Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership

Kathe Schaaf is co-founder and past president of Gather the Women Global Matrix. She currently anchors many collaborative conversations connecting women and women's organizations internationally.Kathe Schaaf is available to speak on the following topics:Now Is the Time: Women's Empowerment and LeadershipGrassroots for the Greater Good: A Glimpse at Global Women’s Leadership in ActionMaking Local-Global ConnectionsCollaborative Leadership: A New ParadigmPolitics and Passions Colliding: Bridging the DividesThe Divine FeminineFaith and Feminism for an Emerging Generation of Young LeadersClick here to contact the author. Kay Lindahl, the founder of The Listening Center in Long Beach, California, is author of How Does God Listen?; Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening: A Guide to Enrich Your Relationships and Kindle Your Spiritual Life and The Sacred Art of Listening: Forty Reflections for Cultivating a Spiritual Practice. She is coeditor of Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power (all SkyLight Paths).Kay Lindahl is available to speak on the following topics:The Sacred Art of ListeningThe Power of ListeningThe Transforming Nature of ListeningThe Lost Art of ListeningIs Anybody Listening?The Importance of Listening for Health Care ProfessionalsClick here to contact the author. Kathleen S. Hurty, PhD, a teaching fellow in leadership studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, is a consultant for the Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions, an educator and a public speaker.Kathleen Hurty is available to speak on the following topics:The Alchemy of Power and GraceNew Models of Leadership in Religious ContextsRe-imagining Mary as an Ecumenical SymbolPeace and the Power of Interreligious UnderstandingClick here to contact the author. Reverend Guo Cheen, an ordained Buddhist nun and active in interfaith dialogue, is founder of the Compassion Network. All four are ambassadors for the Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions.

• A Blessing and an InvitationAnn Marie Sayers and Rachelle Figueroa xiIntroduction 1Exploration I:How Do I Express Being an Empowered Woman of Spirit and Faith? 17Becoming a Vessel of PeaceLynda Terry 19But I Thought You Knew the Way: Lessons in LeadershipFredelle Brief 25Living My Way into AnswersCourtney E. Martin 30Seeing a World Where There Is No "Other"Yoland Trevino 36Faith in the Transitions of Not KnowingSusan Quinn 40Practicing EmpowermentKaren R. Boyett, MA 45Living Our Leadership 50Digging DeeperGod Our Father; God Our Mother: In Search of the Divine FeminineJoan Chittister, OSB 60Exploration II:How Do My Spiritual Values Inform Me about Living with the Challenges and Blessings of Diversity? 73Buddhism, Women, and Religious DiversityKarma Lekshe Tsomo 77Faith's Challenges: The One We SeekJamia Wilson 82Living My ValuesDiane Tillman 88Where Grace Meets PowerReverend Lorenza Andrade Smith 94Best Friends ForeverJan Booman Saeed 99God Said: We Have Created You from a Single (Pair) of a Female and MaleShareda Hosein 104Remembrance, Witness, and Action: Fuel for the JourneyThe Right Reverend Mary Douglas Glasspool 109Living Our Leadership 115Digging DeeperLeading from a Whirlwind: Faith and Courage in a Swiftly Changing WorldValarie Kaur 124Exploration III:How Do We Stand for the Greatness of Each Other? 139The Wind Is Blowing from the West and Has the Smell of the SeaAdelia Sandoval 141Mother-Lines of Body, Mind, and SpiritCarol Lee Flinders, PhD 145Birthing Awake the DreamAlisa Starkweather 151Kindness Empowers: A Mohawk Skywoman's Journey of ThanksgivingDawn T. Maracle, MEd, EdD (ABD) 156In Order to Heal the World, We Have to Stand for Each Other's Greatness, but "First," the Grandmothers Told Her, "You Have to Heal the Wound between Women"China Galland 162Living Our Leadership 168Digging DeeperWhere Do We Go from Here?Nontombi Naomi Tutu 174Exploration IV:How Do We Catalyze Our Collective Transformational Power as Women of Spirit and Faith? 185Living in God's Amazing Grace: The Power of Faith in LeadershipMusimbi Kanyoro, PhD 188Creative Acts of Expression: Catalyzed in CirclesJean Shinoda Bolen, MD 195A Poetic Response: "The Catalyst"Lisa Anderson 201The Meta-Civics of Feminine LeadershipDr. Barbara E. Fields 204Thou Art Goddess: The Return of the Divine FemininePhyllis W. Curott, JD and HPs 211Living Our Leadership 216Reflecting on the Pattern 224Written in My BonesKathe Schaaf 224In TransitionKay Lindahl 227On Being Advocates, Activists, and Alchemists: Exploring Power on the Way ForwardKathleen S. Hurty, PhD 230Ever-Evolving Women of Spirit and Faith: Naming, Doing, and Be-ingReverend Guo Cheen 234Transformative LeadershipKathe Schaaf, Kay Lindahl, Kathleen S. Hurty, PhD, Reverend Guo Cheen 237Engaging with Women of Spirit and Faith 240The Young Leaders Council of WSF 241The Mentoring Project 241Local WSF Circles 242Parliament of the World's Religions 2014 242WSF in Canada 242Closing BlessingRachelle Figueroa 243Resources and Networks 244Circle and Dialogue Resources 244Environment/Ecology 245Interfaith Organizations 246Leadership and Partnership Organizations 248Seminaries and Educational Organizations 249Women's Organizations 250Women’s Organizations, Faith Based 253Jewish Women’s Organizations 257Muslim Women’s Organizations 258Young Leaders 258Acknowledgments 259Notes 261Selected Bibliography 264

"Showcases [women's spiritual leadership’s] hallmarks: listening and collaboration. Use the provocative, creative suggestions as a practical guide for sharing the insights and extending the reach."—Mary Hunt, co-founder/co-director, Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER); coeditor, New Feminist Christianity: Many Voices, Many Views“An essential tool, an exciting read and a gift on the journey toward a transformed future.”—Dirk Ficca, executive director, Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions“Full of wisdom and speaks the truth on difficult issues.... For people of all faiths—or no faith—it helps spark reflection on how true spirituality for our time can be re-shaped by empowering women.”—Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, editor, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future“Unique, timely and valuable.... Here is a testament to the power of the word, of women, and above all, of faith.”—Azza Karam, PhD, senior adviser, Culture, United Nations Population Fund“A powerful plunge into the views, values and extraordinary endeavors by women on the leading edge of spirituality and leadership.”—Roshi Joan Halifax, founding abbot, Upaya Zen Center“Thought and action provoking ... a resource for women of all walks of life who seek to use the wisdom and knowledge of women to create a culture of peace and well-being for all.”—Mary Wiberg, executive director, California Commission on the Status of Women“A rallying cry for the twenty-first century, as it highlights the vision and activism of women bridging divides ... of faith, class, race and generation to bring real hope, healing and wholeness to our broken world. Women of deep faith and spiritual conviction everywhere owe it to themselves to read this compelling collection.”—The Rev. Dr. Katharine R. Henderson, president, Auburn Theological Seminary“Many religious institutions still hold to explicit glass ceilings that keep women from formal leadership. This obscures women’s extraordinary spiritual roles, their potential to change what we mean by religion and spirituality, and what a spiritual lens can offer to the world’s leading problems. Exploring vital and complex themes like communication and leadership with freshly defined terms, the editors and contributors look to a world governed by new conceptions of power and success. The personal spiritual journeys of a diverse group of women offer glimpses of the types of transformations that women spiritual and religious leaders might bring to society.”—Katherine Marshall, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; executive director, World Faiths Development Dialogue“We all long for inspiration and guidance. With enormous sensitivity, Women, Spirituality, and Transformative Leadership gives us gems that are both joyous and poignant. Prepare to be uplifted and transformed!”—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College“Call[s] us as women to the urgent task of developing a deep spiritual identity, not for our own good but to better equip us to be agents of transformation in a deeply divided world. Rejoice as you read this inspiring book and ready yourself for transformation.”—The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York; author, Living into Hope: A Call to Spiritual Action for Such a Time as This“This carefully crafted collection of women’s insights into leadership from a spiritual root goes a long way in connecting the concept of power with the concept of love. Such a linkage stimulates moral courage, encourages social justice and opens one to deeper, more authentic, spiritually grounded relationships.”—Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, author, Faith & Feminism: A Holy Alliance; president, The Sister Fund“An important book for this pivotal moment. Its collection of voices embody a non-denominational, invitational and inclusive approach to spirituality, while also addressing the nitty-gritty practicalities and challenges that leadership in this transformative time requires of us. It offers a systemic overview of a landscape we’d all be advised to visit, frequently—that of the intersection of diverse women (and men), reinventing leadership to address a pivotal moment of change in ourselves, our communities and the world, while staying connected to the mystery, or sacred, within and surrounding us all. It offers useful practices and perspectives for how we may cultivate ourselves to return to right relationship with ourselves, each other and the Earth.”—Nina Simons, co-founder/co-CEO, Bioneers“If human civilization is to not only survive but thrive, it will be because of women: radical, gutsy, revolutionary women; women who don’t simply become leaders, but who reinvent leadership; women who don’t simply become clergy, but who reinvent religion and spirituality. We don’t need women taking their place in a man’s world—we need women to topple that world and lead us to a new and better one. The wisdom in Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership points us in the direction of a new world with a new heart and a new mind. This book gives me hope.”—Rabbi Rami Shapiro, translator/annotator, The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature: Selections Annotated and Explained