Continental
A Sunday sermon script compiled in 2002 by Geri Kennedy, Sarah Skovlund and Rosemary Matson of PCD UUW&R tells the story of the UU W&R Resolution.
2017 marks the 40th Anniversary of the passage of the Women and Religion Resolution that resulted in the creation of a Continental UUWR committee, W&R committees in 19 Districts, and much more. Liz Fisher has compiled an extensive history of the Resolution in a slideshow!
You can view it as a slideshow with narration, (it may take some time load - 65MB file) or download the PDF version:
pdf 40th Anniversary of UU Women and Religion Resolution (9.44 MB)
The Women and Religion movement officially began in 1977, with the passage of the Women and Religion Resolution at the Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA) annual General Assembly. However, the real beginnings of the movement are to be found earlier. In the mid-1970's, there was a growing concern that the male biases of religion remained unexamined and unchanged. In 1975, the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) sponsored the International Women's Year Conference. Unitarian Universalists Lucile Schuck-Longview and Dr. Rita Taubenfeld developed a resolution at the conference. That same year the IARF passed the resolution calling for Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women.
Rosemary Matson (1917-2014)
Written and Compiled by Elizabeth Fisher
DOWNLOAD PDF OF FULL 56-page BOOKLET
Rosemary Matson was a champion of many causes including: women and religion, world peace, international human rights, and putting a face on the enemy to reduce threats of nuclear war.
She lived in many places during her life – Iowa, Chicago, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Boston, Berkeley, and Carmel Valley, Ca where she resided for the last thirty-five years.
“Rosemary was a force of nature!” ~
Bill Monning, California State Senator and friend of Rosemary Matson.
A Women's Ritual
Carolyn McDade and Lucile Schuck Longview
|
You may purchase a PDF to download. Please contact us if you would like license to print multiple copies. store@uuwr.org |
"The water ceremony became the central part of a religious service that broke with tradition in significant ways. It was created by lay women, women who had long been silent in the pews. The ritual space was also made sacred by the women themselves. We gathered to worship in a way authentic and liberating to us, not as in a church but in a semicircle around a large common earthen bowl. It was a ritual of women's being connected by a universal symbol, water, a ritual of women being connected to the totality of life."
In 1977 the UUA General Assembly unanimously passed the Women & Religion Resolution, calling all individual UUs and UU organizations to examine and put aside sexist assumptions, attitudes, and language and to explore and eliminate religious roots of sexism in myths, traditions and beliefs.
For two decades the UUA Women and Religion Committee led in transforming Unitarian Universalism toward greater inclusiveness and gender equality. At the same time Women & Religion groups formed, particularly at the district level, and began holding significant programs and retreats. These gatherings continue to nurture and support UU women today.
In 1996 the UUA Board declared the work of the resolution finished and thus "sunsetted" the Women and Religion Committee. District groups, however, continued to meet, and there was much conversation across the continent about what to do next. In 2002, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Women and Religion Resolution, UU Women & Religion officially became an independent affiliate organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Several years later, the UUA disaffiliated almost all of the independent affiliate organizations. A description of the UUA's process in video form is no longer available. UUW&R continues the work of establishing gender equality in our religious movement and the world. The religious roots of sexism continue to pervade the secular world and reinforce sexism and patriarchy throughout the world today. Clearly, we still have work to do.
These YouTube videos were produced by Pacific Central District UUW&R in March of 2012.
W&R Roots and Branches Part 1 - Introduction
W&R Roots and Branches Part 2 - Rosemary
New in the archives! From My Scrapbook by Elizabeth Fisher
From Liz Fisher, author of Rise Up & Call Her Name: A Woman-honoring Journey into Global Earth-based Spiritualities: “In 2001, I created this Scrapbook. I offer it as a fresh way to learn about the herstory of this movement from the passage of the W&R Resolution in 1977 to 2001.”
