July 19, 2004
Monday
The Ekklesia Project gathering begins today. AKMA has said as much. Jennifer has said as much and Geoff is presenting. I hope that they get a chance to blog as I do not have the cash resourse to go. I like what the Ekklesia Project is tinkering with. It should be a fun conference.
I am off to the caterer's today. I have many things to chop. Perchance I will blog tonight.
Oh! I saw Hamlet this weekend. It is a First Folio production. My. It was good.
Perchance to blog, indeed.
Posted by tripp at July 19, 2004 08:06 AMHappy catering!
FYI, there seems to be a little formatting weirdness in the first paragraph of your blog this morning. I can't see the first word or so in any line, no matter how wide I set my window -- and there's no way to scroll back and forth. It's kinda fun to figure out what the missing words and letters are, but I don't think it's quite what you intend!
Posted by: Megan at July 19, 2004 10:23 AMI am reading "Alone of All Her Sex" The Myth
and Cult of the Virgin Mary by Marina Warner.
A composer is working on a project entitled
"Re-Thinking Mary" and suggested people read it.
It is very interesting.
Anyway, the conference subject you noted sounds cool.
Warner's book looks at all the different roles
Mary took: Virgin, Queen, Bride, Mother, Intercessor.
It talks about the book of James which talks about Mary's
parents and birth. As well as how Joseph was
decided to be her husband.
I also liked the stories about the possible ways
Mary ascended into heaven like Jesus, Enoch and
Elijah.
What was disturbing is how to become a nun,
I forget what dates they listed, women had
to denounce their female gender. To be considered pure they had to renounce what had made the woman
Fall. They were taught to do severe fasting --
which we call anorexia today -- to stop their
menstruation --thus "eliminating" the corrupt
parts of themselves as women. Crazy.
However, what was interesting is the number of
women who flocked to the nunnery. Very smart.
It was a catch 22 -- they must renounce themselves as women, but they were educated in
the convents. At that time, only women in royalty & convents were educated. Many nuns after getting
into the convent and being educated used it
as a means to create better conditions for women.
Cool. Teresa of Avila was one they cited as an
example.
Warner who wrote the book was raised in convents
in Egypt, Belgium and England. She studied
French & Italian at Oxford.
She reflects on life in the convent:
As a child, Mary was "it." Everyone wanted to
be her. The imagery she writes of
the festivals the young girls celebrated for
Mary is beautiful.
However, when adolescence came -- shame
& humiliation was associated with anything lustful and the young girls were punished severely. Mary became a nightmare.
The writer to this day cannot go into a cathedral
and see images of Mary without being overwhelmed
with a complex myriad of emotions both awe and terror.
I like that the book looks at some of these things around Mary as myth and also as cults.
She stresses the importance of how some of the
legends of Mary have condemned real women to inferiority.
Anyway, I said all of that, to say this.
It's a interesting, intrigueing, well documented
book and I am excited about this composer's
project.
Megan: Really? Interesting. Everything is cool here. Is anyone else having Megan's difficulties?
Posted by: AngloBaptist at July 19, 2004 03:34 PMNo problem here. I tried using various browsers-- Safari, Netscape, IE-- and all seemed to work just fine.
The Ekklesia Project gathering does sound cool; wish I could go, too. Maybe next year...
Posted by: Jane Ellen at July 19, 2004 07:37 PM