America’s First Feminist

Eleanor Rae

Our move to the Bronx in 2002 brought us into close proximity to the Hutchinson River and the Hutchinson River Parkway. A sign on the parkway tells me that it is named for Anne M. Hutchinson. Currently, I am in the process of learning something about this remarkable woman, a summary of which is the focus of this article.

Anne Marbury Hutchinson was born into Elizabethan England in 1591. From her father, Francis Marbury, a Cambridge educated clergyman, she received a solid theological education as well as an understanding of the meaning of religious dissent. From her mother, Bridget Dryden, she learned the skills she employed so well in her life: those of midwifery and herbalism.

The year after the death of her father in 1611, Anne married William Hutchinson, a prosperous merchant from her hometown, Alford, England. For the next twenty years, she managed their household, including the care of over a dozen children. During this busy personal time, she maintained her interest in theology and in the church. In addition to extensive study of Scripture, she closely followed the sermons of John Cotton, a Protestant minister whose teaching followed the group that came to be known as the Puritans. In 1634, under ecclesial pressure, Cotton relocated to the Puritan colony in Massachusetts and shortly thereafter, the Hutchison family followed him there. On the passage to New England, Anne questioned the sermonizing of a ship’s chaplain, the Rev. Zachariah Symmes. Historians believe that this questioning was at least partially responsible for the delay she received in being admitted to the church in Boston—a delay her husband did not experience.

In Boston, Anne not only continued her household duties, but also cared for her sick and childbirthing neighbors. When she was criticized for not attending a local women’s teaching group, she decided to found one that met in her own home. After a modest beginning, this group grew in size to as many as eighty members, including men. In time, her neighbor John Winthrop, the governor of the colony, regarded her meetings as "a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex." In 1637, Anne was brought to trial before the governor and his court. Winthrop had already cited her in his diary as "an American Jezebel who had gone a-whoring from God" and should be "tried as a heretic." At age forty-six, pregnant with her sixteenth child, Anne stood before her seated accusers. She might have been freed for lack of just cause and conflicting testimony except for her insistence that she was the recipient of direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. The court ordered her to be banished, and at an ecclesiastical trial, she was excommunicated.

After leaving Massachusetts, the family founded a settlement in what is present day Portsmouth, RI. Following William’s death, Anne and her family eventually settled in the northeast corner of the present day Bronx, near to where the parkway and river that bear her name are located. Tragically, she who preached and practiced racial tolerance and refused to keep firearms, was massacred, along with her family, by Siwanoy Indians in 1643.

Among the many lessons Anne can teach us, in this day of the revival of religious fundamentalism, two of the most important may be the rejection of any religion that demands only believing, not thinking, and the precariousness of our religious freedom.

What Does It Mean To Be Human?

John Surette, SJ

In earlier times, we began with the human in our attempts to answer this question. A twenty-first century answer invites us to begin with the Universe, out of which we have emerged and within which we are embedded. Starting with the Universe, we gain a new understanding that transcends our traditions. We need to begin with reality in its most comprehensive aspect—an aspect, without which we simply could not exist. New answers will crystallize in our consciousness. We are, for example, a star’s way of knowing itself (L. Eisely). We are that power that gave birth to the Universe now in human form (B. Swimme). We are articulated stardust (E. Sahtouris). We are fourteen billion years of evolution reflecting upon itself (Teilhard). We are those beings in whom the universe reflects upon and celebrates itself (T. Berry). We are cosmosed (the experience of being radically embedded in the Universe) and it is only within this cosmic context that an adequate answer to the question can be obtained.

All of this brings me back to my experience as a teenager at a place called Hubbard Pond in West Rindge, NH. I remember sitting before campfires and gazing into that part of the flame that has no boundaries. I recall contemplating the stars at night and expecting them to speak to me out of their silence. And there was the shaft of moonlight on the waters of the pond that beckoned to me and allured me into an unknown future.

In these events I experienced a oneness with a reality much greater than myself. I was caught-up in the contemplation of immensities and ultimacies that I could not see, but was able to sense. I knew that I was special. I even felt that I was loved. I was cosmosed. These experiences were and continue to be moments of grace for me. The flames without boundaries, the stars speaking out of their silence, and the alluring shafts of moonlight on the water—all of these have become for me metaphors of God. The Divine is a flame without boundaries, a star speaking out of silence, an alluring shaft of light on the waters of my life. The entire cosmos is singing with the song of God.

What was begun then continues today within me. I am a Jesuit and we Jesuits are required by our spirituality to engage the greater good, the more universal good. The experiences I have had of being cosmosed have prepared me for this engagement.

Yes, there are moments that touch us so profoundly that they actually define and guide the unfolding of our lives!

John Surette is the co-founder and director of Spiritearth, a Center for contemplation, reflection, and justice making for the ecozoic age. He offers retreats on cosmological and eco-spiritual themes and can be reached at spirearth@aol.com.

Art With a Conscience

Dance/theatre artist, Judy Dworin, founder and artistic director of the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble, has dedicated her talents to creating socially charged, visually powerful performances that give particular voice to women’s perspectives, human rights and Earth-centered issues. She aims for emotionally moving and transformative images that challenge and provoke, such as the October 2004 performance in Hartford, CT of the JDPE’s "Hot Licks," the true story of young women employed in the early twentieth century by the Waterbury Clock Company (now Timex) to paint radium-tinged, glow-in-the-dark dials on watch faces. Using their lips to make the paintbrush tips pointed enough to do the detailed work, the women were exposed to the lethal substance that ultimately jeopardized their lives.

If you missed it the first time, now you can catch a performance in the town where the story took place:

"HOT LICKS"

Saturday, January 22, 2005

8:00 pm

Seven Angels Theatre, Waterbury, CT

Call the box office for tickets ($25) and information: (203) 757-4676

Making Water Accessible:

Action by Medical Mission Sisters

Philo Morris

Medical Mission Sisters, engaged in nineteen countries around the globe in health and healing work, are tackling the root cause of disease in some countries through innovative people's water projects.

One of these is the watershed management project in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, North India. Here, even to this day, farmers depend on monsoon rains and traditional methods for agriculture. But the people in this village have been in search of a sustainable alternative for obtaining the water they need. In collaboration with the diocese of the area, they have engaged in a project to tap rainwater resources.

Self-help groups in the village have been successful in mobilizing local funds, obtaining a bank loan and receiving government funds to implement the project.

The aim of watershed development is to slow down the velocity of water at every point, to allow time for it to recharge sources of groundwater and replenish falling water tables. A watershed can be defined as the drainage basin of a catchment area of a particular stream or river. The objective of rainwater harvesting is to intercept the part of this water that flows away as runoff. Contour trenches are made to prevent soil erosion as well as to reduce the speed of running water. The stored water is then used to recharge the ground waters, thereby maintaining the levels in the wells throughout the eight months of dry weather.

The second water project, in Panakachira, Kerala, South India is called "Sustainable Drinking Water Supply in the Rural Watersheds of the Humid Topics in Kerala." This collaborative effort with the diocese aims, through the people’s participation, to be sustainable and to improve the drinking water supply. The project addresses specific problems like the scarcity and poor quality of drinking water; the overburdening of women in water collection; soil erosion; the absence of sanitation facilities and the prevalence of  water-borne diseases. Implemented through local groups of fifteen to twenty neighborhood families whose major program is micro-credit and enterprise management, the project deals with rainwater harvesting and the construction of above ground ferro-cement tanks to store rainwater. It also includes the building of embankments and terracing and the recharging of wells. With more time to do other things, the women have become more engaged in public affairs and development work. Clean, easily accessible water has resulted in an improvement in health, and young girls have been able to return to school. There has also been a 40 percent increase in agricultural products. These rainwater-harvesting systems have made water cost effective and accessible to the people, especially to the poor.

The third project is in Dire, Ethiopia. In the past, water collection in that area meant a six to eight hour walk. Now access to water is less than a kilometer away. The lives of twenty thousand people have been changed for the better by the water supply system developed through the Community-Based Development Project. The people of the various villages were organized and a scheme for the provision of safe water sources was developed as a major priority of the Integrated Health Care and Development Project. The scheme included the construction of protected springs, hand-dug wells and bore holes. To date, 124 safe water sites have been developed that serve an estimated 130,000 to 150,000 beneficiaries. Due to the low ground water level, most of the safe water sites are bore holes that have been fitted with hand pumps. Maintenance of the sites and hand pumps is the responsibility of the local community. Attendants maintain the pumps and respond to minor problems. They are supported by periodic visits by water site technicians. In an effort to improve the sustainability of the water programs and to decrease maintenance visits, ten solar pumps and  deep bore holes have been installed in communities with large populations.

Philo Morris, a Medical Mission Sister, represents her community at the United Nations.

Associates of C:WED:

Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., founder

Giles E. Rae, publisher

Anne Andersson, editor

Representatives at the United Nations:                                                      

New York: Rosalyn Dischiavo                                  

Lina Gupta, Ph.D.                 

Alayne O’Reilly, Ph.D.            

Vienna: Susanne Schaup, Ph.D.                               

Mission Statement

The Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine is dedicated to exploring the parallels that exist between the imaging and treatment of women and of the Earth, and how our images of the Divine are related to these parallels.

We began by exploring these relationships within the context of our own tradition--the Christian. While we continue our exploration in this tradition, we have also engaged people of other traditions such as the Buddhist, Goddess, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim. Our work is made available through talks, workshops, writings and retreats. The immediate purpose of the Center is educational, while the ultimate goal is the healing of the Creation.

The founder of C:WED is Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., author of Women, the Earth, the Divine, President Emerita of the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology and founder of the United Nations Earth Values Caucus.

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Meditation—Miriam Therese MacGillis, OP

I give you thanks for the enormous contribution of those who lived before me,for the thousands of years during which humans crafted their images of you in the image of the feminine and of the Earth,

for loosening our tongues that we might utter words about your eternal word,

for the Ice Ages that shaped the lands, mountains, and rivers, which have in turn shaped our imaginations,

for all of the mammals who have taught us to birth and succor our young,

for the coming of the flowering plants that channel their energy into seeds by which the future is endowed,

for the birds who brought song and melody to the Earth,

for the great green plants and their interdependence with insects,

for all the teeming life within the oceans which fashioned the sensing organs of Earth,

for the first simple life forms that learned to take nourishment from the sun, our mother star, and laid down a pattern of giving themselves away to others, and receiving life from others,

for the supernova event by which our mother star collapsed and created the stardust out of which the solar system was formed,

for stars and galaxies in which is incarnated all the dreams, visions, and energies by which you have shaped this present moment,

for the first moment, your utter act of giving that brought forth this single body of the universe out of which I weave the web of my own existence,

for the dark, impenetrable, pregnant, awesome mystery that you are, and out of which you called my name.