Wellsprings of Wisdom Conference 2005: Thursday June 30th

Deepening Our Power: Women, Faith and Spirituality

How is our spirituality a source of creativity, mutual understanding and compassionate action?

Keynote Speakers:

The program for this day focuses on the ways spirituality can be a source of creativity, mutual understanding and compassion. We believe that as women we possess a power that is creative, compassionate and courageous. We have learned that we can use our power responsibly to help create and sustain just communities. We also know that we need to be attentive to the times when power is abused. We will explore the dynamics that lead us to use our power unwisely and how to avoid the common pitfalls and temptations found in many positions of power. Our spiritual traditions can help us to recognize positive uses of power and how to embrace our power in healing and community-building ways. The presentation and workshops will help us to reflect on the source of this power in the Infinite Divine professed by our faith traditions. Workshops will offer us the opportunity to learn about the various world religions. We will spend

time reading and praying with stories of women who were models of faith and compassionate actions for these holy communities. Drawing strength from their witness we will discover ways to be women of faith and action in our own communities

The Thursday's workshops will explore the basic beliefs and spiritual practices of a particular world religion. From this perspective, the workshop will discuss the ways spirituality is a source of power for creativity, mutual understanding, and compassion.

Using readings from the sacred texts, the participants will learn the ways women in the particular faith tradition were models for compassionate action in their communities and beyond. The workshops will be repeated in the afternoon.

#1 Workshop on Judaism

TBA

#2 Workshop on Christianity

Rev. Martha Carroll

# 3 Workshop on Islam

Dr. Asma Afsaruddin

#4 Workshop on Bahá’í

Jaleh Dashti-Gibson

#5 Workshop on Hinduism

Brad Malkovsky

#6 Workshop on Buddhism

Sr. Marianne Farina