Marya McNeish

RCWMS is committed to learning and teaching about dismantling racism. The events of the past year have reinforced our understanding of how much work we need to do to be more inclusive and equitable as an organization. We are committed to elevating BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and younger voices in our programming and leadership. A key part […]

In late February last year, as the first news of a novel virus arrived, my husband and I had dinner with friends. We joked about stocking up on chocolate, as if this was going to be a snow day. Then, suddenly, what had seemed a distant threat was here. A psychiatrist, I called my patients […]

In late December 2020, I started saying, “Hang on. The light is coming back, the inauguration will happen, and vaccinations are coming.” I felt hopeful and a little lighter. Then the January 6 attack on the Capitol happened and I went back to feeling anxious and unsettled. After that, I said, “Hang on. The light […]

Editor’s note: This review first appeared on the Friends of the Library Southport & Oak Island website on February 18, 2021. The reading is now available on video here! All those “Zooming in” this week to author Judy Dearlove’s reading from her novel Play On! were inspired, educated, and totally entertained. In this online Meet the Author […]

Editor’s Note: This article was first published in Faith and Leadership. Two summers ago, I was on a guided tour with a group of Duke Youth Academy kids at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The museum itself is a historic landmark, housed in the Woolworth building where the 1960 lunch […]

“We are tied in a single garment of destiny, we are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Wednesday was a frightening day for our country. Our “single garment of destiny” had us acknowledging the news of the first Jewish man and […]

Editor’s Note: Rev. Sarah Swandell is the winner of the RCWMS 2020 Essay contest.  They said the mothers were lullabying, Hands up please don’t shoot me, hands up please don’t shoot me, all of them in shirts the color of caution signs, a line of gold against a line of police. A wall of women, […]

On October 15 and 16, nearly eighty women gathered virtually to “Preach Like Pauli,” during RCWMS’ ninth annual Homegrown: NC Women’s Preaching Festival. Over a day and a half, an intergenerational group of women gathered from across denominations to worship, learn from each other in workshops and lectures, and get inspired by watching phenomenal preaching.  […]

“Friendship is being conceited for one another,” my friend suggested as three of us stretched out on her lawn, enjoying a socially distant picnic and the June heat. Her newly concocted definition was a response to the confidence that the other friend and I professed in her ability to achieve her wildest dreams. Sub-five percent […]

It began with young men, beer, and the Honk ‘n’ Holler in Stillwater, Oklahoma. As I tend my grief around the loss of the inestimable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I find it comforting to learn more about her journey to battle gender discrimination. In her role as an attorney for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, Ginsburg […]

In 2009, the hour-long documentary Meinrad Craighead: Praying with Images was produced by the Resource Center, and Minnow Media. This documentary film chronicles the life and work of Meinrad Craighead, a remarkable artist, mystic, and teacher whose sometimes startling work spans centuries and continents. Weaving together elements of Catholicism, Native American shamanism, and ancient mythology, her […]

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is best known for his groundbreaking memoir How to Be an Antiracist, one of the books the Resource Center’s “Reading Race” group has tackled in recent years.  In it, as former RCWMS Trustee Marcy Litle notes, Kendi “clearly marks the distinction between racist and antiracist, and among assimilationist, segregationist, and antiracist.” […]

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi It is August in North Carolina, when mosquitoes come around at noon and trees laden with figs offer their abundant sweetness. It is also August, 2020, just a few short months before we are given the chance to exercise our right to VOTE.   […]

Stirring WATERS: Feminist Liturgies for Justice is a balm for these times. I could imagine gathering a few friends, going through a liturgy together, and having a soulful and connecting experience. It surprised me how much reading this book felt like coming home: like I mattered and belonged as a woman, as a feminist, and […]

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our summer fundraising campaign! Your generous gifts surpassed our $5,000 goal, and we are so grateful. Your donations will help us continue building community and offering resources, while many folks are either stuck at home or working on the front lines of health care and racial justice. […]

We have several new workshops this July, and a couple favorites returning by popular demand. Here are a few highlights below. Make sure to head over to our calendar for a complete listing and to register. Mindful Journaling for Transformation with Jen Johnson – 4 Thursdays via Zoom July 9 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 […]

Every summer we ask you to support the work of this vibrant womanist and feminist community. Although many things are different this summer, I know one thing hasn’t changed: your generosity. This spring, when the stay-at-home orders began, we knew this community would need extra spiritual support and methods for connecting with one another. We’d […]

RCWMS is committed to supporting all women as they find their voices and make them heard. In addition to our writing classes, workshops, and retreats, we run an essay contest in most years. Our 2020 Essay Contest opened for submissions on June 15 and is open through July 31, 2020. THEME: Essays should focus on the […]

Who will you serve?What priorities will you hold in front of yourself?How will you show up?How fully can you love?–Leo Babauta, Zen Habits Babauta’s words provide a useful frame as we all figure out how to navigate through these hard times. We are sad, outraged, and committed. Join us on the path. Take time for […]

Our quarterly print newsletter, South of the Garden, went to the printer just before Memorial Day. This issue is now available online, and you may see it in your mailbox later this week. In it, we share stories and reflections on adjusting to life in quarantine, as we explore how life has changed and notice what remains […]

It’s July of 1981. I’m six weeks old. I feel safe in my mother’s arms, but she must be terrified as she clutches me tight and gingerly takes each step down the fifteen-foot dock ladder to the boat. Along with my three-year-old sister and dad, we make it safely to Cumberland Island, Georgia, for the […]

Editor’s Note: This week we welcome guest author and former RCWMS Board Member Rachael Wooten. RCWMS Executive Director Jeanette Stokes joined Wooten via Zoom last month to discuss Wooten’s new book about her journey of discovery with Tara, the female Buddha. Twelve years in the making, this book is timely, as Rachael notes that “Tara […]

We arrived at the farm in the early afternoon, hours before our hosts were due to arrive. They had said to make ourselves at home, and the gentleman who gave us a ride from town was unsurprised to be taking strangers to the Dring place, for John Dring and his family welcomed newcomers all the […]

The pandemic is taking an extreme toll on our energy. Therefore, we are feeling tired, depleted, unbalanced, cranky, depressed, and anxious. We are falling into old patterns in our relationships, some that are not beneficial to our wellbeing. For introverts, this may be an easier adjustment. (That doesn’t mean in any way that it is […]