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 5
Eastertide is a season of miracles. The resurrection of Jesus is followed by stories of miraculous healing at the hands of Peter and Paul and their shadows and handkerchiefs. Easter doesn’t look like that anymore. What are we to do with these stories? They are stories of power. They tell a story of possibility. They tell us that the power resident in Jesus extends through him to his disciples. It is the work of the disciples to use the gift God has given them to bring healing to the church and the world. Jesus did not give us the miraculous tool kit we see in Acts. The healing we bring will look different. But we are no less sent to do the work of healing, restoration and reconciliation to the God of the joyful psalm on our way to the final resurrection of the epistle.
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.