Sacred Gathering kicks off

Speakers talk about importance of reestablishing religion's role in protecting choice

The first day of Sacred Gathering featured speakers from a diverse collection of denominations and faiths. From those presentations, a message emerged that called for the abortion rights movement to firmly embrace faith-based organizations that could protect a woman’s right to choose.

Sacred Gathering is a Zoom-based conference that features experts and guests from all over the country and several parts of the world who wanted to discuss organized religion’s relationship to the pro-choice movement. Tuesday was the first session, and it will conclude on Wednesday.

Among the more interesting points made was that of Toni Bond, one of the founders of the Reproductive Justice philosophy, when she said that the larger abortion rights movement needs to financially support organizations like the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and others like Sister Song. Many of those groups are cash-strapped and limited in the ability to attract supporters to the cause. Bond said that should be one of the key takeaways from the day’s session.

Rabbi Josh Fixler and Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg spoke in separate parts about the need for Jewish people to rebuild the movement within their own faith. Historically, Jews have played a central role in establishing and maintaining that right, but Fixler pointed out that some in the community had taken abortion access for granted.

Another panel featured Gillian Frank, a podcaster who discusses the intersection between sexuality and religion, who also has a book coming out about the clergy consultation service. He spoke about the little-known Catholic support the organization received. Frank had a tough time getting through the “wall of silence” enrapturing the Catholic clergy when it comes to discussing their support for abortion rights. He said it was important to not view Catholicism as a monolithic group.

Will have another update on the conference tomorrow.