This question has been growing for me as I read through the materials and if someone brings it up, I’m not sure how to respond except that I’m looking into it.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and insights.

Carolyn Hawk

She made a copy of the On The Threshold Goddess image.
She bought several small – 4 X 6 – plastic photo albums.
She put the Goddess image in the front cover sleeve.
The second set of sleeves has the title – Cakes for the Queen of Heaven

Then she put in several family recipes – all renamed
Queen of Trifles and Enormity
Queen of Autumn Pumpkin Cake
Queen of Fruit Medley
Queen of Texas Cake
Queen of Citrus Cake
Mary’s Bread – (she meant Mary the Apostle or Mary the mother of Jesus)

At the end she included a description of one of her family traditions as well as an invitation to join:

The Howl At the Moon Society
Welcomes
____________________________ (fill in your name
As a cherished Mooniac

In honor of Grandma Marge and
All other kindred spirits who feel the strength and beauty of the Moon,
You are entitled and encouraged to howl, long and loudly,
Each full moon night.
When you do, know that you are connected
To the past and to the future,
And to people who love you and think of you
When the Moon is full.

Mary was invited to attend the Cakes session by another Abraham Lincoln UU Congregation woman. Mary lives in Carlinville which does not have a UU congregation. She attends a weekly meeting of the “Seekers” in Carlinville. She is a former Catholic. Actually, Nancy, attends the Seekers meetings and brought 3 women including Mary – all former Catholics – to the Cakes II sessions.

I taught the class on Mondays to all UUs and on Thursdays to a class that was half and half. I really enjoyed facilitating Cakes II.

Diana
Springfield, IL

Our presentation of Cakes, Part I, was team taught. Two SisterCircle members taught each of the five sessions.

Thanks for inviting comments.
Rebecca Scarborough

Evolution of the Cakes T3
by Pat Goller, CMwD UU Women’s Connection Council

I met Jean Pierce at 2004 WomanSpirit and agreed, with Joanne Fought of Peoria, to co chair the 2005 Central Illinois planning committee for the 2005 WomanSpirit held in Springfield, Illinois. I had been on the board of the CMwD-UUWomen’s Federation and working two years with a task force to re-vision what would become the UU Women’s Connection. It is during that time, that Jean asked, “How can the Central Midwest District Women and Religion Committee work together with the UU Women’s Connection?”

At the Annual Meeting of the UU Women’s Connection in the fall of 2006, Diana DeWeese and I presented the idea of doing a “woman’s spirituality” project with the W&R Committee. The goal of “meeting with and discussing such a project” with the W&R committee chair was set for 2007. Sherry Dearborn (W&R Co Chair) and I soon met in Peoria for lunch and discussed the possibility of a common women’s spirituality project. Sherry was agreeable and was willing to take the idea to the CMwD-W&R committee. At our lunch we discussed the rewrite by Rev Ranck’s Cakes for the Queen of Heaven feminist curriculum and the basic concept of training trainers at key locations within the district for the re-release of the Cakes curriculum due at GA.

In the late winter of 2007 Gretchen Ohmann mentioned the Cakes release and discussion about a common project to me again; a loose committee formed called Cakes Train-the-Trainer or T3 a core-planning group. Connection council chair Jennifer Evans and I took up the project. Members of the W&R committee, Nancy Irons and Sherry Dearborn did, as well. By spring core planners were developing the basic concept: “To provide a one day training in diverse parts of the district for those local women who wished to facilitate the curriculum in their congregations.”

We recruited churches and scheduled dates for the trainings, recruited other key volunteers, developed an approach to the curriculum and training and enlisted congregation liaisons. Janet Nortrom was a facilitator trainer when the original Cakes curriculum was introduced. Nancy attended one of these sessions and kept an outline, which served as the basis for the T3 curriculum.

By spring core planners had an established e-mail list through the national UUW&R website, thanks to Gretchen’s interest and support. She also convinced the national W&R organization to host the website, helped plan and carry out PR and set up website registration program and blog. Most of our early discussions took place on the Cakes T3 e-mail list with occasional conference calls. Questions such as schedules, scholarships, congregational liaisons, childcare, registration, per-event budget, calendar, liaison responsibilities, and much more were settled. Planners met at the first face-to-face meeting with Rev. Ranck at Winter WomanSpirit 2008 at North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, Illinois to receive her ideas and blessings.

The UU Women’s Connection Council added a $1000 line item to its 2008 budget for the Cakes project, extended the goal through 2008 when T3s were scheduled, recruited a treasurer, Nicole Lisk, opened a bank account in the Connection name to handle finances for the project, and began the budgeting process. In the spring the W&R committee donated $1000 and dedicated sales of water at retreats to the T3 project. Others at W&R retreats gave direct donations.

In April at the 2008 District Assembly a shortened “taste” of the trainings was presented as a workshop. During 2008 five other trainings took place at Berrien UU Fellowship in St Joseph, Michigan; Unity UU Temple, Oak Park, Illinois; Eliot Chapel St Louis, Missouri; UU Church of Peoria, Illinois, and First UU Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nearly 60 women from at least 23 churches participated. A handful of women traveled from neighboring districts to take the training, some from as far away as Arkansas. The final T3 session in Milwaukee drew nearly 30 women!

UU Women’s Connection volunteers were: Jennifer Evans, Pat Goller, Diana DeWeese and Nicole Lisk. Diana, as registrar, and Nicole, as treasurer, both entered the work in 2008. Women and Religion Committee volunteers were: Gretchen Ohmann, Nancy Irons, and Sherry Dearborn. Sherry returned to the W&R committee work after agreeing to host a T3 at her Peoria Congregation. Janet Nortrom, who hosted and facilitated the final T3 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was in the mix from the beginning, planning and preparing the training packets with others assistance. Other volunteers joined later in the calendar for specific programs: Teresa LaPlante, St Joseph, Michigan assisted with the District Assembly workshop and Julie Bock, Milwaukee assisted with the final T3 in Milwaukee. Kelsey Neutsel joined to assist facilitation of a “Cup Cakes” workshop at Lake Geneva Fall Retreat.

As well as the scheduled trainings in the district, W&R’s WomanSpirit 2008 Conference and UU Women’s Connection 2008 Lake Geneva Fall Conference both utilized themes around the Cakes curriculum. Rev. Shirley Ranck and Nancy Vedder-Shults were retreat keynotes, respectively.

This was a powerful project, an excellent feminist statement and pluralist ideal in action. The CMwD women who planned and carried out the Cakes T3 project and Rev Ranck whose help and blessing began long before the curriculum was released are to be commended, all. The UU Women’s Connection Council is proud to have been a part of this outstanding project.

Order the set and save!

[wp_cart:CAKES 2-volume SET:price:$75:end]

[show_wp_shopping_cart]
]]> http://cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=36 1 http://cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/blog/?p=38 http://cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/blog/?p=38#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:29:39 +0000 cakesadmin http://cakesforthequeenofheaven.org/blog/?p=38 Recently someone asked about men attending the Cakes classes. Here is Shirley’s recommendation, based on the years of experience with the original curriculum since it was published in 1986.

Regarding the teaching of Cakes to both men and women, it has been done successfully many times.  In one congregation, many years ago, the women took the course; then their husbands and significant others wanted to take it, so two women taught it to a class of men; then they ran another class for both men and women!  I have taught it mostly to all women classes, but a few times men have asked to participate.  What I say to them is that if there is more than one man who wants to participate, fine.  But not if there is only one man.  When we break into small groups for discussion of some very personal issues, the men need to have a group of their own and the women need groups without men.  I try to consult with women leaders ahead of time to find out how they feel about having men in the group and often they prefer to limit it to women.

The main thing I would say is that if there are men in the class, it will be a very different class from what it would be if there were only women.  It will be valuable in other ways, but women will not be as free in their discussions with men in the class.  This is a course that is not just about history and archeology; it is also about women’s issues in a patriarchal society.  Men have some issues with the society too, but they are different from those of women.

If I could bold or underline the next to last sentence above, I would.  In fact if I were re-writing, I would put that sentence first:  This is a course that is not just about history and archeology; it is also about women’s issues in a patriarchal society. I’d like men to understand those issues, but I think generally we women need to be clear about them first.

– Rev. Shirley Ranck

Use this e-mail: webweaver@cakesforthequeenofheaven.org

Peoria and Milwaukee are coming up in November! REGISTER NOW.

Unity Temple photos by Gretchen Ohmann
Eliot Chapel photos by Pat Goller

Women of Berrien UU Fellowship in St. Joseph, Michigan did a Cakes intensive — 5 classes in 5 nights, with the direction of DRE Teresa LaPlante. On the fifth evening we dressed in Goddess garb. Here’s Teresa as Spring Maiden with flower headdress made from tissue paper. She also made the Easter dragon recipe. We decided that for the egg to be really red, raw beets were probably needed instead of cooked ones. Every session began with a chalice lighting. This one is from the last evening. Teresa brought in some extra video presentations about women’s experiences. including one based on Yoko Ono’s WOMAN POWER.

Sue is dressed as Crone of Winter and Summer with woolen shawl and bright rayon pareo/skirt. Some of our clay creations are placed on the altar. We borrowed a computer slide projector from BUUF’s Membership Chair, Emily. TIP: figure out the setup BEFORE the first class!

Teresa plans to offer Cakes: Part II in October, with Part I repeating in May 2009 and II in October 2009.

Sixteen members of the Women of Westminster from the Westminster Unitarian Church of East Greenwich, RI recently held our 15th Annual Retreat. We are doing the sessions for “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” during our regular weekly meetings so we were inspired to have a Goddess theme for our retreat.

For an individual activity, women chose a goddess card from The Goddess Tarot deck by Kris Waldherr, read the meaning of the card, and then read about the goddess in The Book of Goddesses by Kris Waldherr.
For a two-hour group session we used Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women over Fifty by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD. We focused on Part 1 of the book “Her Name Is Wisdom”. We divided into four groups for Hestia, Hecate, Sophia , and Metis. Each group had access to the meditation on page 70 of the book and a summary of some of the information about the goddess. After 30 minutes to prepare each group presented to the rest of us a role-play or guided meditation exploring the Wisdom offered by their goddess.

We had a lovely ritual with a chakra blessing using a goddess for each area. And of course we sang our favorite goddess songs, including, “Opening Up” found in Circle of Song by Kate Marks, and “Sacred Pleasure” from the CD Goddess Chant: Sacred Pleasure by Shawna Carol.

We had two hands-on activities for the weekend. One was decorating goddess coloring book pages from

wheeloftheyear.org/downloads/colorbooks/goddess.pdf .

The women loved the simple line drawings and glued on colored paper, fabric and ribbon scrapes, etc. to decorate them.
The second project was to create goddess sculptures using Crayola Model Magic. This medium is great fun to work with. It is not sticky or messy and does not smell. One to two ounces per person is plenty to make a six-inch long goddess (see photo). Small items (1-2 oz.) held their shape well. Larger upright items (4-8 oz.) had a tendency to sink a bit with gravity as they dried. It is sturdy enough to take home right after making it and air-dries in 24 hours. You can draw on it with markers or paint it.
Model Magic is available in craft stores such as A.C.Moore and Michael’s. The most economical way to purchase it for a large group is the 2-pound tubs (white or natural are good choices). However our group of 16 women enjoyed having the different colors available in the variety half-ounce craft packages. We used 28 half-ounce packages (two boxes with 14 each of different colors) and one two-pound tub. (We used the craft store 50% off coupons to reduce the price!)

Our group has done the Cakes curriculum several times over the years and we feel truly blessed to have entered into the world of the goddess.