Sophia Center gathering growing in number

By Maggie Plummer

HOT SPRINGS - "Living a Life of Balance" was the name of this year's Sophia Center of Montana women's gathering, held the last weekend in February at the Symes Hotel here.

The fourth annual gathering attracted 63 women from various locales including Kalispell, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Canada, Dixon, Bigfork, Billings, and Bozeman.

According to event organizers, that is double the number who attended last year's gathering.

Among the workshop presenters were yoga instructors, martial arts teachers, writers, and life coaches.

Keynote Speaker Phyllis Shankman, the founding Director of the Mountains AIDS Foundation offering spiritual retreats for those living with HIV/AIDS and cancer, challenged participants to create a life balanced between freedom and security.

Kathy Regier, Carolyn Hidy, and Gayle Seratt - all of whom live in the Trout Creek area - founded the Sophia Center of Montana in 2003, after many years of gathering informally at the Symes Hotel.

"We're just three women getting together and trying to bring interesting ideas to other women," Kathy explained in an interview during this year's gathering. "It's about personal growth, self-empowerment."

She calls the center an educational group, named after the Greek goddess of wisdom. The center has no office or land base, and has in the past also sponsored pro-peace activities for International Women's Day.

Kathy says she's always looking for the "feminine face of God." The center's three founders are all married and have children. They just break even, Kathy said, after they pay their expenses for their annual gathering.

Each year, once Sophia Center members figure out what they want to learn about during the next year's gathering, they simply put out the word via e-mail that they're looking for presenters on that topic, and invite potential presenters to send them a proposal.

For this year's event they received almost 40 such proposals.

"The draw here (at the Symes) is the mineral water, the accommodations, and that it's keeping the money in Sanders County," Kathy explained.

Asked about two of this year's presenters, one of whom calls herself a Medicine Helper/Teacher and another of whom describes herself as having practiced "shamanic healing" for 13 years, Kathy said that "it just so happens we have two presenters who found their way partly through studying some Native American spirituality."

The Sophia Center is "not trying to be native, or to offend," she added. "We're all just human beings."

For more information on the center, call (406) 827-3978 or send e-mail to sophiamt@blackfoot.net

The center also has a website at www.sophiacenterofmontana.com