PEACE! JUSTICE! SPIRIT!
RCG GODDESS GATE to Guatemala
Sat., April 20-Thurs., May 2, 2002

ARE YOU CALLED BY THE ANCIENT MOTHERS OF THE AMERICAS?

Join a small group of women on a 12 day spiritual journey to Guatemala, including excursions to the Mayan sacred complexes of Tikal, in Guatemala and Copan, in Honduras.

The Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess, working once again with GATE (Global Awareness Through Experience), brings you this unique program, designed especially for women of the Goddess community. GATE has a rich tradition of bridging cultures via alternate tourism. Now made up of several Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who have resided in Mexico City for many years, they have a 20 year history of offering emersion programs rich in cultural, political and spiritual experience via people-to-people contact in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Eastern Europe. Over the past few years they have begun offering Goddess GATE programs which have emphasis on indigenous woman-centered spirituality and offer the opportunity for expanded dialogue with local women. RCG has an 18 year history of working to empower women via Dianic wicca and feminism. The nuns and the witches have come together! Our program will be led by Cecilia Corcoran, PhD, FSPA and Linda Mershon, FSPA.

Learn about Mayan Spirituality and the Historical and Political Reality of Guatemala
Explore Human Rights issues and an active resistance that stretches across centuries

Elements of the program may include:

• walking tour of the historic center of Guatemala City
• exploration of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
• visiting with women who are founders and members of internationally-renowned non-governmental organizations
• learning about the reality of street children
• dialoguing with ecumenical health care workers in marginated areas of Guatemala City
• spending 2 days in the Lake Atitlan area with the Ladino community, the coffee plantation workers, life-giving community based projects
• reflecting on the history of oppression in the Quiche and an afternoon with the pastoral leadership
• enjoying a few days in colonial Antigua where the architectural glories of the past provide the setting for the struggles of today
• sitting with a weaver as she designs fabric of brilliant color and listen to her dreams for the future
• browsing or shopping the world renouned market at Chichicastenango
• dialoguing with and being inspired by Julia Esquivel, poet, theologian and human rights activist
• visiting the Mayan sacred sites of Tikal, Guatemala and Copan, Honduras

Knowledge of Spanish is not necesssary. GATE staff serve as translators and facilitators of this experience.