Sacred Sounds, Sacred Voices Series

Session One (January 14, 2025):

A round table discussion on female and non-binary voices in liturgy

We had a great discussion with Rabbi Barenblat and Rev. Dr. Ofori! If you missed it, you can view it here: 

Here is a transcript of the Zoom chat from the session:

WSMP Sacred Sounds, Sacred Voices Series: Session 1 Zoom Chat

15:58:56 From Cantor Rosalie Will (she/her) - Consultant and ED SUG to Waiting room participants:

               We’re glad you’re here!  We will be letting folks in shortly!

16:33:06 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               Here is Rachel’s poem: https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2015/08/missing-you.html

16:34:04 From Cantor Rosalie Will (she/her) - Consultant and ED SUG to Everyone:

               If folks have ideas or thoughts please feel free to add in the chat!

16:36:55 From Lyn Loewi to Everyone:

               Is Shekhinah assumed to be a woman? Is there a name for the other god of immensity- far away?

16:40:44 From Rev. Victoria Sirota to Everyone:

               I love speaking about women’s periods in such a holy way. Does anyone write about how women bleed but don’t die every month? Vicki Sirota+

16:41:26 From Louise Mundinger to Everyone:

               Rabbi Rachel: Can you speak further about the divine yearning you mentioned earlier? How does that show up in liturgy?

16:41:31 From Joanne Fink to Everyone:

               Lyn— I believe the word Rabbi Rachel used was Transcendent.

16:44:00 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               “The Sabbath Bee”: https://www.benyehudapress.com/books/the-sabbath-bee/?srsltid=AfmBOop8V2HfXD8gC1Y7AF5-pz8Ktb1KMVG9awbzcWdd0Ai0PjIpvg8X

16:44:50 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               Another comment: “Just a thought, women are the place where the spirit becomes physical--and we cannot help but bring that to liturgy and ritual…”

16:45:24 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               https://ritualwell.org/

16:46:23 From Lyn Loewi to Everyone:

               In the 1920 prayerbook, a woman who had a child was still unclean. couldn't enter the sanctuary

16:47:14 From Rabbi Rachel Barenblat to Everyone:

               Rabbi Rachel Adler has written beautifully about “clean” and “unclean” (tahor and tamei) — she writes about these as being charged-up with energy (in contact with blood or death) vs. having that spiritual charge released.

16:47:19 From Joanne Fink to Everyone:

               I think you are talking about At the Well, Rev. Terri. https://www.atthewellproject.com/events

16:51:03 From Rabbi Rachel Barenblat to Everyone:

               On Mary - http://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/annunciation.html - a beautiful volume of poetry responding to Mary (full disclosure, I was solicited to write a poem for the volume, though most are written by Christians)

16:52:32 From Lyn Loewi to Everyone:

               Amen to that.  How many times have I sat through worship services feeling like I am uninvited?  Keep the doors open wide.

16:55:50 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               “Lydia’s Giving” by Cynthia Folio (recording): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPlsbNcjOuA

16:59:28 From Janet Castellini to Everyone:

               Thanks so much for thinking together about spirit and women and ritual and sacred community.

17:04:46 From Tonya Taylor-Dorsey to Everyone:

               WONDERFUL!!!

17:05:17 From Joanne Fink to Everyone:

               Reacted to "Thanks so much for t..." with ❤️

17:06:01 From Terri Soaries to Everyone:

               Great conversation and panel.  Thank you!

17:06:39 From Rosa Abrahams to Everyone:

               https://www.womenssacredmusicproject.org/resources/sacred-sounds-sacred-voices-series

Our Panelists:

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat was named in 2016 by the Forward as one of America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis. Since 2011 Rachel has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires. She is a founding builder at Bayit: Building Jewish, a pluralist spiritual innovation incubator, where she leads the Publishing and Liturgical Arts Working Group build teams. From 2015 to 2017 she served as co-chair, with Rabbi David Markus, of ALEPH, and in 2017 she served as interim Jewish chaplain to Williams College.

Rachel has blogged as The Velveteen Rabbi since 2003, and in 2008, TIME named her blog one of the top 25 sites on the internet. She is author of six book-length collections of poetry: 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011), Waiting to Unfold (Phoenicia, 2013), Toward Sinai: Omer poems (Velveteen Rabbi, 2016), Open My Lips (Ben Yehuda Press, 2016), Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda, 2018), and Crossing the Sea (Phoenicia, 2020.) Her work has appeared in Lilith, The Texas Observer, The Jewish Daily Forward, and a wide range of anthologies. Her downloadable Velveteen Rabbi’s Haggadah for Pesach has been used around the world. 

She has taught courses arising from the intersection of the literary and spiritual life at the Academy for Jewish Religion (NY), the (Methodist) Academy for Spiritual Formation, the National Havurah Institute, (where she was digital Liturgist In Residence in 2020), the ALEPH Kallah, many congregations around New York and New England, and Beyond Walls, a writing program for clergy of many faiths at the Kenyon Institute.

The Reverend Dr. Terri Ofori serves as the Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Chapel at the Brooks School. Prior to this role, she was a chaplain and professor at Ursinus College. An ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Reverend Dr. Ofori began her ministry in higher education under the mentorship of the late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes. During her time at Harvard Divinity School, she was appointed Harvard University Seminarian and later served as Director of the Harvard University Memorial Church School.

Reverend Dr. Ofori has dedicated her career to both academia and pastoral ministry. Her experience includes serving as a chaplain and lecturer at Harvard University, Brown University, Wellesley College, Emerson College, Simmons University, and Bloomfield College. Her pastoral appointments include Interim Pastor of the United Church of Spring Valley (UCC and RCA) in New York, Stated Supply Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey, and Interim Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Levittown, New York. She has also served as Interim Minister of Christian Education at Hingham Congregational Church (UCC) and as Minister for Christian Education and Spiritual Formation at Flemington Presbyterian Church.

Reverend Dr. Ofori holds a Th.M. in Education and Spiritual Formation from Princeton Theological Seminary, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School (where she was an FTE Fellow in Religion and Secondary Education), an M.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies from Columbia International University, and a B.A. in History from Mississippi University for Women. Additionally, she earned a certificate in Executive Leadership from McCormick Theological Seminary and a certificate in Strategic Leadership Development from the U.S. Army War College. She completed her Clinical Pastoral Education at Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Reverend Dr. Ofori received a doctorate in Religious Education and Spiritual Formation from Fordham University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Educational Leadership at Virginia Theological Seminary.

Her professional affiliations reflect her dedication to education and ministry. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. A committed advocate for gender equity, she is a member of NGO (CSW), has served as a delegate to the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women, and is a board member of the National Women’s History Alliance and the advisory board of reserving Pauli Murray, LLC where she also serves as the Director of the Pauli Murray Freedom School for Girl’s Women’s Empowerment.