Anne Barstow, Katharine Houk and Wendalah Rabinowitz

June 8, 2010 ~“WOMEN, the ARTS and the SACRED”

For the second year, former board member, Shirley Paukulis, created an inspirational evening where a panel of women in the written, visual and performing arts shared their explorations and discoveries in the creative process and their personal experiences of discovery of the sacred in everyday life. Socially engaged in their communities and other countries, Wendalah Rabinowitz, JoAnne Spies, Anne Barstow, Gabrielle Senza, June Wink and Katharine Houk told their stories and displayed their art work. The evening opened and closed with a ceremony of light, song, movement and prayer.

 Shirley Paukulis and Gabrielle Senza

  June Wink displaying artwork



May 6, 2010 ~ Women Weaving Community Together: Sharing Our Gifts
Ani Grosser, psychotherapist and WII board member, and Rosa Zubizarreta, social worker and WII board member co-facilitated the evening's program. Using the Communologue technique, participants explored new ways to bring their own work in the world and discovered commonalities of purpose.





April 13, 2010 Multicultural Women and Their Faith: Catholic and Muslim Women Share Their Faith

Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, Director of B.R.I.D.G.E, invited women and students from Catholic and Muslim traditions to talk about their faith. Maria Soria spoke about Catholicism and Afua Tweneboah spoke about Islam and Catholic traditions in Spain. Two Muslim students from Egypt and one from Ghana, who were part of the PAX-Program of Academic Exchange at Monument Mountain H.S., shared their prayers and talked about their faith

  Maria shares Catholic traditions from Central America while Gwendolyn translates from Spanish to English

Mohammed,  an exchange student from Egypt, talks about his Muslim faith



March 11, 2010 ~ Founding Director of Women's Interfaith Institute, Rev. Allison Stokes PhD., Presents Slide Show and Lecture on Women's History 

  

“Unquiet Friend” quilt, by Alice Gant,

that hangs in WII Seneca Falls Church.

It portrays Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, and Lucretia and John Mott

Rev. Allison Stokes, Ph.D. presented a slide show and talk that recounted the story of our foremothers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other remarkable women, ordained religious leaders, scholars and teachers. Founding Director of the Women’s Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires and in the Finger Lakes, Rev. Stokes is a scholar-activist focused on ‘the Interfaith Movement.’ While living in the Berkshires, Rev. Stokes served as pastor of the West Stockbridge Congregational Church.

Rev. Allison Stokes (l) and friend stand by Women's Interfaith Institute in Seneca Falls

February 9, 2010 ~ “Awareness of Relationship of Food and Faith”
As the Executive Chef of EnlightenNext, Katherine Miller invited us to explore the connection between our spiritual beliefs and the food we eat. She has been a 19-year student of EnlightenNext’s spiritual founder, Andrew Cohen, and is working to pioneer new ways of understanding health and wellness in the context of conscious evolution and spiritual enlightenment.




January 14, 2010 ~ “Listening Deeply through Communologue”

This month’s program, Communologue, was facilitated by WII Board member Ani Nadler Grosser, LICSW, a relationship therapist in private practice in Lenox and a member of the Imago Peace Project. The program offered an experience of Communologue, a dialogue process for creating safe communication and connection in groups. In Communologue, deep listening is a creative process where all points of view are respected and specific guidelines are followed.