Worship in Women's Hands

Worship in Women’s Hands will screen on Sunday, January 11 at 5:30 at Patanjali’s Place in downtown Durham, NC. Carol Thomson and Lorna Collingridge will introduce the film and be available for discussion. After Worship Rhonda Klevansky will screen her work-in-progress, Welcome to My Paradise, followed by audience feedback with the filmmakers.

A vegetarian potluck will follow around 6:45. Please label food for individuals with food sensitivities; bring utensils and plates to reduce environmental impact of waste disposal and a blanket for picnic-style seating.

Worship in Womens Hands was screened, in excerpts, at the 21st Congress of the Societas Liturgica in Palermo, Sicily on August 7. Over 200 liturgical scholars from around the world and from a great many different churches had gathered in Palermo, Italy, for a Congress on the theme “Liturgy and the Public Square.” Within a paper on gender as a fundamental marker of all cultural formations, i.e. also sacred and public space, Teresa Berger presented “Liturgies in Women’s Hands” as one contemporary way of reconfiguring the gendered constraints for women which have marked sacred space in the past. A spirited discussion followed the presentation.

On February 27, a group of Duke Divinity School students, faculty, and staff gathered for one of the regular Women’s Center meetings to screen and discuss the documentary. A lively discussion with the two co-producers who were present followed.

DVD now available! Order your copy today. The DVD features the 28 minute documentary Worship in Women’s Hands as well as the complete liturgy celebrating the life of Hildegard of Bingen. The Hildegard liturgy also appears as a chapter in Teresa Berger’s most recent book Fragments of Real Presence (2005).