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Featured in White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual
Leaders in America by Malka Drucker
Santa Fe, NM. Rabbi Malka Drucker convened the first White
Fire Ingathering of American Women Spiritual Leaders, October
13-16 at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM.
What happens when you put a female rabbi, Sufi master, African-American
preacher, and Buddhist priest in a room together for three days?
You get white fire, the fire women spiritual leaders make as
they change the face of patriarchal and hierarchical religion.
This October a group of 12 women met in Santa Fe for the first
ever "White Fire" retreat. The Ingathering takes its
name from an ancient mystical text that describes sacred writings
as black fire written upon white fire. Overlooked and invisible,
the white spaces surrounding black letters also carry sacred
narrative; women are like white fire, bearing the voice of the
divine feminine. Dan Brown's best-selling "DaVinci Code"
and the children's book, "Big Mama Makes the World"
testify to the current acknowledgment that mainstream religions
have only given us half the face of God.
Hosted by Rabbi Malka Drucker, author of "White Fire: A
Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America" (SkyLight
Paths Publishing; January, 2003), This Ingathering allowed women
to share the wisdom and strengths of their respective faith paths
and will model the inclusive, cooperative, and imminent style
that marks women's spiritual leadership. In a world grown mistrustful
of different religions and religion as a path to peace, the Ingathering
hopes to demonstrate that the bond of gender and calling can
serve as a bridge between differences.
The participants represent a wide variety of beliefs and backgrounds.
Some serve religions where gender is irrelevant and others serve
where gender determines a sacred role. What these women share
is a deep passion to serve and a hope that they can create a
new community that has never existed before.
In addition to Rabbi Drucker, participants include: Joan Halifax
Roshi, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur, Sylvia Boorstein, Reverend Helen
Cohen, Reverend Sandy Gess, Dr. Nahid Angha, Rabbi Judith Hauptman,
Acharya Krishnapriya Hutner, Reverend Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan,
Maryanne Lacy and Luisah Teish.
The ingathering will result in a list of White Fire Intentions
that will be published on the White Fire Web Site. Plans include
the creation of local White Fire groups of women spiritual leaders
and fellow travelers; products with a logo that stands for the
mission of supporting those who speak in the voice of the divine
feminine, and a continuing of the conversation of what white
fire might mean in a world darkened by the wildfires of war and
indifference. (from
Malka Drucker's website)
White
Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America -
purchase on Amazon.com
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