Comments for cakes for the queen of heaven

Comment on When humans began to understand procreation by Rev Shirley Ranck

Rev Shirley Ranck — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:05:35 +0000

The truth is that we are speculating about Old Stone Age times, way before written records and we just don’t know when human beings first learned about the male role in conception. I don’t think early people were as ignorant as we often imagine them to be. However we just don’t know. The best scholarly speculation on the subject is in the two books mentioned on page 48 of Cakes Vol. I. {“The Alphabet Versus The Goddess,”] by Leonard Schlain, and the one by Carol Lee Flinders. You would have to read more than the short summaries to get a sense of their ideas, but they are very interesting. The other possibility is Joseph Campbell who may have written something on this topic in The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. But feel free to say to your group that nobody really knows. We know there was a shift in human culture from emphasizing and empowering women to more and more empowering of men, and there are many hypotheses as to how and why that happened. So far nobody seems to have the whole truth.

I hope this helps. Very best wishes to you and your Cakes group!

Shirley Ranck

Comment on Facilitator Training in CMwD – A History in progress by Nancy Irons

Nancy Irons — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 04:28:20 +0000

Thank you for the detailed write-up about the “Train-the-Trainer” experience that we shared. One additional note would be that the materials we developed for our Training Sessions here in the Central MidWest District are posted on the main “Cakes” website (http://www.cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/trainers-resources)and are available for other organizers to use if they are inclined to promote this curriculum through orienting new facillitators. We hope that others will utlize what we have developed rather than feeling they have to re-invent the wheel.

Best wishes!
Nancy

Comment on Cakes T3 (Train-The-Trainer) in the midwest by Janet Nortrom

Janet Nortrom — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:35:13 +0000

The First Unitarian Society Milwaukee was so fortunate to again have about 25 women participate in the “Cakes” curriculum. So many women were inspired by this goddess history and revealing of the partriarchial practices that continue even today. So many women were anxious to take back this “Cakes” curriculum to their churches and teach. This was an enlightening experience and what a joy to see Janet’s picture up on the web.
Blessed Be and Thanks to the Central Midwest Woman and Religion committee, the UU Women’s Connection and the Unitarian Universalist Women and Religion that provided all the women and opportunites to learn and study this curriculum again in our district.

Comment on Cakes in Your Church? by Melinda Perrin

Melinda Perrin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:29:15 +0000

The First Unitarian Society of Schenectady is offering Cakes starting in September 2009. Rumors about its return started to circle in February and since we were getting calls and e-mails, we announced it on Thursday, February 19th at the Evening Alliance and by e-mail. Registration was full by the next Sunday. Never doubt the need for this material. Thank you, Rev. Shirley Ann Ranck for initiating all this!

Judy Clough and Melinda Perrin, co-facilitators

Comment on Question: men in the Cakes class? by Melinda Perrin

Melinda Perrin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:21:11 +0000

Years ago at the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, we did an adjunct course for men (and women who were curious but did not have the time or inclination to take the full course). It was affectionately known as “Cupcakes” or more appropriately perhaps, “CUUPScakes”. It involved screening the three Donna Read films followed by discussions. These were well attended and the follow-up evaluations were very positive and led to further familt discussions about raising children in a more power-shared environment.

Comment on Question: men in the Cakes class? by Lonnie

Lonnie — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:00:50 +0000

Another issue to consider it whether there are other forums within the congregation for men who find the divine feminine to be an important part of their spirituality. When I first came to my congregation, there were no places for men to explore either the divine feminine or ancient earth-based traditions. In that situation, a course open only to women can feel exclusionary (and I hear the argument too that some exclusion may be necessary to counter the hundreds of years of exclusion by men).

I also feel that it is especially important for any gender exclusive group (men or women) to be very involved in dialogue with other groups within the congregation. I think that dialogue can help show that really it is about creating a place for woman, not a place without men.

Comment on Question: men in the Cakes class? by Marnie Singer

Marnie Singer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:38:37 +0000

The next step we need to take is to get beyond thinking of gender as a binary division. There is a colorful spectrum between the poles of macho and femme, and a number of people have gender identities that are neither male nor female.

We must keep this in mind if we are to be inclusive. When dividing people into caucus groups by gender, please allow for flexibility in gender identity. If a person you believe to have XY chromosomes wants to be in the group of women, invite her and include her!

Marnie Singer
Starr King student

Comment on Part II update by Laurel Hallman

Laurel Hallman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:15:13 +0000

What a delight to see that “Cakes” is available again in a new edition. This wonderful curriculum changed the lives of my generation of women who were claiming our voice and our power in unprecedented ways. Now it may be possible that this new edition will help us revisit the old issues and see them with a new multi-generational and multi-cultural lens. Thanks Shirley Ranck for all your gifts over the years. Laurel Hallman

Comment on Question: men in the Cakes class? by Gretchen Ohmann

Gretchen Ohmann — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:21:04 +0000

I know that men have participated in Cakes for the Queen of Heaven classes. The question becomes not whether men are “allowed” but when and how men are included. The content and scope of this course have proven to be invaluable for women over the years. The fact that it is still in demand tells me the material in “Cakes” and the space it intends to help provide are needed even today, after decades of consciousness-raising about the status of women as second-class citizens in a patriarchal society.

Feminism at its best is not about women climbing a ladder over men to get to positions of power in the patriarchal system. It is about women and men having equal opportunity to become their own, authentic, whole selves and participate fully in the process of life. In that process, people of all genders can be freed, that is a goal of feminist activism. As Rosemary Matson said long ago, “We don’t want a piece of the pie. It is still a patriarchal pie. We want to change the recipe.”

In my opinion, I would say that including men as participants in a “Cakes” course depends on the facilitators and participants and their level of comfort with discussing personal issues in a mixed-gender group. A certain level of trust, openness and confidentiality is expected of participants in this curriculum and I believe that groups at the local level know best how they wish to proceed.

There are great resources for the study of gender in history and archeology. For example, read anything by Riane Eisler, especially “The Chalice and the Blade,” and “The Partnership Way.” There is an adult RE course called “Unraveling the Gender Knot,” which is a group study guide to go with the book of the same title by Allan G. Johnson.

– Gretchen Ohmann, UUWR co-convener, info@uuwr.org

Comment on Cakes T3 (Train-The-Trainer) in the midwest by Pat

Pat — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:35:53 +0000

The training recently at Eliot Chapel in St Louis gave the feel of a “red tent” time that afforded time to share and think about the importance of women having time together. What excites me about the curriculum is it can be completely planned and facilitated with the stand-alone curriculum or it can be personalized around facilitator and participant interests.

Truly a co-creative process, I chose to change one of the activities in session one, “The Sacred Female,” to kneading bread and creating bread sculpture goddesses. This gave an opportunity to not only connect with women though out the centuries who have kneaded bread, but established a context around which we could discuss body issues, sexuality, sexual orientation, and media issues with women’s bodies. The recipe for the Easter Dragon is given in the text of the curriculum; the dough works equally well to make goddess dough figures.

The difficult work of session five, “Reclaiming Women’s Heritage of Peace,” had us kneading clay, discussing violence and munching chocolate kisses. Kisses, chocolate and kneading during a discussion of violence in our times proved a successful way to stage this session.

Finally I want to lift up a favorite passage from Rev. Ranck’s work. This is a most important and possibly overlooked passage in the new curriculum found in her “Statement of Feminist Thealogy.” “Perhaps the most important religious task of the 21st century will be learning to take pluralism seriously…Unitarian Universalists are in a unique position to develop a truly creative feminist thealogy.”

And later, in that statement, “A Shift from Outer to Inner”: “We need to be aware of the world view that emerged in the latter part of the 20th Century…. We are trying to come of age as human beings. Naomi Goldenberg suggests that what is happening is the internalization of religion, the awareness of an immanent God or Goddess within each of us, and an inner spiritual journey toward value and meaning as adults.”

Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Springfield, Illinois, through one of those trained at Eliot Chapel will be introducing the new curriculum beginning in September.

Thanks to planners, Eliot Chapel and participants for an enlightening and uplifting day in the red tent.