Note about Equalist Group meeting – 30 May 2014
A fruitful meeting was held on 30 May on the topic of transcendence and immanence and the ways in which these have been linked with ideas of masculine and feminine. Inputs were made by John Newton based mainly on the work of feminist theologians Sallie McFague (Models of God. Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age) and Rosemary Radford Ruether (Sexism and God Talk); by David Carter on Beatrice as a possible type, or embodiment, of Holy Wisdom/Sophia and her role of inspiring and guiding Dante; and by myself based on Lucy Goodison’s book Moving Heaven and Earth, showing that there is evidence of an early form of religion in Crete that wasn’t based on either patriarchy or matriarchy, and where the sun, as a religious symbol, was seen as female.
As one of many possible sources for our future work towards more integrated forms of language and liturgy within the Judeo-Christian tradition, we began to look at the work of Genia Pauli Haddon (author of Body Metaphors, Releasing God-Feminine in Us All and Uniting Sex, Self and Spirit; Let the body be your guide to New Consciousness and Deeper Spirituality in a Changing Age). Genia Pauli Haddon trained as a biologist, a Jungian therapist and a Minister in the United Church of Christ. She draws on all these sources to present a vision of the divine and of humans that includes equally both active and receptive forms of masculinity and femininity, and gives sample liturgies in which each of these aspects is focused on.
Petra Griffiths
Note: The Equalist group is now meeting as the Journeying Together group.
