARTS and the SACRED
Jun 8, 2010
Please join us for this inspirational evening as creative women of vision and action share their moments of awakening, explorations and discoveries in the creative process, and their journeys between personal immersion in their art and work in the world.
At the core of spiritual and art practice is the development of deep awareness and curiosity for all life. At any moment the sacred can be revealed when we are fully present. A resonance occurs and we are one with the image. In this fleeting moment, we are “awakened” to the unity of self with all other things. The arts give expression to this infinite mystery in and around us through music, poetry, dance, visual imagery, theater, etc.
PROGRAM
Part One: A Panel of women in the written, visual and performing arts, who are socially engaged in their communities, country and abroad, share their stories. Anne Barstow, Wendalah Rabinowitz, Gabrielle Senza, and JoAnne Spies
Part Two: Presentations
Bonnie Gable will perform a short excerpt from a new play about her personal story, along with informal talks, readings and presentations by other artists.
The evening will open and close with a ceremony of light, song, movement and prayer, with June Wink, Katharine Houk and others.
We are delighted to have Shirley Paukulis with us, who has created this evening and will be our moderator.
Sacred Activism: Giving Birth to a New Humanity
Sep 16, 2010
Women’s Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires’ board member Susan Jameson will host the first potluck program of the year that explores the meaning of sacred activism and some of the profound conscious birthing energies that are transforming humanity. This event kicks off our theme for the year . . .
Through sacred activism - “the marriage of spiritual practice that deeply grounds us in the reality of oneness with effective outer action on behalf of peace and justice” – we can participate in and help bring about this birth. We each can take personal responsibility for the conscious development of the human species from adolescence into adulthood. We will explore the connection between spiritual practices and activism and look forward to a lively discussion. Guests sharing stories will include Rev. Natalie Shiras, Julia Balter and Eve Schatz.
Rev. Natalie Shiras, pastor of Church on the Hill in Lenox, MA who recently returned from leading a youth group in Costa Rica and from a cross cultural exploration of churches in Russia and Ghana, as well as journeying to Turkey, India and Nepal.
Julia Balter, over the past 36 years Julia has developed her own original work. “The spiritual essence of what we most want for the world can fill our inner tissues with fine vibration. Vibrations are able to penetrate where words cannot — permeating and transforming all, as answer to our hearts deepest yearning.” Julia has taught her original work at universities, performing art schools and theaters in Germany, the U.S. and Australia.
Eve Schatz, earned a BA in Psychology, and a Juris Doctor degree. A practicing attorney in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and executive director of the Free Legal Clinic of South Berkshire County, Inc., she also served two terms with the Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women, founded the Patient’s Rights organization that helped change Florida’s wrongful death statute, founded the Great Barrington Neighborhood Group bringing a polluter into compliance with DEP regulations, and currently serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires.
Our Host, Susan Jameson is an initiate candidate of the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in NYC and is currently compiling a book titled, “Heart-Shaped Uterus: Giving Birth to a New Universe-54 Stories from Global Midwives (and Midhusbands).” She is co-founder of Healing Winds, the producer of the Rock, Rattle & Drum Pow Wow, founder and director of Humanity in Concert and on the board of the Women’s Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires.
Programs for Peace and Cultural Exchange
Oct 12, 2010
The Women’s Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires will host Leila Bruun, a co-ordinator for PAX (Program Academic Exchange) and YES Programs (Youth Exchange Study, created after 9/11 to promote peace and understanding). Lelia will speak about PAX and YES and her work with scholarship students from Afghanistan, Ghana and Russia. Students will share their traditions, prayers and stories from home.
Lelia Bruun, a coordinator for PAX (Program for Academic Exchange) works with U.S. State Dept. scholarship exchange students in the YES (Youth Exchange Study) and FLEX (Future Leaders Of Exchange) programs. Both organizations work with High School students between the ages of 15-18 as a diplomacy initiative designed to build bridges of peace and understanding. Lelia serves as the local coordinator for both the Fresh Air Fund and the Program for Academic Exchange. Her involvement with the Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency providing free summer vacations to inner-city children in need ages 6-18 began nearly 15 years ago first as a host family followed by her current role as Fund Representative for Berkshire County managing the Williamstown and Great Barrington Friendly Towns.
Annual Harvest Celebration
Nov 18, 2010
As a circle of grateful women we will share with each other the harvest of our blessings and create an altar of gratitude. This year we will be honoring some of the traditions of our country’s First Nation People. They have set before us a powerful example of generosity, gratitude and connection with the “Great Spirit” who resides within all life. The program will be facilitated by Satyena Ananda, a Rainbow Elder with lineage from the four root races and Mikka Barkman, a member of Sachigo First Nations in Canada (Cree.)
Satyena Ananda, Co-founder and Director of Starseed Healing Sanctuary and Retreat Center in Savoy, MA, is a holistic educator and spiritual counselor who has spent the past 40 years creating and offering programs, retreats and ceremonies that transform and restore body, mind and soul. A certified Polarity Therapist, Satyena has a degree from UMASS in Holistic Education and Spiritual Counseling. She has served on the boards of the Women’s Interfaith Institute and The Women’s House of Peace. Her work has been presented for 22 years at Rowe Conference Center, for the Whole Earth Expo, for Project Aim, and for many private groups and organizations.
Mikka Barkman, LMT, ABT is a member of Sachigo Lake First Nations in Canada (Cree.) Mikka comes from a family of healers and over the past twenty years has developed “The Barkman Method,” a combination of bodywork and dialogue that helps clients understand their bodies’ signals to reveal subconscious belief patterns. She lives in Stockbridge, MA with her two teen-age children and has a private practice in Gt. Barrington.
Celebration of Light / Light Mandala
Dec 14, 2010
Join us for our annual “Celebration of Light” as we create a light mandala. The light mandala draws on Tibetan and Native traditions and especially honors our ancestors and the world of nature. Bring a poem or prayer about light and reflect on what brings you light in this world. WII president JoAnne Spies will lead the program and guests from different faith traditions will share readings, poems and prayers. A short annual meeting precedes the celebration. Thank you to Gwendolyn Van Sant of BRIDGE for introducing us to outstanding exchange students and Lelia Bruun of PAX. We look forward to hearing Lyosha Fillipou, a talented student from northern Russia, play the piano and we welcome back the other students.
As part of WII outreach, holiday cards from the Monterey Meets Ngalla People to People Project will be for sale. All proceeds go toward the production and delivery of portable hand washing stations to the families of Ngalla.
JoAnne Spies is a singer/songwriter and teaching artist who is a member of the faculty of Community Access to the Arts in Great Barrington, MA. She specializes in songwriting with elders and people with Alzheimer’s and has received a composer fellowship at the Millay Colony. Her latest CD is “North Avenue Honey.”
Women supporting women of diverse faiths in
generating spiritual leadership, scholarship and service