A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church Year W
What would it look like if women built a lectionary focusing on women's stories?
What does it look like to tell the good news through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news? How would a lectionary centering women's stories, chosen with womanist and feminist commitments in mind, frame the presentation of the scriptures for proclamation and teaching?
The scriptures are androcentric, male-focused, as is the lectionary that is dependent upon them. As a result, many congregants know only the biblical men's stories told in the Sunday lectionary read in their churches. A more expansive, more inclusive lectionary will remedy that by introducing readers and hearers of scripture to "women's stories" in the scriptures.
A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, when completed, will be a three-year lectionary accompanied by a stand-alone single year lectionary, Year W, that covers all four gospels.
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"Gafney's paradigm-shifting scholarship will influence biblical preaching and teaching for generations to come."
--National Catholic Reporter
"In a predominantly patriarchal world that still diminishes the lives, gifts, contributions, and voices of women, Professor Wil Gafney offers a distinct, bold, women's lectionary for the whole church and academy."
--The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, Dean, Duke University Chapel, and Associate Professor of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School
"As someone who has learned so much from the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, I commend it to every congregation and classroom. It is a prime example of revolutionary scholarship."
--Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt
"Wil Gafney has offered the church a treasure in this Women's Lectionary, and we would do well to make use of it quickly and thoroughly."
--Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, author
"I did not know how much my soul needed A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church until I began reading it, but now I suspect that I will never prepare another sermon or devotional without consulting it. Every pastor, indeed every Christian, needs this among their collection."
--Chanequa Walker-Barnes, PhD, author of I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation
"Gafney's resource will transform how the Bible gets read and preached in our churches, bringing us closer to the totality of God's love."
--Rev. Karoline M. Lewis, PhD, The Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, and Program Director, Festival of Homiletics
"A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church is not only a resource for liturgy and preaching. I believe it is also a tool for contemplation on the mighty works of God on behalf of all people."
--Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Episcopal Bishop of Texas and author of Embodied Liturgy
"For anyone wanting to read and meditate on scripture and be nurtured by the word without being harmed, this text is indispensable."
--Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale Divinity School
"A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church challenges the androcentric landscape of our most common readings, upending customary theological constructs to uncover the presence of the feminine Divine."
--Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, Associate General Minister, Justice Local Church Ministries, The United Church of Christ
"Preaching with Gafney's lectionary aids may provide a new sort of companionable presence to the pulpit and the pews alike: hearing, listening and reflecting on the God/human relationship with sensitivity to issues often overlooked or considered too difficult to discuss."
--Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, The Christian Citizen
