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Welcome! The Women and Religion Movement is alive and well in the 21st Century. A grassroots project started by lay leaders in the 1970s as an effort to promote examination of religious roots of sexism and patriarchy within the UUA and beyond, UU Women and Religion officially began as a task force following the unanimously-passed WOMEN AND RELIGION RESOLUTION at the 1977 UUA General Assembly. Although the Task Force was eventually sunsetted, the movement still exists in UU communities that hold Women & Religion programs and gatherings for those who identify as women. It exists at the UU General Assembly, where UUW&R brings our Store to the Exhibit Hall and occasionally hosts a gathering. And it lives in the hearts and lives of people who have been touched by the many changes inspired by this movement.

"We do not want a piece of the pie. It is still a patriarchal pie. We want to change the recipe!" -- Rosemary Matson

Report from GA 2023

Our first day of the Exhibit Hall was busy and exhausting! Pauline and I drove to Pittsburgh Monday, spent all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday morning setting up the booth, and then chatted with folks all afternoon. We sold out of 3 different items by Thursday, and the interest was already high.



Alice Carnes brought quilts from UU Womenspirit that included many of the recent t-shirts from their events, plus some chocolates to give away. Alice says: "Greetings from UUA General Assembly. I'm with Gretchen Ohmann in the Women & Religion booth. We are standing in front of Anne Freels gorgeous UUWomenspirit quilt. Gretchen & co worker Pauline staffing the table and greeting conference attendees. Carole Eagleheart's music displayed with tech in place to hear her beautiful voice. Rev Dr Shirley Ranck who authored the curriculum Cakes for the Queen of Heaven honored with a photo... Shirley passed away recently. To read her lovely obit and for more info about Women & Religion go to https://www.uuwr.org/. All of UUWomenspirit events are listed on the Women & Religion calendar. Thanks to Gretchen for promoting UUWomenspirit."

Kimberlee Carlson brought the lovely clay chalices that people at GA love. People seem to like the jewelry and art we brought, and are eager to talk about books and curricula, women's groups and retreats.

Heather Gehron-Rice told us she had some newsletters from Joseph Priestley District UUWR that needed a home, and I was so excited I nearly vibrated through the floor! What will we do with these? We'll scan and add them to our website archives, then carry them on to Meadville-Lombard to add to the HEResies Collection of their UU Archives.

Antoinette Scully from UU Women's Federation says they're looking for stories from women who have been involved in the UUWF over the years. The organization already has their "official" herstory in the HEResies archive, but Antoinette says they are really interested in the personal stories of the women who have been there making it happen all along the way. Email Antoinette at uuwf@uuwf.org.‍

We invited Rev. Ann Keeler Evans to share her new Peacemaker's Tarot deck -- she's designed it to remove the hierarchy, racism and sexism in traditional decks. Ann loved giving readings for GA-goers. Ann is on the right in this photos, Rev. Kimberlee Carlson (who made the chalices) is at left.

International Women's Convocation was in the booth on the other side of the curtain from us. Since we weren't directly next-door, once in a while we'd pop our heads through the curtain to check in, and made sure to refer attendees to each others' booths all week.

Winners of the 6 gift bags we raffled off are: Jenna Zeidler, Courtney Sinha, Kathryn Alexander, Kris Ersland, Rev. Christin Green, and Margaret Schmidt. They're from all over the US, including Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois and Washington state.

And, best of all, Pauline has agreed to join the UUWR Core Group (Board)!

-- Gretchen

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