Lilian Vega Ortiz visits the Northwest

Alternatives to Violence in Guatemala - Lilian Vega Ortiz
Join us in hearing about Friends Peace Teams work in Central America:

RantWoman already has the event at her Meeting on her calendar. RantWoman is especially humbled by the wonderful quote below.

After a career of volunteer social service with young people in detention facilities, Lilian Vega Ortiz now devotes her time to theological study and facilitation of workshops for the Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies, including Alternatives to Violence workshops.

"I believe that all of my life experiences, as difficult as they have been, never took place to paralyze me, even though I have been a victim. Instead, they have given me strength to go forward and prepare myself to help others find their own values and find the support systems so that change can take place. I know that this society, full of adversity, needs the efforts of valiant and optimistic people, now more than ever.”

Tue., 6/29
Olympia Meeting
Contact: Donna Schumann

Wed., 6/30
7 PM
University Friends Center
4001 - 9th Ave. NE
Seattle 98105 (just north of University Bridge, 1 block W of Roosevelt Avenue, exit 169 off I-5)
Contact: Pablo Stanfield

Thur., 7/1,
7 PM
Lopez Island Worship Group at the Lopez Library
Contact: Ron Metcalf

Fri., 7/2
7 PM
Bellingham Friends Meeting/Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, 100 E. Maple St. (at the corner of Cornwall and Maple)
Contact: Doris Ferm

Mon., 7/5
7:30 PM
Hosted by South Mountain Meeting and held at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, 87 4th St., Ashland
Contact: Ken Deveney

Wed., 7/7
7PM
Multnomah Meeting
Contact: Andy Cross

Thur., 7/8
5:30 Potluck
7 PM Program
Corvallis Friends Meetinghouse, 3311 NW Polk Ave.
Contact: Esther Schiedel,

Fri., 7/9
Eugene Friends Meeting – presentation and benefit concert
Contact: Helen Park

Happy Pride 2010--1

Look, okay, the live Pride celebration was fine, just fine. RantWoman gives especially high equal access points for the young guy staffing an information table. RantWoman asked what people were lining up for in the middle of the room; young guy giggled and said "I think it's beer." Yet another reason RantWoman found it easy for her mind to go elsewhere.

"...sure plays a mean pinball..."

RantWoman started to post this a couple weeks ago and more music jogged her memory even harder. RantWoman and Blind Roommate spent a couple summers on the campus of the alma mater. One high point of summer social life was a bar called Debasement. There was a pinball machine. Blind Roommate consistently did better at pinball than RantWoman. RantWoman's pinball skills have not improved as her vision has gone south.

Blind Roommate was a singer, with a wonderful voice. Rlind Roommate sang in glee club and did wonderful solo shows with a lot of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. RantWoman hereby presents a musical tribute to Blind Roommate; RantWoman means no disrespect to the women perfomrers she found on YouTube, but most of them do not hold a candle to Blind Roommate.



Lay Lady Lay




Lay Lady Lay Cover with Harmonica



The Times they are a Changin' by a woman, credible but no competition for Blind Roommate




Leonard Cohen, Suzanne, Praha 2004. Severe anachronism, really haunting.



Vanessa and Suzanne Vega, Blowing in the Wind, Blind Roommate was better



Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Dave Stuart, 46604, Blowing in the Wind. This clip is included for exotic; RantWoman thinks it would be really fun to hear what Blind Roommate would say about the varied life and career of Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy. Alas, Blind Roommate is not available for comment.

Epistles and Ice Water

Sometimes RantWoman hates epistles. Boiling down a whole rich weekend with interwoven themes and thematic counterpoint is not a task for the faint of heart. Boiling this down on a tight schedule with severe space constraints is even more daunting. RantWoman already found the theme of the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference "Walk With Me, Mentor, Elder, Friend" rich enough to generate several layers of reflections herself and offers that comment in all humility to Friends reading the conference epistle.

RantWoman further thinks anyone involved with the planning of an event should stay away from immediate interaction with epistle writing on both sanity and seasoning grounds, especially if there are topics still needing seasoning behind the scenes. Alas, RantWoman is gifted with inclination to run off at the keyboard and is seasoning several topics she think are safe for the blogosphere, though the exact timing depends on RantWoman interacting with the rest of her life as well.

As an aside, RantWoman especially recommends public wordsmithing with 200 people in plenary at Annual Session for extra thrills and spills. At that scale, there is no room for ego and it's all God and Light and Friends. RantWoman, having done this task is too happy to be an elder in the conception of elder elaborated at the panel on eldering at the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference and gratefully uphold the efforts of those doing the epistle at different events.

In any case, RantWoman supposes that epistles can always be taken as points of departure for conversation. RantWoman especially invites Friends with comments about the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference epistle and who might see RantWoman at upcoming events to join her for refreshing beverages (sometimes defined as ice water) or really good frozen desserts and further conversation.

RantWoman decided she should make this offer after seeing comments over at http://northmidwest.blogspot.com/2010/06/pacific-northwest-quaker-womens.html and repeated at
http://onequakertake.blogspot.com/2010/06/epistle-from-quaker-womens-theology.html about issues of sexism. For one thing, some of the threads woven into the conversation are indeed about sexism; others are more generally about what makes good mentoring, passage of wisdowm and weight among generations, and Friends communities continually learning and relearning historical Friends practices in new eras. RantWoman may get something more written, but even RantWoman needs to pry her nose out of her computer and interact with live humans n real space now and then.

PNWQWTC Epistle

Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference Epistle

To our Quaker family,

Surrounded by the waters and wildlife of Hood Canal and the snowy peaks of the Olympic Mountains, sixty women gathered in Seabeck, Washington from June 16-20, 2010 for the eighth Pacific Northwest Quaker Women’s Theology Conference. Begun fifteen years ago to promote dialogue and build relationships among different Quaker traditions, this conference continues to be deeply Spirit led and enriches the lives of women who attend.

Though we represent different backgrounds and branches of Quakerism, the lines between these seemed very thin and blurred. No one avoided talking about her home meeting or church, but our membership didn’t have as much weight as our personal experiences shared in love. Even as we attempted to be open and accepting, at times we misstepped and unintentionally hurt each other. Many of us felt broken open and left this conference changed.

Through reflection papers we wrote, plenary sessions, home groups and discussion, we each connected personally with the theme, “Walk With Me: Mentors, Elders, and Friends.” Each plenary brought us back again and again to the awareness of the need for support and mentorship in our lives. We identified places in which we are being accompanied and are accompanying others and places where we feel the absence of that loving presence. Many of us made commitments to seek those relationships in our meetings, churches and beyond.

Despite colds, more serious illnesses and concerns for the health of loved ones, we drew strength, support, and encouragement from one another. Many think of the Women’s Conference as a reunion and newcomers found they were welcomed into the family with open arms.

In keeping with the testimony of community, we opened ourselves to another group, Interplay, also staying at the conference center. We described the kind of work that we each came to do, invited them to join us in worship, and likewise were invited to experience their ministry and we shared grace together before meals.

We celebrated the gifts of many through plenaries, workshops, singing and readings by several published authors. During one plenary session, several young adults shared personal experiences of their ministries in relation to the theme of the conference. We were thrilled to hear stories of women being supported and held sacredly in their ministry. However, we were deeply saddened to learn that some are not empowered or recognized in their ministries. We were thus reminded of the reality of sexism in the Society of Friends. Encircling the young adult women, we joined together in heartfelt prayer and were moved by its healing and supportive power. This experience deepened our worship and fellowship together. We challenged ourselves to be aware of internalized sexism, as well as the sexism in our churches and meetings, and to work toward true equality.

During business meeting on Saturday, we reaffirmed the work of this body of women and our leading to continue meeting together as an intra-faith group. We look forward to the next opportunity to join in fellowship.

Blogging as Ministry

Here are bullet points from Wes Daniels' Internet Cafe over at Gathering in Light about Blogging as Ministry

Blogging is an outlet for essays, thoughts, processing

Blogs are a {free} source of relegious reading material

Blogs allow for on-going conversations and friendships

Blogs track our Journey's transformation>> Blogging is timely

Blogs can express communal believing

Your blog is your "virtual living room"


RantWoman wants to add a very pointed, jump up and down with exclamation points and circles and arrows and laser pointers insistent message: RantWoman CANNOT anymore reasonably read enough print to satisfy her soul's rather boundless appetite for correction and elaboration and interaction with spiritual matters. RantWoman SOMETIMES is grateful for humans who can help her, but, well, RantWoman is an introvert and often needs to interact with matters on her own or with her own tools. RantWoman is very humble about the importance of the tools she has as way to access what she wants to read. RantWoman's real point: Blogs are ACCESSIBLE to RantWoman in ways that print is not!

RantWoman does mean to get some info into the QUIP discussions about accessible reading materials. RantWoman also realizes that as people age, the incidence of vision impairment and blindness increases and other blind Friends have different levels of comfort with different media and resources. RantWoman does not even presume to speak for them all, only hopefully to raise questions.

RantWoman further wants to note two points related to the word "free" and to remind her public of an issue of courtesy about attribution when reusing materials from others' sites.

First, "free" is an overstatement: a blogger likely is paying out fairly steadily for enough internet access to blog. The economics of what people pay and what services these costs cover are evolving rapidly and Friends should be aware of many possible changes.

Next, although much material is available for free and easy reuse, it is very minimal common courtesy to properly attribute materials one uses from other sources. RantWoman suspects there are big scary intellectual property lawyers out there willing to weigh in at some points and RantWoman is specifically not going there for today.

RantWoman is actually shy about inviting the internet all the way into her virtual living room. RantWoman also carries a concern for conversations flowing back and forth between the blogosphere and humans she loves, admires, regards as mentors, gets plum annoyed and vexed by, and in particular knows never or on very constrained timelines interact with all this e-stuff.

Composting Quakerism

RantWoman, well known for fixation on many things Compost recommends the following:



http://gatheringinlight.com/2010/06/20/composting-quakerism-a-podcast-of-quaker-ministers-from-the-nw/

When the Goddess Kicks You in the Butt

RantWoman is still busy digesting the Pacific NorthWest Quaker Womens Theology Conference

In connection with a presentation about the conference at her Meeting, RantWoman is sitting with the following queries from a certain much-discussed problematic mentor figure who is the clerk of the Adult Religious Education Committee sponsoring the presentation:

+ Why a THEOLOGICAL conference? What does that mean to you and how did the conference develop it in a Quakerly or meaningful way?

+ How does this differ from other Quaker conferences (e.g.: FWCC, NPYM AS, FGC...)? What is the effect of 1/3 - 1/2 evangelical women present? Why does that matter to you? + What have you learned about your understanding of God and your relationship to the Divine because of this conference or its theme? Has anything changed or opened up for you?

Okay, RantWoman is sitting with the queries and offereing only short piquant observations. Comments would be welcome!

Anyway, Problematic Mentor Figure is just the sort to send out such queries and then make excuses about Quaker commitments elsewhere and not even show up to hear riffs, more likely from the following thoughts:

From the website home page:

We strive to articulate that which has been meaningful in the expression and development of our faith. We are open to God’s leadings and willing to make a commitment to prepare, to risk, and to be open to learning from one another.

Our purposes in coming together are:
To grow in the knowledge and love
of God, trusting that the Inward Teacher, the Christ within, the Inner Light, the Holy Spirit will be present to guide us;

To create a place where it is possible to talk openly from different perspectives with love and honesty, and without rancor or tempering to accommodate perceptions of what might be acceptable;

To use narrative theology, that is, our stories of faith, as a means of integrating our experiences and our understanding;

To encourage articulation of experience in beliefs, both verbally and in writing, expecting that we will bring what we learn back into our home faith communities

RantWoman is still smiling about the Friend who brought us the plenary on Spiritual Friendships. RantWoman is smiling first of all trying to imagine Friend, much younger, describing herself as an introvert. Friend spoke of specifically making efforts to widen her circles of friendships after her children grew up. To RantWoman's surprise, this was the Friend who most clearly brought messages of widening circles of connection, of seeing Christ in everyone, Friend or not.

RantWoman assumes her readers will predict that RantWoman is going to find whole new ways to go off about Jesus, lots and lots of Jesus in the transported masses and unending flocks of novice bus drivers in her daily life. RantWoman also found herself thinking that perhaps her Meeting did not bring along enough Buddhist Quakers or Goddess Quakers, but she still was touched about seeing Jesus in everyone.


RantWoman hereby devotes a small amount of brain space to reflecting on which of the following is likely to make George Fox spin faster in his grave:

--Consider: A Friend has a ministry about Paganism with full backing of her Monthly Meeting in a large west coast city. The Monthly Meeting definitely subscribes to the "talking about movements of the Spirit is more important that what the Spirit is called" school of Friends and theology. Friend from this Meeting gives vocal ministry such as "When the Goddess Kicks you in the Butt, ..."

RantWoman was grateful about the public sides of how the "When the Goddess Kicks You in The Butt" thread was handled though she thinks there are still details to debrief about at some point. RantWoman specifically admires GoddessKicks You in the Butt Friend because she is both so articulate and so generous and open-hearted about engaging with Friends who use different language to talk about their spiritual experiences.

--Consider: A little old lady from a Friends Church in a certain inland western state whose residents are well-known for, um, interesting views. Friend attends the Gathering only in anonymous passing; she also packs heat in her pocketbook.

RantWoman is thinking of a certain "Cows With Guns" food animals rise up song from an NPYM Annual Session family night a few years ago. RantWoman wonders whether any other part of the country has so many Friends of any tradition so willing to speak of firearms. RantWoman does NOT feel called to think too long about the question.