Women and Theology Activist Summit
Recap and Resouces

On April 27th, Auburn Seminary hosted a day-long summit for women faith leaders and activists to begin to lay the foundation for building a spiritually grounded, multifaith language for social change and transformation rooted in women’s experience. A video montage, produced by program participant and member of the Auburn Media team, the Rev. Kellie Anderson-Picallo, served as a critical resource for our gathering.

Click on the video to the right to see how powerful grassroots activists, Rose Mapendo, Wangari Maathai and Leymah Gwobee allow a deep sense reverence for tradition and spirituality to inspire them to make a profound and lasting change for justice for themselves and a wider world.

Caring For Our Own Vineyards
Recap and resources

… they made me the keeper of the vineyards; [but] mine own vineyard have I not kept…
Song of Solomon 1:6b (KJV)

What does it mean to live a truly wholeness based, social justice infused life of faith?
Last year an important conversation was launched at the third annual Ain’t I A Leader series, as a group of African-American women religious leaders pondered the question, ‘why self-care must become a mandate for prophetic ministry in the 21st century.’

On Monday, March 28, 2011 Auburn Seminary hosted a gathering that took the conversation to the next level as a select group of emerging and established scholars, activists, preachers, and teachers convened for the first ever summit of the Ain’t I A Leader initiative.

Caring for Our Own Vineyards: Self-Care as a Mandate for Prophetic Ministry relied on a combination of ritual, interactive dialogues between keynote speakers -- the Rev. Dr. JoAnne Terrell and the Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman – and music-based community-building moments – to inspire the women gathered to offer embodied reflections on and concrete strategies for what an activist life dedicated to the thriving of women of color might look like.

Highlights of the event included a call to action/march and a provocative closing sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Leslie Callahan.