CRENSHAW : Woman’s Church Ordains Minister

The theater was packed, the painted backdrop of moons and stars luminous, the narrator’s voice resonant as she perched downstage spinning a grand tale of how the sun was born.

The cosmic drama mounted last weekend at the Vision Complex theater in Leimert Park was truly universal in scope--Buddhist taiko drummers, children dressed as fairies and “eagle spirit” Navajo dancers were just a few of many characters paying homage to the sun, played by Hasani Perry.

The diminutive, dynamic woman was center stage for a good reason: The drama was actually a rite of passage for Perry, the first minister to be ordained by the Crenshaw-based First Woman’s Church.

“The story partially represents the light of rising feminist energy in the world,” explained Perry, 58, an adult education teacher and consultant for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “In a broader sense, it’s telling all people to get in touch with the light within themselves, whatever their religion. There are so many celebrations this time of year, but it’s the energy of the season, of the winter solstice, that’s important.”

The Dec. 19 ordination, with its blend of gospel music, ancient rituals and elements of New Age mysticism, aptly reflected the free-form beliefs of the church. Created in 1985 by the Rev. Crystal Bujol, the church holds to basic Christian tenets but encourages two elements Bujol says are lacking in Christianity and other major religions: Afrocentrism and the celebration, rather than the denigration, of a female point of view.

“We explore the mother aspect of God,” said Bujol, 56, a woman with beaded, chin-length braids. “We’re not here to man-bash, but to achieve an equilibrium, to remind ourselves as women what we’re here for.”

Bujol says the church, at 3860 Crenshaw Blvd. in the old Crenshaw Square office complex, attracts Buddhists, Catholics, Baptists, Yoruba worshipers and women of other faiths who are in need of a “spiritual vitamin.”

At Sunday morning services, which are restricted to women except at three special services a year, candles of different colors are lighted, representing the four phases of womanhood: red for menses, white for virginity, green for fertility and black for menopause. The congregation, which averages about 30, openly discusses intimate details of their lives, something they cannot do in other settings, Bujol said.

“If men were here, women wouldn’t feel free to express themselves,” she said. “This is a sisterhood. We gather to gain deeper insight into the soul of the divine woman within.”

Though its philosophies are taken from various sources and to a large extent are created by its own members, the First Woman’s Church has its deepest roots in the Los Angeles-based Church of Religious Science, which teaches members to seek God within themselves. Bujol, Perry and other members followed the teachings of Religious Science until they decided something vital was missing.

“My need for something else was so strong, my husband at the time encouraged me to start my own thing,” Bujol recalled. “I was reluctant to at first. But with the help of other women, I did.”

Bujol began the InnerCircle Church of Graduate Christians in 1981, which she said wedded “the science of the mind with African and Egyptian spirituality and principles of the Divine Feminine.” The special services for women that were held before the weekly general service attracted a core of followers who eventually broke off to form the First Woman’s Church. Though Bujol, Perry and 10 other Woman’s Church ministers were ordained through the InnerCircle Church, Perry is the first to be ordained by the First Woman’s Church.

Bujol is going to Oakland to hold an inaugural Woman’s Church service there next month, and hopes to establish chapters worldwide.

“Everybody can get on our boat, and get off when they’re ready,” Perry said. “We want to be able to nurture all women in their crises.”