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Women’s Interfaith Spiritual Heritage (WISH)

Watch our new video to learn who we are: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOo05GBUhBz9Db2aeJObtOQ

“Enlarge the space for your tent, stretch out your hangings, lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes, for you will spread out to the right and to the left”

Starting Now! Join us for our Tapestry of Unity Tour!

The Story of the Tapestry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUTjUMatOUc

This tapestry began with a small group of women who are passionate about honoring and developing the diversity that exists in our faith communities. Just as weaving has been an art and craft form that has spanned thousands of years across all cultures, prayer also is woven into the lives of all people of faith and uniquely connects our faith traditions.

After a year of planning and consulting with textile artisans and fabric crafters, members of Women’s Interfaith Spiritual Heritage (WISH) and the Akron Area Interfaith Council (AAIC) created the Interweaving Sacred Prayers Collaborative. We invited all faith communities in the Akron area to participate. Over three gatherings nearly one hundred people from twenty-three different faith groups came together to share a community meal, friendship, and a common act of creation.

The tapestry slowly and thoughtfully came together. Each participant wrote their prayer, wish, dream or hope on a strip of fabric. Not just any fabric – this fabric had meaning and personal connection. These strips are now interwoven into one united work. The beautiful back of the tapestry is African fabric that was discovered during a community member’s Peace Corps mission. Our hope is that this tapestry will be a symbolic reminder of how strong our community can be if we become the warp and weft for each other.

The accompanying journal expresses the thoughts and prayers of the participants and includes copies of the recipes they contributed at the community meal. Examining these writings and recipes will bring you one step closer to the actual experience of interweaving this tapestry.

Want to join us to display the Tapestry?

During the spring of 2024, Women’s Interfaith Spiritual Heritage (WISH) and the Akron Area Interfaith Council (AAIC) joined forces as The Interweaving Sacred Prayers Collaborative to host a series of events where interfaith participants wrote their prayers, wishes, dreams or hopes on strips of personally significant fabric, which were then interwoven into a beautiful Tapestry of Unity. Our journey continues and we are inviting you to be part of its next chapter. We are excited to report that the Tapestry is complete.

We are now beginning the process of exhibiting this unique community-activated art and spiritual symbol. This is an invitation to your faith organization to schedule a time to have it on display in your setting. We see this as an opportunity to continue to grow the interfaith spirit in our community and hope that you can join the many groups that have already contributed to this process. The attached narrative will help explain what the process has been for us and how the community joined us.

Please contact us if you would like to schedule a time to exhibit the Tapestry. You may contact us by email: neowish2020@gmail.com The following details may help in your decision.

The exhibit can remain at your site from a single day up to a period of two weeks.

It will be delivered, set up and picked up by WISH/AAIC members at pre-arranged times.
The exhibit includes the Tapestry that hangs on a 5 by 5-foot stand, and an explanatory poster on a poster-stand.
We ask that you provide a small table as we will also exhibit the Prayer Journal from the experience on a small podium. All together, we estimate that a space of 8 feet by 3 feet would be needed.
For the security of the tapestry, please have the exhibit in a location where it can be monitored.

We will be happy to answer any questions regarding this invitation to exhibit the Tapestry. At a time when our neighbors and friends seem to be drifting apart, efforts to bring people together are so valued. We hope you will contact us soon about when the Tapestry of Unity can be part of your faith experience.

Learn More About US

2001-present

Welcome to our NEW WEBSITE; Stay tuned for updates!

Who We Are

We are women of varied racial, ethnic, cultural and faith backgrounds.

Watch our new video to learn who we are: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOo05GBUhBz9Db2aeJObtOQ

We recognize that we as women have wisdom and power as a community. We endeavor to use these powers as we join together with other like-minded communities and groups, in working to eliminate social injustice and promote peace.

Our History

Women of different faiths came together in the Spring of 2006 in Akron, Ohio to discuss an idea for an interfaith, multi-generational women’s group. After several meetings, Women’s Interfaith Spiritual Heritage (WISH) was established.

With the help of a grant from the Jewish Women’s Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Board of Akron, copies of the book The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant were ordered and made available, at no charge, to the first 25 women and/or girls who registered for the program. On June 11, 2006, WISH hosted the Red Tent Event at Shaw JCC in Akron. The program consisted of a facilitated discussion of the book as well as a discussion concerning future programs. Participants agreed to meet the following year in a second gathering.

On March 24, 2007, WISH hosted its second gathering at Sumner on Ridgewood Rd in Akron. Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, by Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen was discussed. The group decided to expand to four times per year to coincide with the 4 seasons. The next meeting feature The Faith Club, by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Pricilla Warner.

Books and events have validated and empowered our thoughts and feelings. Together we have learned about such concepts as shekinah, mother bear wisdom, holding the scared teraphim (the tent), counsel of indigenous women, androcentrism, the original Mother’s Day proclamation, and the wisdom of Sojourner Truth.

Since these modest beginnings, WISH has sponsored a total of about 30 book discussions of interest to women of all faiths and races. We have also worked to promote interfaith relations and to support new immigrants and refugees in Akron.

Our Process

Our process is one of providing sacred space where all individual can come together in circle to share their stories (stories often unheard and suppressed in an often patriarchal world), build relationships with each other, be nourished, and empowered. We raise consciousness through reading, reflecting, dialogue, and developing programs around issues which strengthen our community.

We come together in a circle to empower all individuals, to amplify their voices and lift up often hidden voices so that all can be heard.

Interested in Membership? Please contact us at neowish2020@gmail.com