New
from
Caucus: Monthly E-News!
Check out our new monthly E-News emailing filled with topical resources, up-to-the-minute Caucus news, and links for further thought and exploration. Our initial E-News is being sent to our Caucus mailing list and to all female ordained and licensed ministers in the Church of the Brethren. If you'd like to receive our Caucus E-News by email, sign up here. And check out our current issue below and the archives as they grow!
Check out our new monthly E-News emailing filled with topical resources, up-to-the-minute Caucus news, and links for further thought and exploration. Our initial E-News is being sent to our Caucus mailing list and to all female ordained and licensed ministers in the Church of the Brethren. If you'd like to receive our Caucus E-News by email, sign up here. And check out our current issue below and the archives as they grow!
June 2008 E-News from the Womaen's Caucus of the
Church of the Brethren
In This Issue:
• Welcome to e-news from Womaen's Caucus
• Feminist Wedding Resources (June 2008)
• Womaen's Caucus Contact Information
Greetings, Womaen's Caucus supporters!
Welcome to the first electronic newsletter from the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee! We hope to send out these e-news updates on a regular basis, to keep you informed about our current projects, upcoming events, and resources that may help you in your daily living as a Brethren feminist. This month's message focuses on wedding resources from a feminist Brethren angle. Coming months will spotlight resources for empowering girls and updates about our activity at Annual Conference. If you are ever interested in signing up a friend or unsubscribing from these emails, you can check the bottom of every message for information about getting in touch with us.
As we plunge on through this new century, the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee is hoping to make use of new technologies that will help us stay connected with our supporters and allies. We have a new website with new resource posted regularly: www.womaenscaucus.org. We also have a blog with our commentary on world and CoB news, which we invite you to visit and post a comment to share your insights: www.womaenscaucus.wordpress.com. We know that you have lots of great ideas and resources to share with the rest of Womaen's Caucus, so we hope you will continue to keep us in your thoughts, prayers, and in-boxes for years to come!
Blessings of peace,
The women of the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee: Jan Eller, Audrey deCoursey, Anna Lisa Gross, Sharon Nearhoof May, Peg Yoder, Jill Kline
------------------------------------
FEMINIST WEDDING RESOURCES – from Womaen's Caucus
It's that time of the year when love is in the air and wedding officiants are their busiest. It's also the month when California is becoming the second state in the union, after Massachusetts, to honor the wedded love of couples regardless of gender or sexual orientation. In honor of this historic moment as well as the spirit of the season, we offer the following recommended resources for hearty discussions and your own feminist wedding planning.
GETTING GREEN
The on-line magazine Grist has some tips for how to make a wedding that's ecologically-sustainable: http://www.grist.org/advice/how/2008/04/29/index.html
Tossing rice at the processional can harm wildlife that eat it - uncooked of course - and can't digest it. Rice can also harm people (We all remember how Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, went deaf from rice landing in one ear canal at her wedding and causing an infection, right? Or is Audrey's mom the only one who scared her with that story growing up?). If you're looking for some alternatives to tossing rice, try tossing birdseed or confetti, throwing rose petals, ringing mini bells, or waving sparklers.
EQUAL WEDDINGS
For a discussion of "how gay marriage really will change hetero marriage," in really good ways, read a great 2007 article by Greta Christina, at http://www.alternet.org/story/64305/
Heterosexual couples marrying in states that prohibit their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender brethren from marrying can support the struggle by inviting guests to donate to an organization working for equal civil rights, such as the Brethren-Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests (online at www.bmclgbt.org) or Human Rights Campaign (online at www.hrc.org).
Also on the Caucus weblog, you can find some joke wedding vows Audrey wrote, to drive home the unfair privileges heterosexual couples are offered: http://womaenscaucus.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/straight-privilege-reminder-wedding-vows/
WEDDING LITURGIES
Inclusive wedding rites can be tailored from most traditional orders of worship, but the UCC offers wedding resources designed for use by all couples. You can find them, as well as other inclusive language resources, from the Caucus website: http://www.womaenscaucus.org/Resources/Inclusivity/Inclusivity/Language/worship.html
ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
In addition to our own Womaen's Caucus weblog, here are some blogs we've enjoyed that explore how to do weddings right, feminist-style:
"F-Words" - http://f-words.blogspot.com/2006/07/feminist-versus-wedding-industrial.html
"Goddess Cassandra" - http://goddesscassandra.blogspot.com/2007/06/weddings-and-feminism.html
"Happy Feminist" - http://happyfeminist.typepad.com/happyfeminist/2006/07/i_was_going_to_.html
Here's an online "how-to" guide with ten tips for feminist weddings:
"E-How" - http://www.ehow.com/how_2178954_have-feminist-wedding.html
TALK BACK
What are feminist weddings? Any tips to share? To discuss any of these topics further or to share your own resources, please visit our blog at www.womaenscaucus.wordpress.com and post a comment.
------------------------------------
Womaen's Caucus is a voice for women and their supporters in the Church of the Brethren. We are an independent non-profit organization staffed mostly by volunteers and sponsored by donations from folks like you. To support our work, please visit our website's "Join us!" page. To subscribe or unsubscribe to Womaen's Caucus e-news or to send suggestions for future issues, please email womaenscaucuscob@gmail.com.
In This Issue:
• Welcome to e-news from Womaen's Caucus
• Feminist Wedding Resources (June 2008)
• Womaen's Caucus Contact Information
Greetings, Womaen's Caucus supporters!
Welcome to the first electronic newsletter from the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee! We hope to send out these e-news updates on a regular basis, to keep you informed about our current projects, upcoming events, and resources that may help you in your daily living as a Brethren feminist. This month's message focuses on wedding resources from a feminist Brethren angle. Coming months will spotlight resources for empowering girls and updates about our activity at Annual Conference. If you are ever interested in signing up a friend or unsubscribing from these emails, you can check the bottom of every message for information about getting in touch with us.
As we plunge on through this new century, the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee is hoping to make use of new technologies that will help us stay connected with our supporters and allies. We have a new website with new resource posted regularly: www.womaenscaucus.org. We also have a blog with our commentary on world and CoB news, which we invite you to visit and post a comment to share your insights: www.womaenscaucus.wordpress.com. We know that you have lots of great ideas and resources to share with the rest of Womaen's Caucus, so we hope you will continue to keep us in your thoughts, prayers, and in-boxes for years to come!
Blessings of peace,
The women of the Womaen's Caucus Steering Committee: Jan Eller, Audrey deCoursey, Anna Lisa Gross, Sharon Nearhoof May, Peg Yoder, Jill Kline
------------------------------------
FEMINIST WEDDING RESOURCES – from Womaen's Caucus
It's that time of the year when love is in the air and wedding officiants are their busiest. It's also the month when California is becoming the second state in the union, after Massachusetts, to honor the wedded love of couples regardless of gender or sexual orientation. In honor of this historic moment as well as the spirit of the season, we offer the following recommended resources for hearty discussions and your own feminist wedding planning.
GETTING GREEN
The on-line magazine Grist has some tips for how to make a wedding that's ecologically-sustainable: http://www.grist.org/advice/how/2008/04/29/index.html
Tossing rice at the processional can harm wildlife that eat it - uncooked of course - and can't digest it. Rice can also harm people (We all remember how Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, went deaf from rice landing in one ear canal at her wedding and causing an infection, right? Or is Audrey's mom the only one who scared her with that story growing up?). If you're looking for some alternatives to tossing rice, try tossing birdseed or confetti, throwing rose petals, ringing mini bells, or waving sparklers.
EQUAL WEDDINGS
For a discussion of "how gay marriage really will change hetero marriage," in really good ways, read a great 2007 article by Greta Christina, at http://www.alternet.org/story/64305/
Heterosexual couples marrying in states that prohibit their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender brethren from marrying can support the struggle by inviting guests to donate to an organization working for equal civil rights, such as the Brethren-Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests (online at www.bmclgbt.org) or Human Rights Campaign (online at www.hrc.org).
Also on the Caucus weblog, you can find some joke wedding vows Audrey wrote, to drive home the unfair privileges heterosexual couples are offered: http://womaenscaucus.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/straight-privilege-reminder-wedding-vows/
WEDDING LITURGIES
Inclusive wedding rites can be tailored from most traditional orders of worship, but the UCC offers wedding resources designed for use by all couples. You can find them, as well as other inclusive language resources, from the Caucus website: http://www.womaenscaucus.org/Resources/Inclusivity/Inclusivity/Language/worship.html
ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
In addition to our own Womaen's Caucus weblog, here are some blogs we've enjoyed that explore how to do weddings right, feminist-style:
"F-Words" - http://f-words.blogspot.com/2006/07/feminist-versus-wedding-industrial.html
"Goddess Cassandra" - http://goddesscassandra.blogspot.com/2007/06/weddings-and-feminism.html
"Happy Feminist" - http://happyfeminist.typepad.com/happyfeminist/2006/07/i_was_going_to_.html
Here's an online "how-to" guide with ten tips for feminist weddings:
"E-How" - http://www.ehow.com/how_2178954_have-feminist-wedding.html
TALK BACK
What are feminist weddings? Any tips to share? To discuss any of these topics further or to share your own resources, please visit our blog at www.womaenscaucus.wordpress.com and post a comment.
------------------------------------
Womaen's Caucus is a voice for women and their supporters in the Church of the Brethren. We are an independent non-profit organization staffed mostly by volunteers and sponsored by donations from folks like you. To support our work, please visit our website's "Join us!" page. To subscribe or unsubscribe to Womaen's Caucus e-news or to send suggestions for future issues, please email womaenscaucuscob@gmail.com.