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Traditional liturgy ignores women, Marge Piercy says

Women and Spirituality Conference

Traditional litur­gy ignores and diminish­es women, author Marge Piercy told hundreds attending the Women and Spirituality Conference.

2007-10-15
By Tim Krohn, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 10/14/2007]

Traditional litur­gy not only ignores and diminish­es women, says Marge Piercy, it’s also pretty boring.

“Much of it can be as moving as the instructions for installing your VCR.” Piercy, the keynote speaker at the Women and Spirituality Conference at Minnesota State University Saturday, encouraged the hundreds of women in atten­dance to write and seek out litur­gy that includes women’s experi­ences and modern life.

“Most of us have never met a shepherd, and many have never even met a sheep,” said Piercy, referring to the oft-used imagery of religious writings.

Piercy, the author of dozens of novels and books of poetry, said she is careful in writing spiritual material not to use words that imply male power, and she seeks to embrace the holiness of nature and human life.

“You say a morning prayer to show that the holy is something in daily life, not just for a syna­gogue or church.”

Modern interpretations and new viewpoints intro­duced into religion, she said, are a natural evolution of reli­gions.

“All major religions are liv­ing traditions, not dead ones. They change with each gener­ation.”

Piercy said fundamentalism “is an enemy of women,” in which religious interpreta­tions usually portray women only as docile mothers, beauti­ful adornments, or as being tortured or killed.

A decline in feminist activism in recent years, Piercy said, has coincided with a decline in women creat­ing feminist Utopian novels.

Female Utopias, she said, tend to focus on the need for relationships, sharing in the care of children, and social interactions and support that eliminate isolation, mistrust and loneliness.

“Societies women dream up tend to be extended coffee klatches.”

But, she argued, women need to be political and social activists “in order to imagine the world they want to live in” and create such Utopian writ­ings. Piercy, 71, is the author of 17 novels, including The New York Times Bestseller Gone To Soldiers, 17 volumes of poetry, and a memoir, Sleeping with Cats. She lives in Cape Cod.

She was born in Center City Detroit and educated at the University of Michigan.

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