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Natural Awakenings Atlanta

Mary and Martha’s Place Will Close After 30 Years, But the Teachings Will Continue

Sep 01, 2024 06:00AM ● By Noah Chen

Rebecca Parker & Maggie Harney

Mary and Martha’s Place (MMP), an Atlanta spiritual organization focused on Celtic Christian traditions and female perspectives on spirituality, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. A luncheon is planned for September 26, but it will cease operations at the end of the year.

Founded by Maggie Harney in 1994, the organization was inspired by her time at the Candler School of Theology at Emory. 

“I wanted to share these ideas with women who did not want to go to seminary but were interested in these shifting perspectives,” Harney recalls. The organization quickly attracted women from a variety of Christian denominations, in part because, while it has a spiritual focus, it contrasts with traditional church settings. “Mary and Martha’s Place is not a church,” clarifies Harney. “It is a center for education and learning about the theology of many of the world’s religions. It is also a place to learn contemplative practices.”

Going Deep with Celtic Traditions

The ancient Celtic traditions are of particular importance to the center. Harney describes the appeal of these traditions, saying, “The Celtic Christian tradition has appealed to many women because of the strong women who have been part of its history—St. Brigid of Kildare is respected equally with St. Columba and St. Patrick.”

Gatherings at Mary and Martha’s Place frequently feature lessons or discussions based on a set of books selected and taught by Harney and executive director, Rebecca Parker. Parker joked that, from the outside, Mary and Martha’s Place “could be mistaken for a book club,” but she explains that their lessons go deeper into the material and are similar to what could be found in universities or seminaries.

Their Contemporary Spiritual Issues group, for example, is “interested in the many different ways our spirituality is lived out in the world,” says Harney. One of the books they’ve covered, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, inspired eight discussion sessions on Native American spirituality and ecology.

Of particular interest to Harney are the works of John Phillip Newell, who writes about the history of Celtic traditions and the people who have been influenced by them throughout history.

The Celtic traditions sometimes influence the choice of gatherings at Mary and Martha’s Place. “Because of our interest in the Celtic tradition, we have held summer solstice celebrations,” says Harney. “Our winter solstice celebration is a service of poetry, hauntingly beautiful music and long periods of silent meditation.”

Over the years, the organization’s focus expanded to encompass a broader spiritual transformation. But Parker explains that, about 10 years ago, they “became aware and began talking about the three centers of intelligence—the body, the mind and the spirit. And we started doing programming that reflected all three.” That included classes centered around yoga, the Enneagram and a range of other spiritual tools and practices.

Two Branches of the Tree

Another shift in focus occurred when Mary and Martha’s Place was introduced to Cynthia Bourgeault’s teachings on Christian mysticism. Parker had been familiar with Bourgeault’s writings and secured her as a guest speaker in 2012, which led to a closer association between Bourgeault and Mary and Martha’s Place.

Cynthia’s writing was the “body of work that I needed that incorporated praxis, theology and ancient wisdom traditions,” says Parker.

For Parker, Bourgeault’s writings represent the first of the two branches of the tree at Mary and Martha’s Place—Christian mysticism—while the second branch is made up of MMP’s “Celtic roots, feminist theology and liberal tradition,” says Parker.

The organization’s teachings and discussions can also shift further, depending on the issues of the time. For example, Johnson recalls how their focus shifted while Donald Trump was president. “We were recognizing, during the Trump era, that the ‘other’ was being demonized. So we started a speaker series and read books that helped name the way we understood the ‘other,’ which is that there isn’t an ‘other.’ We are all interconnected.”

As Harney and Parker considered the future, they wanted to simplify operations and reduce expenses. On the one hand, both will continue teaching. Says Parker: “[Harney] will continue teaching the group that she’s been teaching,” while Parker will create a spiritual curriculum around Bourgeault’s work. On the other hand, they will do so without the MMP organization, which will close at the end of the year. Between now and then, MMP will still offer several fall class series, including Wisdom Way and Thresholds and Contemporary Spiritual Issues. It will also hold its annual Advent Meditation on December 5 and its Winter Solstice Celebration on December 14. 

Parker remains quite fond of MMP. “I feel very inarticulate about trying to name the life-giving heart that this organization has. There’s just such a life force about the place and the women and their capacity to open and invite other people in,” she says.

“Over these 30 years at MMP, I am most proud of the many ways we have explored our own spiritual lives and the lives of other people who lived long ago or far away,” says Harney. “It has expanded my own spiritual experiences, and I am grateful to all the women and men who joined in the conversations.” ❧

Mary and Martha’s Place is located at 4393 Garmon Rd. NW in Atlanta. For more information, visit MaryAndMarthasPlace.com or call 404-239-9382.
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