Daughters of Miriam: A RevGals Big Event 2.0

April 16-19, 2009 the RevGals and Guys will meet at The Casa Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Arizona for a Continuing Ed event. Our facilitator will be the wonderful Wil Gafney, Ph. D, an Episcopal Priest and Associate Professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Scripture at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.




In this year's RevGalBlogPal's Continuing Education Event, Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in and Around Ancient Israel, we will spend three days exploring gender in the scriptures, focusing primarily on women in the Hebrew Bible. Each study session will begin with a thirty-minute presentation followed by a thirty-minute small group activity. We will close by regrouping and sharing our learning.

Our journey begins on Day 1 with a study of women prophets in ancient Israel responding to the question, "What makes a person a prophet in the bible?" In this session we will reflect on prophecy in biblical Israel and the traditions of women's prophecy in Jewish and Christian sacred literature. In our small group study, we will read the biblical narratives in which women prophets appear and document their words and deeds.

Continuing on Day 2, we will explore the context for women's prophecy in ancient Israel, answering the question, "What were the neighbors doing?" by examining women's prophecy in the surrounding nations. We will consider women's prophetic activity in relation to other women's professions carried out in professional guilds: musical - especially funeral - and scribal guilds. We will also look briefly at some professional women's guilds in the bible. In our small group study time, we will read a genealogical text looking for women's whose names and stories may not be well known.

Concluding our study on Day 3, we will ask ourselves, "What does it mean to be created in Her image?" We will study together the implications of reading and translating the scriptures as women. In our small group time, we will engage two devotional exercises, "She Verbs" and "Self-Psalm." In the first exercise, we will verbs articulating women's agency in the scriptures from selected passages, creating new versions of old stories. In the second exercise we will read and write ourselves in the Psalms, by name and gender.



The Big Event 2.0 will take place at The Casa (also known as The Franciscan Retreat Center) in Scottsdale, Arizona. We will begin on Thursday evening, April 16, 2009, and conclude on Sunday morning, April 19, 2009. The cost of the retreat will be $385 to share a double room, or $475 for those preferring a single room. A deposit of $100can be made to reserve your room, with the balance due on March 1st, 2009.

Rate includes all meals, a t-shirt and RevGalBlogPals, Inc. membership for 2009— transportation to Phoenix, Arizona, is in addition. Shuttle bus to and from the Phoenix International Airport via “Super Shuttle” will be approximately $16.00 each way. The Rev. Dr. Gafney's book, Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel, will be available for purchase at the retreat. You are encouraged to purchase it and read it ahead of time, through the link on the RevGals sidebar to Amazon.

To request a brochure with more details, or to request a registration form, please send an e-mail to revgalblogpals@gmail.com.

And for those of you who are getting really tired of winter....it is usually really beautiful in Arizona in April, sunny and 80's.

....and as an extra enticement....the Grand Canyon is only a three hour drive north...there is some talk about taking a side trip up there after the BE2.0. Or maybe you want to come in early and and go there with your family....if so, you can get more information here.