Welcome to Wading in the Waters of the Word™ with A Women’s Lectionary
Gentle Readers, Followers, Preachers, Pray-ers, Thinkers and Visitors, Welcome!
Welcome to this space where you can share your worship – liturgy and preaching – preparations – using A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church. We begin in Advent 2021 with Year W, a single, standalone Lectionary volume that includes readings from all four Gospels. (We will continue with Year A in Advent 2022 to align with the broader Church.) In advance of each week, I will start the conversation and set the space for you all. I will come through time to time, but this is your space. Welcome!
Media Resources
A Women’s Lectionary For The Whole Church
Session 1, October 16, 2021
Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD at Myers Park Baptist Church
Plenary 1 | Translating Women Back Into Scripture for A #WomensLectionary
This session introduces participants to frequently unexamined aspects of biblical translation in commonly available bibles and the intentional choices made in “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church.”
A Women’s Lectionary For The Whole Church
Session 2, October 16, 2021
Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD at Myers Park Baptist Church
Plenary 2 | Reading Women in Scripture for Preaching, Study, and Devotion
This session provides an overview of “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church,” its genesis, production, and content. There is also an in-depth exploration of specific passages appointed for specific days including time for public and private reading and discussion.
Lectionary Lectio
Click the Comment links to add to the conversation
Easter 4
Where are the women? The long-standing practice of the Church is to read through Acts during Eastertide to follow the development of the people of the Way into what will become of the Church. Given that the Gospel of Luke and Acts are presented as having been written by the same hand, it is striking how many women and girls there are in Luke and how few in Acts. Might we need a miracle greater than resurrection for equity in the Church? We also take note that the world in which these texts were penned and preserved was one in which the tensions between the Jewish followers of Jesus and the rest of the Jewish community were tense and sharpening, resulting in “us/them” language to differentiate the communities. Even with those lines of separation, Jesus and the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary and his disciples did not stop being Jewish. Nevertheless, Peter’s rhetoric to his Jewish kin, “you killed him,” in Acts is read in this world where it has been used to justify horrific violence against Jewish people. We have not inherited a perfect Church. We have not inherited a completed Church. The Church is moving towards its completion. While we wait for Jesus, the work of perfecting the Church falls to us with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Easter 3
It seems like the resurrection generated more questions than it answers. Now what? The old questions are still on the table, will Jesus use his power to restore Israel to a self-governing monarchy? The good news exists in the crucible of Roman occupation. The resurrection has not dispensed with the Romans and their brutality and there are still crosses on the hills of Jerusalem. There are murmurs of an ascension, that Jesus will ascend to heaven like Elijah. Will the chariot of fire return? Will Jesus return with legions oh celestial warriors to set everything aright? How soon? Even with all the uncertainty, there is joy. Christ has triumphed over the grave and so many women and men and children have seen and touched him — even though their stories haven’t been told. They are forming themselves into a community, one that for a while will look like Jesus but all too soon succumb to the temptations of power, hierarchy and patriarchy. It will be a very long time before they begin to see that enslavement is inconsistent with the gospel even though Jesus did not condemn it. They are imperfect people forming an imperfect church.