It’s December, so of course we’re recommending some posts about Christmas. We hope your Advent is meaningful and your Christmas delightful!
Call Me
December 2023 Poetry Selection
What do you call me when my person-name
is lost between the stars?
Call me Cedar or Gold Birch Woods...
What do you call me when my person-name
is lost between the stars?
Call me Cedar or Gold Birch Woods...
1978 EWC Conference: Women and the Ministries of Christ
The second EWC conference was held on the campus of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California in June of 1978. About 900 women and a handful of men met for a conference titled "Women and the Ministries of Christ."
Kind of Okay with It
November 2023 Poetry Selection
It’s the age
of kind of knowing:
As in, I kind of know
what a partridge is...
It’s the age
of kind of knowing:
As in, I kind of know
what a partridge is...
Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism
"Like the writings of any mystic, much of it will take contemplation to digest. It will also have appeal to those whose own spirituality is not Christian, and might even 'bring back' some who have given up on the Bible as hopelessly patriarchal."
A Christmas Prayer
God of sun and God of snow,
we thank you for the grandeur of creation,
for the variety that surrounds us,
for your limitless creativity.
The War on Christmas: Or, Why Some Christians Really Bother Me...
I am wearied by this manufactured battle to make everyone recognize the reason for the season; by the attempt to make corporations, interested only in their bottom line, profess some kind of fidelity to Christ; by the idea that Christians are a persecuted population in our country; and, most significantly, by the belief that more than any other faiths, Christians should be free to display their religious symbols in government buildings."
The Christmas Story—When Tradition Trumps Text
Lesson 14 - "Ever since the second century, stories embroidering the canonical accounts of Jesus’ birth have become embedded in our celebrations. Every crèche gets so much wrong. Maybe we should worry less about our culture “taking Christ out of Christmas” and more about accurately reading our texts. I’ll warn you ahead of time—there was no stable, no inn, and no innkeeper."
Christmas Eve, Incarnation, and Knowing Mary
As the choir sang, and the ministers spoke, and the candles flickered, for the first time I saw Mary in all of it. A young woman in need of a safe place. A young woman denied entrance. A young woman giving birth to the Human One anyway, in an inauspicious tangle of blood, fear, and pain.
A Post of Christmases Past
While Reta Halteman Finger, the author of our Reta’s Reflections Bible study blog, is taking some time off to be with family and friends, we invite you to revisit two of her earlier Christmas reflections.
Godde Sets the Stage for Each of Us During Christmas
We all stand with Mary today, summoned to an adventure filled with peril and misunderstanding and mystery and unspeakable grief . . . and joy that can turn the whole world upside down!
Prayers, Santa, and a Nativity: Government Support of Worldviews
". . . for Christian feminists this concept of pluralism is an important one. We have to decide if we believe that government should make room for a variety of perspectives or if government should be a tool by which one perspective dominates. "
My First Encounter with Religious Doubt: The Day I Stopped Believing...
"I was trying so hard not to believe, yet I couldn’t let myself believe in my unbelief! Here I was, thinking Santa might not exist, but at the same time I was afraid he was angry with me for doubting his existence. I agonized over what to make of it all."
Mother
Christmas, 2018 Poetry Selection
Young woman, boo-boo healer,
songwriter, wonderful comforter,
mighty good, everlasting Mama,
peasant of peace,
filled with grace and grit
Young woman, boo-boo healer,
songwriter, wonderful comforter,
mighty good, everlasting Mama,
peasant of peace,
filled with grace and grit
Fear, yearning for security, and the radical message of Christmas
December 21, 2015
In honor of Christmas, today’s Link of the Day is a special “two-for.” Both links help us see how the Christmas message...
Untold Volumes Poetry
You Might Have Missed...
A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of...
Bushnell (1855–1946) was a stalwart advocate of women, a missionary, a doctor, a researcher, a writer, and a theologian, and an engaging speaker and an unrelenting advocate against human trafficking around the world. Du Mez skillfully reveals the influences of time and place that molded Bushnell into the socio-religious force she became.
Feminist Bible Studies and Related Material
The Apostle Paul’s “Woman Problem”—1 Cor. 11:2-16 (Lesson 10)
Lesson 10 - "One may wonder about the 'chain of command' in 11:3: God, Christ, man, woman. Is this the same person who opts out of the hierarchical 'patronage pyramids' that structure life in the Roman Empire in chapter 9? (see Lessons 3 and 9). This linkage and the mixed messages of this passage indicate to me that Paul is still a work in progress."
Bathroom Legislation: Unconstitutionality Is Only Part of the Story
In this article, I explain why HB2 is clearly unconstitutional. But I will also stress that constitutionality is always only one small part of understanding why legislators do what they do. A hostile feeling (or animus) toward transgender people becomes an important part of the legal discussion.
True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace
Unfortunately, many Christian churches have made marginalizing others into an entire theology. “The . . . evangelical theological paradigm depends upon patriarchy,” which must, therefore, be “completely deconstructed” (p. 68).
Coming Back from Coming Out
"Coming out ruined my life. At least, that’s the way it seemed. To claim my identity as a lesbian meant sacrificing everything on the altar of my own selfishness, of my need to be “true to myself.” To come out as a 43- year- old woman meant walking away from a tolerable twenty- year marriage, leaving behind a career in church ministry, and learning to negotiate custody arrangements and a new solo life. To come out, for me, meant walking away from God."
A Year of Anti-Racism Work
"We lose our zeal for justice as (our) lives return to normal, and we get busy with jobs, families, and our own (real) problems. But anti-racism work needs to be ongoing if it is to be effective. We must be in this for the long haul, even when the issues don’t dominate our newsfeeds, and for that, we must pace ourselves, educate ourselves, work on ourselves, and take concrete action."
How the Syro-Phoenician Woman Changed Jesus
August 28, 2017
Unvarnished truth from the remarkable mind of Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD, as she unpacks the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew.
"One...
Ain’t I a Womanist Too?: Third World Womanist Religious Thought
This is a movement that embraces life holistically, that seeks justice and freedom for all regardless of gender identity, socioeconomic class, theology, spirituality, and political ideology."
Most Recent Book Reviews
Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the...
Tell Her Story provides a jumping-off point for continued discussion around the acknowledgement and participation of women in the church based on the words of Jesus and his disciples.
From the Archives
When something new is on the way
December 2020 Poetry Selection
I lost hold of all I thought I could keep
Lost all hope for what was to be
The knowing of what I had come to do
I lost hold of all I thought I could keep
Lost all hope for what was to be
The knowing of what I had come to do
