Dislodging the myths that were embedded in me as a child has been a painful and illuminating project of adulting. In a cosmic game of Jenga, I delicately loosen, rearrange, and rebuild the planks of my beliefs and practices, hoping to avoid a total collapse. This project takes on more urgency as my three-year-old begins… Continue reading
Blog
Why I’m supporting RCWMS
Let me introduce myself. I’m Christine, and I want to let you know why I’m supporting RCWMS this December. Exactly a year ago, I pretty much gave up on the nonprofit sector. I had just lost my job and was floundering about seeking clarity and a place to land. I was questioning who I was and… Continue reading
You do not have to be good.
Though the weather is chilling and the leaves are falling, my mind has been traveling back to a different change in the seasons. Spring of this year brought with it two moments that would change my life, though I didn’t know yet that they would. My doctor told me that pain would be a part… Continue reading
Road Trip
I took a long road trip in October to New Orleans, Tulsa, and points in between. I drove because I don’t really like flying, and it would have required many airplanes to get to those two cities on consecutive weekends. I covered almost 3,000 miles in just over two weeks and enjoyed most of it…. Continue reading
Women’s Voices Lifted Up in Song: Homegrown 2019
When Shelley and I first became interns with the Resource Center for Women in Ministry in the South, Homegrown was one of the main events of the semester that we eagerly anticipated. Over the course of our first few weeks of spending time in the Resource Center, we heard bits and pieces about the festival:… Continue reading
Welcome Our New Interns
This month we welcome our interns for the 2019 fall semester, Liddy Grantland and Shelley Leazer. As our Anita McLeod Interns, they will each work about 10 hours a week and will focus some of their attention on intergenerational issues. Liddy Grantland is a senior undergraduate studying African American studies and English, with a minor… Continue reading
Women Rise Up
Bodies that menstruate, birth, nurse. Bodies that grieve and sacrifice. Bodies that are infertile. Bodies that are taken advantage of and mistreated. Bodies fighting for survival. Bodies that are broken and sacred. Women’s bodies. My favorite part of Katey Zeh’s book Women Rise Up is that she highlights, over and over again, a piece of… Continue reading
Marcy Litle reviews Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Tressie McMillan Cottom is a black sociologist and public intellectual. I had never heard of her—which, it turns out, is a significant theme in her book—until I read a review of her newest book, Thick, at the beginning of this year. Something in that review made me want to check it out. I’m very glad… Continue reading
Blossoming
“I have my new life plan!” That’s what one participant exclaimed at the end of one of our writing workshops recently. Though that wasn’t the goal of this particular evening, having the time to write in community and sit with her thoughts had planted seeds of clarity. Watching people grow and blossom is one of… Continue reading
Pride
June is busting out all over! And that means one thing: Pride. In June of 2008, I went with my then partner to San Francisco Pride, in the brief window of time when marriage equality had come to California (only to be whisked away by Prop 8 that November). The booths and vendors covered a… Continue reading
Summer Workshops
Things move a little slower around the RCWMS office during the summer months, but there are still plenty of upcoming workshops in June and July you won’t want to miss! First up, join Allison Kirkland June 21-22, 2019, at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC for To Taste Life Twice: Building the Personal Essay…. Continue reading
Coming soon!
Be on the lookout for our summer fundraising campaign starting later in June! Your support has helped us add new programs and publish artist-in-residence Bryant Holsenbeck’s wildly successful book, The Last Straw. This summer we’re raising $4,500 to support folks at the intersection of feminism and faith, contemplation and action, social justice and spirituality. Your support makes… Continue reading
Save the Date: Homegrown 2019
Save the date for the 8th annual Homegrown: NC Women’s Preaching Festival: October 3-4, 2019, at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC. Watch for registration details, as well as preacher and workshop leader announcements, on the RCWMS website later this summer! In the meantime, you can learn more about the festival vision here and… Continue reading
A Mother’s Day Poem
by Rebecca Welper This is for everyone who loves (or hates) Mother’s Day. If you’re close to your mother, or estranged from her, If you were abused by your mother, or well cared for, If you miss your mother, or feel suffocated by her. If your mother has died, if you have two mothers, if you… Continue reading
VIDEO: Jeanette Stokes and RCWMS Labyrinth in the News & Observer
Earlier this month the Raleigh News & Observer filmed a wonderful feature on Jeanette Stokes and the RCWMS labyrinth while it was set up in Duke Chapel. Click on the image to view the video.
RCWMS is seeking applicants for paid internships!
The Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South (RCWMS) will offer paid, part-time internships for those interested in the intersections of justice, feminism, and religion. RCWMS is an intergenerational, interfaith organization that weaves together feminism, spirituality, and social justice through its programs in women’s preaching, LGBTQ spirituality, issue advocacy, writing and art, anti-racism,… Continue reading
RCWMS Artist in Residence Bryant Holsenbeck on UNC-TV
Check out Bryant Holsenbeck, environmental artist and author of The Last Straw, on UNC-TV! Watch the recording by clicking on the image.
Holistic Enneagram: A Spirituality of Head, Heart, and Body
Last week Adrienne Koch led an Enneagram workshop as part of our younger women’s spirituality program. A group of people under 40 gathered at the RCWMS office to learn about this system of nine personality types. As we went around the circle introducing ourselves and sharing our types, or what we suspected our types might… Continue reading
Spring
It’s hard for me to let go of winter. In December, our three-year-old joined her Yankee parents in embracing the snow storm. She mimicked the main character in her favorite book, The Snowy Day, as she marveled at her snowy footprints, tapped the snow off trees with a stick, and inexpertly packed snow together to… Continue reading
The Courage to Say No
On the morning of January 31, 1969, I was about to give birth to my first child. I was 20 years old. Whether the child was a boy or girl, I knew what the baby’s name would be. I hadn’t thought much beyond that—except that I knew I wanted to raise a child who was… Continue reading
Dispatches From the Front
My heart is moved by all I cannot save so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. Adrienne Rich, “Natural Resources” The past two years have been a daily barrage of news flashes portending the downfall of our… Continue reading
Across the Great Lakes
“Haunting” is a word that comes to mind as I reflect on Lee Zacharias’ new novel. Set largely in the mid-1930’s on Lake Michigan and the harbor town of Frankfort, Across the Great Lake is the narrator’s vivid, jagged, time-bending recollection of her childhood and the trajectory set by one of the central events of… Continue reading
Events for The Last Straw by Bryant Holsenbeck
As I moved through my friend Bryant Holsenbeck’s new book, The Last Straw, I was struck by its accessibility. The book, ostensibly about Bryant’s journey to rid single-use plastic from her life, is really about us. I found it subversive how she asks us to see the world through her eyes, stealthily offering a blueprint… Continue reading
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone who supported the work of RCWMS during our year-end fundraising drive! So many of you gave with such generosity, including supporters who have given for many years, and a number of first-time donors. 2018 saw a number of firsts, including two new anti-racist workshops (Changing the Race Dance and Doing Our… Continue reading