Local authors publish Christian retreat resource

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, October 26, 2002

In the Book of Luke in the Bible, the story is told of Jairus’ dying 12-year-old daughter. When Jesus arrives, the girl is already dead. Jesus goes to her, takes her by the hand, says “Arise,” and her spirit returns.

In “Daughters Arise!” a new book by three South Whidbey women, the story becomes a parable of its own.

“It is not maleness that saves a girl, as fairy tales and patriarchal society would have us believe,” the authors write. “Jairus could not save his daughter even though he was an important man in the community…It is being received as a worthy individual that we are reunited with our sacred worth and … restored to the fullness of our lives.”

Written by Donna Humphreys, Gloria Koll and Sally Windecker, the book is designed as a resource in planning retreats for girls approaching womanhood.

But it is also a work that expands Christian tradition, looking at scripture through the eyes of women and seeing each girl and woman as “a beloved daughter of God.”

“It’s the theme of reconnecting body, mind and spirit,” Humphreys said. “What it means to come awake to who you are.”

The authors, who are all members of a writing group called Circle of Stones, began holding retreats for girls several years ago, after considering their own passages into “becoming,” journeys which had often gone unmarked.

“Even if a wise woman had supported us through these times, our church had been mute, unseeing,” they write.

The women all grew up in mainline Christian tradition, they said, and they benefited from that. But the church has given women and girls mixed messages, they said.

“The welcome Jesus offered women defied the cultural assumptions of his time,” they write. “Women such as Mary of Magdala were his friends.” Then, in the early church, women were relegated to a secondary role.

“Even in the 20th century, women have gained rights and recognition more slowly in the church than in the secular world,” the authors write.

Thus young women’s “rites of passage” are often defined by outside elements, many of which contain negative aspects.

The retreats planned and held by the authors were designed to let girls know there is a different model.

“We wanted our young women to know there is another way,” Windecker said.

The retreats use drama, music, art, movement, ceremony and storytelling over four days to encourage girls ages 11 to 18 and their mothers or mentors to span the gap between adolescence and womanhood through an “expanded” Christianity.

“We invite them into a community of women to connect with the spirit inside them,” Koll said. “It’s intergenerational, but we are all ‘daughters.'”

They also draw on resources such as “Calling the Circle,” a book by Christina Baldwin, also from South Whidbey.

The guidebook coaches planners in collaborative circle principles that are at the core of the retreats. It provides a guide through the planning process and the retreat itself, and also gives practical advice on things such as food menus, invitations, crafts, stories and ceremonies, including the ceremony celebrating the coming into womanhood, which is planned by the girls themselves.

The book has music and words of 36 songs selected by musician Claudia Walker. Artist Suzanne Schlicke created the illustrations. A companion journal for girls participating is included.

The three authors have academic, church and community credentials.

Humphreys has a bachelor’s degree in history and a postgraduate certificate for the training specialist, is a Methodist certified lay speaker and an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. She also serves on the Commission of Status and Role of Women for the Pacific Northwest annual conference of the United Methodist Church.

Koll has a degree in English education, with additional studies in history and teaching English as a Second Language. She has served on the board of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust for 14 years, has been a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church Council and was honored with the South Whidbey Soroptimists’ Women Helping Women award. She was also featured in the South Whidbey Record as a Hometown Hero.

Windecker has a degree in religion and philosophy and has received PeerSpirit Advanced Circle training on Whidbey and in Taos, N.M. She convenes the Circle of Stones women’s writing group and the Daughters Arise retreats on her Whidbey Island farm. She is also a published author of poems and essays.