The Green Tent Circle Origin Story
How it all began!
Friendship: Angela & AnnGreen Tent Circle came about when Angela Weber from Salvador, Brazil, and Ann Smith from Naples, Florida, came together with an email from Angela. They have been friends and colleagues since they were instrumental in holding the highly successful Anglican Encounter, Churches in Solidarity with Women. This first ever and only worldwide gathering by women about women’s issues for the Anglican Communion was held in Salvador, Brazil, in 1992. It was planned and carried out by representatives from Brazil, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, Indigenous, United States and Canada. Women
and men from around the world attended. It also was revolutionary in that it truly represented grassroots women voices and stories, and a circle process with small groups where every voice was heard for reflection and sharing. Bishops, archbishops and many others realized for the first time the seriousness of violence against women when the bishop’s wife from Honduras, Diana Frade, talked about how her first husband beat her so badly that she was unrecognizable. Indigenous woman from Brazil talked about their lives being in danger because of corporations and governments wanting their land. 
Ann & Angela, rejoicing the success of the Anglican Encounter. Held in Salvador, Brazil in 1992.
We could have met in a beautiful 4-star hotel that would have given us free space. Angela said if we did, economically disadvantaged women would not come. We met with the Major or Salvador who generously gave us the city conference center and his blessing. Opening day, the air conditioning didn’t work, and we ran out of water, something privileged people rarely experience except in conditions created by climate crises.
Visits to the slum areas gave people a greater understanding of conditions found around the world where the majority have poor or no housing or sanitation, scraps for food, no medical facilities and no clean water. We had music by Olodum Afro group, who also taught street children, and when they played, we became Brazilian dancers. The Catholic Church arranged for home housing and transportation. People from the Global North gained awareness of the drastic differences from those of privilege and the rest of the world. Angela and Ann stayed connected and met at UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing, and UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. In 2019, Angela was visiting her daughter in Belgium, when the COVID pandemic caused her to shelter in place. During this time, she was able to start thinking about all women and women’s stories she has encountered in her life, and how similar they were, no matter from what background or class they came from. A clear indication of a structural problem called patriarchalism. So how could life be without it? How would women’s life develop in a society where no patriarchal structures were present? One answer came through the books and studies of Marija Gimbutas, an archeologist who dedicated her life to the study of Neolithic and Paleolithic societies. In the groups studied by her, she didn't find weapons, or tell-tale signs of wars. Instead, she found traces of a society where women, alongside men were the stronghold of religious and political villages lives. They were represented as goddesses, and the circle of life was a real circle, that started in the womb (darkness is where life begins) and life as we know it, to finish with the darkness again, where it restarts. The circular format of all living things, putting us all in a very close connection with nature and its own peculiarities.
Marija Gimbutas & one of her books, Civilization of the Goddess
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When the pandemic restrictions were lifted, new life was arriving in Germany, Angela's daughter's baby girl was born. So, she went to Germany where the life circle was reciting itself. And because of the pandemic there were no flights so she could not go back to Brazil. As an Italian citizen, she decided to go to a very special city, full of meanings, Verona.
There she encountered strong groups of women, working towards helping the immigrants that are arriving by thousands. The migration has phenomenal consequence in environment and political world problems. At Casa di Ramia - a commune sustained home for immigrant women - she encountered the Green Tent. The Green Tent Circle is a project born from a group in Spain, which major objective is to offer a place of welcoming, of sheltering for those in need and without judgment. Immediately Angela was able to see that the Green Tent Circle project was the perfect venue to have a safe place were women and men, together, can share their stories and find the basic humanity of each living person as one, regardless of culture, country, class, or any other background. The first Green Tent Circle in Verona was done from donated old clothing, reshaped to form the inner tent sanctuary: the ocean, where all life forms started. It was a week of a successful and incredible endeavor, where all could feel that all where part of just one whole. The first Green Tent Circle was created and held in Verona Italy!
""This feeling of oneness was something that Angela had learned from Ann, during the time they worked together. She contacted her and told her about the Green Tent, their purpose and outcomes, and how important it would be to connect women and their projects all over the world." This feeling of oneness was something that Angela had learned from Ann, during the time they worked together. She contacted her and told her about the Green Tent, their purpose and outcomes, and how important it would be to connect women and their projects all over the world.
Ann then reached out to Pat Fero about creating a Green Tent Circle website. Pat reached out to her friends; Leah Myers, Linda Robinson & Johanna Nader who created a user-friendly website, Facebook Group and Page, logo, artwork and weekly Zoom calls. Angela created the WhatsApp for the best means for us to communicate with our different languages. All voices are listened to in learning how to be in reciprocal relationships of mutual respect. |
All who come into the Green Tent Circle become leaders. Some enter as leaders, all become. Shared leadership and vision of the new paradigm, the New Earth, the matriarchal circle of life where all creation is equal, informs and sustains actions.
Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure. The Earth Charter
Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure. The Earth Charter