The Rev. Wilda Gafney, Episcopal priest and Hebrew scholar at Brite Divinity School, has created a new Sunday lectionary, a Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, from Church Publishing.
[Gafney’s] larger concern was that churchgoers were hearing only part of the Bible, framed in particular — and oftentimes patriarchal — ways. The complex stories of women and the questions they raise are underrepresented in the readings selected for each week in existing lectionaries and rarely preached upon, according to the author.
“This is a course in biblical literacy,” she said.
In Gafney’s lectionary, passages about biblical king David’s misconduct are paired with New Testament readings such as Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew, “As much as you all did for one of the least of these my kindred, you all did it to me.”
The stories of women in Scripture appear alongside Psalms — each using feminine pronouns for God — that express sentiments the women in those readings might have felt.
“The reality is there are so many women characters and girl characters that people simply do not know that we could have formative conversations around women and their interactions with God and each other,” she said.
More: Also published this year, Ashley Wilcox, a Quaker minister, The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible Throughout the Year.