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TUBE video clip (5 minutes) was made Sunday November 4th at Ebenezer/herchurch
San
Francisco. Some Sundays we are younger, sometimes
more ethnically diverse...and always spirit-filled.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3DFxu2iZFk
Thanks to Nicole -- a member of our faith community and student of photography and the arts.
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We are a diverse
community, standing firmly within the Christian tradition in order to re-image the divine by claiming her feminine
persona in thealogy, liturgy, church structure, art, language, practices, leadership, and
acts of justice. Challenging the church’s restricted language of the past,
we pay special attention to images and metaphors that attempt to embrace divine fullness and that offer a witness of holy
nurture and inclusive justice, both to the church and to the world.
| All rights reserved for VIDEO (c) 2006 |
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Click here to view our video.
A new form of church is happening at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 678
Portola Drive in San Francisco. Gather at 10:30 AM Sundays for a lively,
engaging, thoroughly inclusive and feminist service of worship. Led by Pastor Stacy Boorn, the liturgy features images and metaphors that will enlarge understanding of and
connection with the sacred. Music and readings further reflect this commitment
to reclaiming the feminine persona of the divine. Come as you are – you’ll
find hope, healing, and community. All are welcome at this table! Worship
Sunday mornings at 10:30
Our Christian/Lutheran feminist prayers and liturgy
reach back into the storehouse of tradition to bring forth names as Mother, Shaddai, Sophia, Womb, Midwife, Shekinah, She
Who Is. They do so out of renewed insights into the nature of the Gospel empowered by the risen Christ-Sophia.
Let your relationship with the Divine be opened and expanded.
Our Mother who is within
us
we celebrate your many names.
Your wisdom come.
Your will be done,
unfolding from the depths within us.
Each day you give us all that we need.
You remind us of our limits
and we let go.
You support us in our power
and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us
the empowerment around us
and the celebration among us
now and for ever. Amen
Text by Miriam Therese Winter
Medical Mission Sister, Professor
of Liturgy, Worship and Spirituality.
Author of WomanWord and other
books and resources for Ritual.
Christianity, for the most part, continues
to slight or silence the voices and power of women, the divine feminine and efforts to empower women and support the equality
of all peoples.
Join
with this emerging feminist faith community to be a prophetic voice for change in the church and patriarchal systems. We encourage you to send a contribution as you are able. You are invited to become a part of our global or local membership.
(Both are vital gifts!)
JOIN US IN PRAYER and MEDITATION
God/dess of struggle and blessing, we thank you that you are so willing to meet us in
love here and now, as you meet our mothers and fathers, partners and lovers, siblings and children, friends and strangers
on their faith journeys, as you entered our human life in Jesus Christ-Sophia. Help us open our hearts to you in our
time of remembrance and celebration that we may grow in light and love toward you and all people through the gentle wind of
your Spirit.
(From the Sunday Morning Liturgy of Welcome: Sunday 10:30 AM at Ebenezer Lutheran
Church, 678 Portola Drive, SF 94127 - near Woodside).
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“Many feminist theologians and
thealogians insist that the masculine images of God will not be transformed unless we can (also) imagine God as “she.” Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow argues that we must learn to speak the name
of the Goddess: “The deep resistance called forth by her naming indicates
that the needs she answered are still with us. It is precisely because she is
not distant that the goddess needs to be recognized as a part of God.” Unless
and until the God we have known can (also) be called “Goddess,” the specter of the male God will still be with
us...
...Images of the Goddess help to break
the hold of “male control” that has shaped our images not only of God, but of all significant power in the universe. This insight of the Goddess, both verbal and visual, before it settles fully into
the body and mind.”
from:
Rebirth of the Goddess, by Carol Christ
Hark! Wisdom's urgent cry
Rings out for all to hear;
Though scoffed and scorned She still draws nigh
With message strong and clear.
Awake and heed Her voice,
Destructive ways cease;
Unite with Wisdom, make a choice
To go on paths of peace.
Hymn by Jann Aldredge-Clanton
words (c) 1997
Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians
A Julian of
Norwich for our day:
Edwina
Gately
I do not need to seek God.
God is already here
waiting to be found,
soaked in my reality.
My journey
is to be one
of recognizing God, always.
already present,
and surfacing that presence
in my daily life.
--From A Mystical Heart
recommended:
Rediscovering and Claiming the Feminine Soul
by Edwina Gateley
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Enjoy
"Inclusive Hymns
for Liberating
Christians"
Sundays at 10:30
AM
Sunday May 5, 10:30 AM
Visiting the "thin places" - Sunday
Worship and Spiritual Nurture Schedule
click one of the following
November 7-9, 2008
Keynote: Carol Christ, Ph. D
ROSARY
Hebrew Bible
Introducing
Megan Rohrer's Ordination
Order Goddess Rosary
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Different recommended books and resources are listed
on each page of the website - enjoy browsing!
There are many resources listed
in these pages. Consider first that there are biblical images of God as female. Since this was so counter to the consciousness of the patriarchal system under which
the scriptures were written, they constitute a very strong argument for the inspired nature of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.
We began with scripture
which identifies God/dess in many feminine terms: As a woman giving birth, a Nursing Mother, one with maternal activities
and even breasts, a midwife, the shekinah, the female homemaker, bakerwoman, Ezer, Sophia (the feminine personification of
wisdom).
Re-imaging God is very Lutheran
– Luther re-imaged God from the traditional angry God (Jesus) with a sword in one hand and a lily in the other
while seated above people being sent to hell. Via scripture and reason and trust,
Luther re-imaged a loving God of grace and forgiveness.
We suggest you read "Becoming
a Feminist Thologian of the Cross" by Deanna A. Thompson in Cross Examinations. Readings on the Meaning of the Cross
Today (Augsburg Fortress).
“The metaphor “Father,” used for God, occurs in every book of the New Testament except its shortest
work, 3 John. It is used for God over one hundred times in the Gospel of John
alone. It is, of course, a male metaphor, and leads those who read it to repeatedly
think of God as a male being... By repetition. However, all metaphors tend to lose their metaphorical meaning, and begin to
be understood as propositions, as literal statements. This has happened in the
church with the New Testament metaphor, “Father.” By speaking to
God, and referring to God again and again, as “Father,” one may begin to think of God, literally, as a “Father,”
hence also as a male being...”
General Introduction to The
New Testament and Psalms – An Inclusive Version, The Editors, including
Lutheran Theologian Dr. Victor Roland Gold. Oxford University
Press, © 1995
| Zoe and Leena |
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| photo by Angelina Cantada |
We
Praise Our God of Many Names
Tune: Tallis’ Canon
Text: Jann Aldredge-Clanton (Adapted)
We
praise our God of many names;
Our Great Creatress we proclaim;
Our
Mother, Goddess, Friend and Guide
Walks
with us always by our side.
The
Living Water in us flows,
The
Bread of Life helps us to grow;
The
Christ-Sophia will abide
Where
minds and hearts are open wide.
Our
Sister Brother Spirit calls
With
words of peace to break the walls;
The
Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove Will fill us with abundant Love.
Faith and Feminism, Womanist/Mujerista
Conference
November 7-9
Celebrate 30 years since....
Carol Christ’s article "Why Women Need the Goddess" was
presented as the keynote address to an audience of over 500 at the "Great Goddess Re-emerging" conference at the University
of Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978. It was first published in Heresies: The Great Goddess Issue (1978), 8-13, and reprinted in Carol P. Christ
and Judith Plaskow, eds., Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader on Religion
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979), 273-287, as well as in Carol P. Christ, Laughter
of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987) 117-132.
TEXT
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