Vol. XVII, No. 30
Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019 http://colleagueslist.blogspot/.ca http://colleagueslistii.blogspot.com
Current archives listed on this page
GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
This email is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally at - waholst@telus.net
*****
Dear Friends:
This week I am pleased to introduce "New Testament Women for Progressive Christians (vol. 1)" by Robert Schmidt. This is but the latest of many Schmidt's books that I have been happy to promote.
I hope you will find other material of interest in this issue of Colleagues List as well.
Please note - If a link below seems to be dead, cut and paste it into the address bar at the top of your web page and it should work.
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
NEW TESTAMENT WOMEN
FOR PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS
(Vol. 1) by Donald Schmidt
(a six session study guide)
Wood Lake Publishing, Kelowna. BC.
May, 2022. Paper $14.95 CAD.
ISBN #978-1-177343-524-4
Publisher's Promo:
Although women often play a crucial role in the most significant events in the Bible, they are typically cast as secondary characters who are less important than the male lead. Or they are are presented as bit players who aren’t even named. Yet these are strong women and we do an injustice to the biblical narrative and a disservice to ourselves if we gloss over them.
This guide takes an intriguing look at some of the women in the New Testament (a second volume is planned), including Mary the mother of Jesus, Anna and Elizabeth, Mary and Martha, Thecla and Junia, the female disciples (including Mary Magdalene), and women who are healed or set free from their burdens – women who helped shape and were shaped by Jesus and the early Christian community.
Outside of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey, an intriguing discovery was made in 1906. It was of a cave, and inside was found a painting of a man and a woman. There were two especially significant things about the painting. The first was the identity of the pair; they were Paul and Thecla, a woman of the ancient church and probable travelling companion of St. Paul, at least for part of his ministry. The other significant fact was that Thecla’s eyes had been scratched out, and her hand – raised in the traditional stance to suggest one speaking with authority – had been smudged out.
It is a telling image on a number of fronts, not least of which is the desire of some early vandal to attempt to remove the woman’s ability to see or speak. There has always been in Christianity a concerted effort on the part of men to silence women, to obliterate them, to remove their ability to speak or to act with any kind of authority. Yet when we look at the New Testament we can also clearly see the presence of women with Jesus, that they were integral to his everyday life and ministry. If we look a little harder, we will see that women played significant roles at the centre of the early Christian community, including as preachers and teachers.
Donald Schmidt -
Author's Bio:
Whenever he can choose what to do, Donald Schmidt likes to spin wool, knit, and weave. In his spare time, he also works in ministry in a variety of settings. He has served parishes in Quebec, New York, Vermont, Washington, and Hawai‘i. He has also worked as an Associate Conference Minister with the United Church of Christ, and is a retired United Methodist minister. Perhaps his favorite ministry has been as an editor and writer of church resources, for worship, education, and church revitalization. He has published 3 books, and has had a few pieces of music appear in various collections around the world. He also loves to travel, finding that visiting anywhere new and different can open us up to learn new things about others and, in the process, ourselves. More recently Donald has served with the United Church of Canada, and was Minister for Worship and Leadership Development at First United Church in Kelowna, British Columbia. He lives in the Okanagan Valley of BC. He is a grandfather of 8, and father of 3.
--
Author's Words:
There is no such thing as unbiased history. Different people notice different things and the things they notice fit with their understanding of the world.
Sometimes people add things that are clearly meant to lead us one way or another. We may not even notice.
Those who write might not think they are giving a biased story; they are simply reporting what they felt was important. And they want to make sure we understand it the same way.
All this is true about the stories of the New Testament, and in the Bible as a whole. All the writers of these books had their own biases.
The fact that there has always been bias against women since the church's early days is not news. It shows up in both obvious and subtle ways. There are many ways the scriptures clearly demonstrate the denigration of women.
As serious students of the Bible we can take this as a challenge. We need to flesh out the stories of women because we are often given so few details. In other words, we add things to stories all the time and doing this to biblical stories should not upset us.
We have to look beyond the text to see what the biblical writers actually meant. When we do this we are not "changing the Bible" but are being more honest with it.
I am a man. I am a man writing a book about women and obviously I am going to approach this differently than a woman might. But my goal has been to present the stories of women in the New Testament as accurately as possible and invite your to notice, to explore and to celebrate the role of women there. I have tried to lift up stories of women whose lives have helped to shape and form my own life and my own faith journey.
I have had to make choices about what characters to include in this guide and plan to add a second study to involve more women.
In conclusion, I delight always in exploring the Bible - despite its quirks and variances - and in finding there powerful stories that guide me each day.
- edited by Wayne from the Introduction
--
My Thoughts:
I value study groups - of the Bible and otherwise - that involve both male and female members. I also like to co-teach with women as well as men. It is often amazing what a single story, phrase or word, conveys to a woman as a man. In earlier years my studies constituted persons of one gender, but fortunately, that is no longer the case.
As we study together, we realize just how limited our approach to scripture has been when we have maintained (often unknowingly) the male bias of the material we are reading.
I value the work that Robert Schmidt is doing with various bible studies as he reveals (in new ways) novel approaches to understanding the holy scriptures.
As we grow more mature and experienced in life, it is amazing what new insights come to us as we engage the same material we have studied in times past.
As always, I am happy to introduce and promote the latest in Wood Lake Publications studies.
_____
Buy the book from Amazon.ca
Buy the book from Wood Lake:
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Herb and Paula O'Driscoll
Victoria, BC
Anglican Church of Canada
"Online Launch of the O'Driscoll Forum"
--
Philip Yancey,
Colorado
Philipyancey.com
May 26th, 2022
"Why Go Back?"
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON
Sermons and Blog,
May 21st, 2022
"Scrambling to Catch Up"
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log,
May 19th, 2022
"The Wasp Who Lives With Me"
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
May 23rd, 2022
"Naming the Present Moment - Some Metaphors"
*****
NET NOTES
POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT CANADA IN JULY
He Will Visit Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit
Religion News Service,
May 13th, 2022
--
ROSEMARY RADFORD RUETHER DIES AT 85
Groundbreaking Catholic Feminist Theologian
National Catholic Reporter,
May 24th, 2022
--
LET GRATITUDE SHAPE YOUR TOMORROW
Take Risks Daily in New Ways of Living
Broadview, May 4th, 2022
--
HOW I LEARNED TO LIVE WITH GHOSTS
Insights from Korean Ancestor Worship
Religion News Service,
May 26th, 2022
--
THE FALSE DIVIDE OF SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS
A Divide that Should Really Not Exist
by Sr. Helena Burns
Catholic Register, Toronto
May 20th, 2022
--
WILL THE WCC EXPELL PATRIARCH KIRILL?
The Orthodox are Very Important to Us
Religion News Service
May 3rd, 2022
--
SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADERS MISTREATED
ABUSE SURVIVORS FOR DECADES
Major Report Now Made Public
Religion News Service
May 22nd, 2022
--
WILLOW CREEK CHURCH CONTINUES TO DECLINE
Post Hybels and Covid-19 Struggles
Religion News Service,
May 19th, 2022
--
WORLD NEEDS GOLDEN RULE'S POSITIVE RAYS
Poster Has Challenged and Inspired Many
Catholic Register, Toronto
May 12th, 2022
--
ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND ANCIENT UNDERGROUND CITY
Located in Turkey - Where Christians Hid from Romans
Christian Week
May 19th, 2022
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
Faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope.
- Margaret Atwood
--
I was born with the same gift from God we are all born with—the impulse to reach out and lessen the suffering of another human being.
- Anthony Ray Hinton
--
Humility is poverty of spirit and meekness. Humility inspires an attitude of listening and of seeking out those who can give good counsel. Humility welcomes correction. A humble person is not proud or arrogant. Humility is not a denial of my value as a human being but rather seeing myself in relationship to God. Humility results from being in a state of gratitude rather than envy, resentment, or bitterness.
- Jim Forest
We have to cross the infinite thickness of time and space – and God has to do it first, because he comes to us first. Of the links between God and man, love is the greatest. It is as great as the distance to be crossed. So that the love may be as great as possible, the distance is as great as possible. That is why evil can extend to the extreme limit beyond which the very possibility of good disappears. Evil is permitted to touch this limit. It sometimes seems as though it overpassed it.
- Simone Weil
--
It is possible even in the contradictions and confusions of this life to keep the center of your being calm and undisturbed. It is possible even in this life to go through one hellish situation after another with strength and confidence of spirit. It is possible to endure physical pain and suffering while the mind and heart are filled with peace and joy. That’s what I mean by being in paradise even while you are still part of this earthly scene of chance and change.
No comments:
Post a Comment