Book Feature:
Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia by Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB
Published 2004 by Anvil and Institute of Women's Studies
ISBN 971-27-1495-0 (bp)
ISBN 971-27-1513-2 (np)
Book Design by Arnold R. Ramos
(click image for detail)
Table of Contents
Perspectives
Chapter 1
Introduction: My Story
A Personal Perspective
Chapter 2
The Asian Feminist Theology of Liberation: A Historical Perspective
Women in Asian World Religions
Chapter 3
Asian Women and Christianity
A Feminist Theological Perspective
Chapter 4
The Basics of Hinduism
Chapter 5
Women in Hinduism
Portraits and Issues

• Portrait One: Kali-Durga
  
• Portrait Two: Mirabai (1948-circa 1540)
  
• Contemporary Interview: Madhu Khanna
  
• Issue Focus: Dowry Deaths
  

Chapter 6
The Basic Teachings of Buddhism
Chapter 7
Women in Buddhism
Portraits and Issues

• Portrait One: Tara
  
• Portrait Two: Yeshe Tsogyal, Tibetan Tantric Music
  
• Contemporary Interview: Chatsumarn Kabilsingh
  
• Issue Focus: Women's Ordination in Theravada Buddhism (Sri Lanka and Thailand)
  

Chapter 8
Basic Tenets of Islam

Chapter 9
Women in Islam
Portraits and Issues

• Portrait One: Aisha Bint Abi Bakr Siddique
  
• Portrait Two: Rabi'a Al-'Adawiyya of Basra
  
• Contemporary Interview: Norani Othman
  
• Issue Focus: Polygamy in the Malaysian Context
  

Women in Non-World Religions in Asia
Chapter 10
Women in Confucianism
Chapter 11
Women in Indigenous Religions
Chapter 12
Women in New Religions of Japan: Tentrikyo
Chapter 13
Women in Folk Religions
Chapter 14
Summary, Appraisal, Conclusion
Bibliography

Back cover & About the Author (click image for detail)

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Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia

Event in New York City:

A Roundtable Discussion with Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB
When:Thursday, November 10th, 6:30-8:30 pm
Location:
Barnard College, Held Auditorium (304 Barnard Hall)
3009 Broadway, btwn 116 & 120 Sts.
New York, New York
Directions:
Take the uptown 1 train to 116 St / Columbia University. Exit on the west side of Broadway. Enter through the main gate. Barnard Hall is the building directly in front of you.
Hosted by: the volunteer publishers of NewFilipina.com
Entrance: $5

Description:
Come and join Sister MJM in a presentation and discussion about how the scriptures and writings of religions speak of women in Asia and what is the impact of institutional religions on these women. And also includes how women theologians are trying to change what is oppressive while enhancing that which contributes to the full humanity of women. Will also include some discussion on spiritual activism, decolonization and what babaylanism means to Filipino women leaders today. (Babaylan is the visayan word for the village priestess of Philippine pre-colonial times).
About Our Guest Speaker:
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB is a Missionary Benedictine sister. She obtained her doctorate degree in Philosophy major in Linguistic Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy and a degree in Missiology at the Wilhelmsuniversitaet in Muenster, Germany. Her involvement includes charting new paths in the academe and working with the masses especially the women. As a feminist-activist she has given birth to women-centered programs among them are the Institute of Women's Studies, Women Ecology and Wholeness Farm, and the Women Crisis Center.
She was the National Chairperson of GABRIELA, a broad alliance of women's organization for 18 years.(1986-2004) She is actively involved in developing a distinct Third World Theology and was the Executive Secretary and Treasurer of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) until September, 2001. She served for 5 years as the International Coordinator of the Women's Commision of EATWOT which developed a Feminist Theology of Liberation from the perspective of Third World women. She was President of St. Scholastica's College for 6 years (1996-2002) and has just been elected Prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in the Manila Priory.
Today, Sister is now the Mother Prioress, St. Scholastica's Priory, the Director of Institute of Women's Studies, St. Scholastica's College, Manila, Philippines, Lifetime Honorary Chairperson of GABRIELA, Philippines She was awarded the Dorothy Cadbury Fellowship in 1994 in Birmingham and Henry Luce Fellowship at the Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1995. She has just been granted a Fellowship as an Asian Public Intellectual of 2002 by the Nippon Foundation and undertook a research on Woman, Religion and Spirituality in Asia in four Asian countries. Her book entitled Woman, Religion and Spirituality was published by Anvil and was launched during the International Book Fair at the World Trade Center in Manila on August 15, 2004.
Contact:
Perla Daly
Founder, NewFilipina, Inc., www.newfilipina.com
Chairwoman, FAWN2005, www.fawn2005.com
cel 203.770.7530, studio 860.350.2535

Pictures shared by Leny Strobel!
From the Babaylan Symposium, St. Scholastica's College, Manila, July 22, 2005


above: Evelie and Agnes (on the right); I think the woman in pink is Ms Atienza...from a women's NGO (click image for large version)


above: with Senator Leticia Shanani (in native dress); Grace Nono in purple, and Sister Datung (nun)(click image for large version)


above: With Carolyn Brewer and Fe Mangahas and Sister Mary John (click image for large version)

Babaylan: She Dances in Wholeness

You can now download the Keynote Address of Agnes N. Miclat-Cacayan from the Babaylan Symposium held at St. Scholastica's College, Manila, on July 22, 2005. Thank you Agnes for sharing this with all of us online!

>>Click here to download.

Mga Kathang Babaylan: Five Book Showcase

Sponsored by the Philippine Expression Bookshop at FAWN2005
Readings and Book Signings with launching of Leny Strobel's A Book of Her Own, Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan.
Readings by:

• Marivi Soliven Blanco (Speak Up, Woman)
• Edwina Bergano, Veronica, Salcedo, Joan May Cordova (FANHS' In Our Auntie' Words: The Filipino Spirit of Hampton Roads)
• Patria Rivera (Puti/White)
• Janet Stickmon (Crushing Soft Rubies: A Memoir).

Moderator: Bino A. Realuyo, (Author of Umbrella )


L to R: Janet Stickmon, Edwina Bergano, Patria Rivera, Marivi S, Blanco, Bino Realuyo(facilitator), Joan May Cordova, Leny Strobel. (not in picture: Veronica Salcedo)

Philippine Expressions Bookshop
The Mail Order Bookshop Dedicated to Filipino Americans in Search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive, Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2005
telephone 310.514.9139, fax 310.514.3485, Email: lindanietes@sbcglobal.net

Babaylan Spirit Retreat

presented by FAWN2005 presents
Held the day before the FAWN2005 conference, we gathered together to create sacred space and time. To center and reconnect ourselves with higher purpose and our indigenous spiritual heritage. And also for focusing the energy and intentions of the next days' gathering of Filipino women leaders from around the world. This was a special opportunity to come together to pray, meditate and contemplate on the many levels of where we come from, who are we, what do we want for not only ourselves but also for our families, our communities, Filipinos and humanity.
Click here for the complete gallery


L to R: Potri, Baylan, Rowena, Letty, Joanie, Evelie.


L to R: Ann, Letty, Potri, Baylan, Rowena, Evelie .

Spirit of the Babaylan Exhibit

presented by FAWN2005

Coordinated by Marv Velando. Presented by FAWN2005
Click here for more details.

Spirit of the Babaylan: Open Art Exhibit, a pioneer indoor art exhibition organized by the Filipino American Women’s Network Conference on behalf of NewFilipina, Inc. and Philippine Forum, opened on June 2 and ran through June 24. This all encompassing multi-media exhibition – the first of its kind in New York City to date - featured new and emerging work from nine Filipina American artists:

• Perla Daly


• Madonna Davidoff


• Dulcie Dee


• Valerie Jelski


• Christine Quisumbing Ramillo


• Kinding Sindaw


• Sabrina Alcantara-Tan


• Maryann Ubaldo


• Marv Velando

Works of art from this eclectic group of Filipina American artists graced Kimmel Center’s Commuter Gallery to complete an ethereal transformation and usher the viewer into the Spirit of the Babaylan, its different dimensions in contrast with the realities of being a woman and an ancient spiritual and cultural legacy unique of those who know the Philippines as Motherland.

The Kimmel Center Commuter Gallery, located on the second floor of the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life, New York University's new hub of campus activity for undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni, overlooks Washington Square Park in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Click here for more details


Click picture to view movie clip ,courtesy of Mary Ann Ubaldo.
Opening ritual and Song performed by Evelie Delfino Sales Posch.
Click here for gallery of pictures.

Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan

Leny Strobel's Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan is a mosaic of poems, reflections, found texts, essays, and images that attempts to answer the question: what do you do after you decolonize?

Leny Strobel continues her research and insight on the process of decolonization, which she first wrote about in Coming Full Circle. In this book, she maps her journey and writes of her unfolding realization that her life need not be overdetermined by dualisms and ideologies; that it is possible to live a joy-filled and peaceful life while always acting with others in the daily constant struggle to be human.

She acknowledges, with a great depth of gratitude, the revolutionary spirit and wisdom of the Filipina Babaylan whose legacy continues to inspire today. That spirit fills these pages.

Book images and illustrations courtesy of Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, ISIS International Manila art by artists Sandra Torrijos, Maica Delfino and Lillette de Lara, Cal Strobel, Tiboli Publishing, Melissa Nolledo-Christoffels, and Celia at <http://desarapen.blogspot.com>.

Cover and art production by Perla Paredes Daly, NewFilipina, Inc.

Table of contents and more details >>GO. OR go to Amazon.com and order your own copy now! Click here.

Publisher: T’Boli Publishing, San Francisco, CA 94134. Email: tiboli@comcast.net

ISBN: 1-887764-64-X

Also order directly from:
Philippine Expressions Bookshop
The Mail Order Bookshop Dedicated to Filipino Americans in Search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive, Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2005
telephone 310.514.9139, fax 310.514.3485, Email: lindanietes@sbcglobal.net

Book Launch: June 3, 2005.
Sponsored by FAWN2005 and Philippine Expressions Bookshop in New York City.


L to R: Leny Strobel, Sr. Mary John Mananzan and Joan May Cordova at the FAWN2005 conference.


Perla Daly and Leny Strobel

More details on FAWN2005 book event and enjoy pictures at the FAWN2005 Gallery.

Walking the Path of the Babaylan

The Babaylan knows very well that all things, all people, all existences are connected.
This is Sacred Internconnection which, in Filipino, is called pakikipagkapwa.

In the end, babaylan is merely a word. It is what it means that it is essential. The role and title of Babaylan carries with it great meaning and great service only in the sense that such leadership involves great responsibility.

We hope you benefit from discussing babaylan leadership in this conference in that you will make better decisions from moment to moment, and that you can better face head-on your personal challenges and, too, the challenges of our world.

For the sake of those we love.
And for the sake of those generations that we will never meet.


From the program of the FAWN2005 Conference, page 8. Click here for PDF excerpt from that program.

Check out the beautiful ACPC Sikat site, webweaved by Geejay Arriola. The art at left is by Boy Dominguez, whose work also graces the site. In 1984, an assembly of Asian youth was launched by the Christian Conference of Asia. It was held in India and gave birth to Asian Council for Peoples Culture (ACPC).

The network developed with the participation of cultural workers and community educators from 16 Asia-Pacific countries. Progress founded on culture is the basic premise of this coming together.

Community education and training are the key activities of ACPC. Its training pedagogy draws on local lifeways and learning systems. Culture and indigenous wisdom are core areas of study opening pathways for people's empowerment and action.

SIKAT or Schools of Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions is a national network of indigenous schools and community educators.

The SIKAT vision began to take shape during a gathering of a core group of trainors and educators in 1997 at the foot of Mt. Banahaw in Tayabas, Quezon. The group studied ways of harnessing the empowering elements of people's culture.

In 1999, an inter-tribal council of elders met in Tabuk, Kalinga and launched the movement for the promotion of indigenous education. The Kalinga declaration, thus envisions:

"Indigenous education founded on the lifeways, traditions, worldview, culture and spirituality of the native community is a basic right of all indigenous people. It is a pathway of education that recognizes wisdom embedded in indigenous knowledge."

The SIKAT network presently comprises more than twenty partner communities and continues to grow