The conference is the result of various collaborations between the Reial Monestir de Pedralbes and the Office for Religious Affairs (OAR) and responds to the shared goal of exploring the relationship between women and spirituality, fostering dialogue and providing recognition for feminine reality, often rendered invisible within the religious traditions concerned.  It is planned to repeat the meetings every year, always discussing the themes of women and religion/spirituality, but with each annual edition focusing on a specific area. In this first edition, under the subheading of “Texts/Rituals/Transmission”, the conferences will be focusing on how sacred texts, ritual practices and religious and spiritual transmission are understood and experienced from the varied perspectives of women in a variety of traditions. The conference is being held on the afternoons of 7 and 8 October, and it includes various activities.

Txell Bonet, journalist, radio broadcaster and director, experienced in giving women a voice, will be moderating the conference, curated by Montse Castellà i Olivé, translator, publisher of Buddhist texts, the author of numerous articles, and president of Sakyadhita Spain and of the UNESCO Association for Interreligious and Interconvictional Dialogue (AUDIR).

The conferences will be held on site at the Monestir de Pedralbes. The sessions begin on Thursday 7 October in the afternoon, with some ROUND TABLES FOR REFLECTION (4 pm) which aim to promote joint discussion and rethinking about this year’s three central themes: texts, rituals and transmission.These round tables, with attendance by prior invitation, will be led by three experts who will create a participative dynamic. There will also be contributions by women from various religious communities and of various convictions in Barcelona. The moderators of these round tables will be: Neus Forcano, a teacher and a member of the European Society of Women in Theological Research (ESWTR); Chinmayi Ma, president of the Shiva-Shakti-Om Association, who collaborates on various projects concerning the study of spiritual texts; and Sofia Bengoetxea, a Zen Buddhist monk, who is working on a new model of Buddhism and spirituality free from any gender discrimination or inequalities. At the same time, in parallel, the guided visit “Pedralbes, a scene of feminine power” will be taking place. This visit approaches the history of the Monestir de Pedralbes through the figure of six women, who lived in the monastery over a period of nearly six centuries. Powerful women who ran the community, controlled the monastery’s assets and exercised their power and influence beyond the monastery walls. Their mark can still be seen today, in the rich heritage conserved in the Monestir de Pedralbes.

Another outstanding activity during the conference are the WORKSHOPS (6:15 pm), which will also be taking place on Thursday 7 October. The three workshop leaders will be sharing their knowledge and experience, and under their guidance, those attending will be able to get first-hand experience, with specific examples, of interpreting sacred texts, ritual practices and music as a means of transmitting faith, by means of some specific practices. Yaratullah Monturiol, an expert on Islam, a writer and the director of the 1st International Congress on Islamic Feminism (2005), will run the “Reading and Interpreting Texts” workshop. María Prieto i Manzanares, representing Spain on the World Union for Reform Judaism assembly and the Women for Reform Judaism assembly, will be running the “The Art of Rituals” workshop. Abidemi Adebayo-Adenagbe and Dora Okereka, members of the 1st African Gospel Choir, the first and only African Gospel Choir based in Spain. most of whose members are of Nigerian origin, will be running the “Transmission Through Singing and Music” workshop. At the same time, in parallel, the guided visit “Pedralbes, a scene of feminine power” will be taking place.

The climax of the conference will take place on the afternoon of 8 October, with the round table REFLECTIONS AND DIALOGUE “Reading, Doing and Transmitting, as Women” (4 pm), on site and also streamed on the Monastery’s YouTube channel. We will hear the words of Lama Guelongma Tsondru, responsible for the opening of the first Buddhist centre in Spain (1979), invested with the title of Lama in 2001 and the founder, along with other women, of the Sakyadhita Spain Buddhist Women’s Association. Also attending will be Teresa Forcades i Vila, medical doctor, theologian, Benedictine nun, author, among others, of the book Feminist Theology in History(Fragmenta, 2007), head of the monastic school Sinclètica and coordinator of the international Masters programme Knowledge, Art and Interiority. And lastly, there is the voice of Asma Lamrabet, medical doctor, thinker and author who has been committed for many years to study and reflection on reformist thinking and Islam and, more specifically, on the subject of women: She is the Chair of Gender Studies at the Euro-Arab Foundation. These three women, linked to different traditions, will discuss this year’s conference themes based on the contributions made the day before. All three are internationally renowned thinkers in the study of their traditions and also in reflecting on women’s role and value within those traditions.

Lastly, on site, at ,6:30 pm, Tarta Relena and Marta Millà will be closing this first edition of the conference with a CONCERT and a TEXT READING. Tarta Relena, a duet playing folk and progressive Gregorian music, formed by Marta Torrella and Helena Ros, along with Marta Millà, an actress, writor and therapist, will evoke this spiritual transmission through music and words, in the Monestir de Pedralbes cloister, an ideal place for reflection and rethinking from a feminist perspective.

WHY THE CONFERENCE?

Equality between women and men, the struggle against gender inequalities and against violence and discrimination towards women, as well as the defence of their political, economic and social rights, is one of Barcelona City Council’s key goals. Including thefeminist perspective, in a cross-cutting way, is the responsibility of all areas of the City Council and all city residents; and this also includes religious and spiritual traditions.

In this regard, the OAR works towards raising awareness about the plurality of beliefs and spiritualities that are present in Barcelona, something which makes it a thriving, plural city. For its part, the Monestir de Pedralbes is a place where women have historically experienced spirituality as the central core of their existence and, in a natural way, it became a meeting place for women who live their everyday lives in a spiritual way; it has also been developing activities concerning this subject for some time. In 2019, the OAR and the Monestir de Pedralbes joined forces and began various working collaborations concerning the core themes of women and religion/spirituality. This collaboration began with the activity “Women and religion: spirituality as a meeting point”, which consisted of four sessions behind closed doors involving 25 Barcelona women who were faithful to various religious traditions in the city. The closing ceremony was open to the general public. These sessions also led to two editions of the series “Female figures in religious traditions”, in which women of different confessions presented the figures of outstanding, relevant women linked to their faith. The “Fe(r) i dones” conference is the culmination of those two years of collaboration.

The diversity of the women taking part, in the current sessions and in previous projects, is a reflection of today’s Barcelona, a big city with a plurality of religions, confessions and convictions. There are over 980 religious communities and organisations in the city, from 27 different traditions, which include thousands of worshippers, many of whom are women. No two women believers are the same: women from ancestral traditions or more recent beliefs, believers since birth or converts; they speak dozens of languages and organise themselves in very different ways, among other diversities. We are speaking of doctrinal, linguistic, cultural and social differences, as well as ways of experiencing spirituality. This internal and external plurality paints a modern picture of Barcelona: thriving and heterogeneous.

OPERATION, REGISTRATION AND PROGRAMME:

FREE ACTIVITIES with LIMITED ATTENDANCE. PRIOR REGISTRATION is required separately for each activity.

• 7 October: registration for the activities gives you the right to attend the opening and closing sessions of that day (limited attendance).
• 8 October: there is a single registration for all the activities held on this day (limited attendance).

You can see the complete PROGRAMME (times, registrations, etc.) HERE and in the attached file.

You can REGISTER for each activity on the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes website, HERE.

The activities on Thursday 7 October will be on site at the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes (Baixada del Monestir, 9) and the activities on Friday 8 October will also be on site. Meanwhile, you can also follow the opening session, the round table and the official closure on Friday live, on the Monastery’s YouTubechannel.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes (Baixada del Monestir, 9)

Access by public transport:
FGC (urban and metropolitan rail network): L12. (Reina Elisenda)
Metro: Maria Cristina, Palau Reial (L3)
Bus: H4, V5, 63, 68, 75 and 78

Access by car:
Exit 9 on Ronda de Dalt

FURTHER INFORMATION:

You will find all the information about the conference on the OAR and Reial Monestir de Pedralbes websites.
You can follow all the latest news about the conference on the hashtag: #FeRiDones, and on social networks:

Twitter: @MPedralbesBCN
Instagram: mpedralbesbcn
Facebook: @MPedralbesBCN

See you there!