Stories

The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Claire Clyburn, pastor at First UMC in Graham, NC. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.

It was the final day of the Wild Goose Festival, an event I have attended every summer since its beginning in 2010. The final worship service this year included a riveting sermon by Diana Butler Bass (watch here or read the transcript). Though I would not normally advocate beginning a sermon with news of ongoing New Testament research, this message rocked the house at the festival. I heard several people saying “this changes my dissertation focus.”

Here’s the gist of what Bass related to us: By studying the digitized copy of Papyrus 66, the oldest and most complete copy of the gospel of John, dating to about 200, a graduate student, Libbie Schrader, noticed something no one had ever noticed before. She noticed that in John 11, the story of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, someone had made a change. The name Mary in Greek is spelled M-A-R-I-A. The I is the Greek letter iota. Iota looks like a short line with a dot, like our lower-case i. Libbie noticed that that letter iota had actually been written over with a new letter, theta, which looks like a circle with a line in the middle of it. Theta is TH. Someone changed Mary to Martha in John 11. The English Bible says, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.” But the Greek text, the oldest Greek text in the world doesn’t say that.

Read: John 11:1 (according to Papyrus 66, before the scribal edit)

“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, at the village of Mary and his sister, Mary.”

Reflect: There are two Marys in this verse!

Before you go any further, Martha, busy Martha, is not going anywhere. She’s still in Luke, fixing dinner. All our sermons about being Marys in a Martha world can still be preached! But in John’s gospel, we see something else. We are seeing textual evidence from an ancient papyrus that in the early church, Mary Magdalene had a greater role than history has remembered. We don’t know why the ancient editor changed the letter, but it could point to a desire to lessen Mary’s influence in the life of the early church.

Here’s why this matters. In the early church, we have two confessions of Jesus as the Christ. Peter makes his confession “you are the Christ” and is called Peter the Rock. In John 11, Mary (not Martha) makes her confession – you are the Messiah. The word “Magdala” in Aramaic means “tower.” Mary the Tower offers the same confession as Peter the Rock.

Mary Magdalene – Mary the Tower. How might your ministry be strengthened, how might you be encouraged, by this news? When clergywomen are still struggling in places for their gifts and ministry to be affirmed and received, how might Mary the Tower give you needed strength?

Take Action: It turns out that the feast day of Mary Magdalene is my birthday. This year, that had special meaning for me, as Mary the Tower invited me to stand a little taller and straighter as I do what I have done for almost 40 years, proclaim the resurrection. Sisters, this month I invite you to do the same. Let us together stand up with Mary the Tower to give witness to the resurrection of our Lord!

If you are curious to learn more about the dissertation Diana’s sermon references, check out this article in Duke Today: “Mary or Martha: A Duke Student’s Research Finds Mary Magdalene Downplayed by New Testament Scribes.”

In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women

Check out these events open to women clergy and laity alike.

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Voices From the Field I Answering the Call to Serve
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The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Marisol Hernández, pastor at Wesley Memorial UMC in Raleigh, NC. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.

Women in ministry; we are many, yet we are one. Everything in the world is connected together. Nothing stands on its own. This unity of things is backed up by science and also beautifully explained by Paul with the metaphor of the unity of the Body of Christ. The body works due to the uniqueness of its parts and the connectedness of its efforts. 

Read: Corinthians 12:18-20

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Being a woman in ministry should not be a solitary experience. It is key to recognize that we cannot do it alone. When we try to heroically do this alone, when we seek our own private enlightenment journeys, the body will not stand for long. Trying to balance ministry, family life, our own suffering, plus the suffering of others within our congregations is not an easy task. However, when we carry our suffering, when we share our experiences with other women in ministry, we know that we all are in this together and it is just as hard for everybody else. When we acknowledge that, it softens the way we relate to others. When we can share our struggles with other women, we are held and supported by the strength of a robust body which stands together to continue functioning, even when one of its parts needs to slow down. 

The same way the Mystery of the Trinity reveals it —God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, none of them operate alone —women in ministry are called to grow, mature, and nurture each other. When we enter into a relationship, we form a diverse, solid, colorful body —a body able to understand and learn many languages and yet communicate through love, a body able to climb the highest mountains and also able to sit still to pray. The richness of our experiences and the uniqueness of our gifts bond us together; only through our differences and in our connectedness can we form the body. We are one and yet we are many. We are multicolored leaves growing from the same branch.

Reflect: Think of ways in which other women in ministry have supported you. Which examples of connectedness among women in ministry can you think of?

Take Action: Reach out to that new pastor, to other women in ministry who come from a different culture, to other clergy women beyond your usual circle of friends. Connectedness is a gift from God. Let’s stand together.

In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women

Check out these events open to women clergy and laity alike.

Just Energy 4 All Monthly Webinar
(United Women in Faith)
August 17, 2022

Faith Talks
(United Women in Faith)
August 18, 2022

Biblical Faith Regarding Women
(BeADisciple.com)
August 22, 2022

The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Cassidy Salter, pastor at Hebron UMC in Mebane, NC. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.

I recently received a phone call from an elderly female congregant, concerned that she had heard me use a feminine pronoun to describe the Holy Spirit in my sermon the Sunday prior. She called me a bit upset, but also faithfully curious. We had a rich conversation about language, ways of understanding God, and barriers to the same. In my church lately, there has been a lot of conversation about interpretation of the Bible and what words mean, and which words matter.

Words, context, and our experiences shape what we hear and understand about God. It was not until I was a teen that I heard words of God’s abundant love for me spoken in ways that I could hear. I cannot imagine my life without the gift of the Holy Spirit speaking through people who felt compelled to share God’s story with me… even me: a woman; who did not grow up in the church; who makes mistakes; who absolutely needs God’s unending, abundant grace. I am inspired by the Spirit of Pentecost to remember that God will speak in every language needed to the extent that all of God’s children might hear of God‘s love.

Read: Acts: 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Reflect: In what ways do you need to hear the story of resurrection and life right now? What words fill you with a reminder that God loves you and God is for you? Through whom is God speaking words of grace to you? For whom might you offer the same?

Take Action: This month, be attentive to the words you hear and the words you use in sharing the story of God’s grace and resurrection. Listen for the ways God is calling you to use your voice to share the gospel.

God speaks in words, voices, warmth, encouragement, and love that we can hear. May you hear God’s voice in the ways you need to hear, at the times you need to hear, through the people you need to hear. And may it be louder and brighter and clearer than any other sound that carries in the wind.

In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women

Check out these upcoming events open to women clergy and laity alike.

Just Energy 4 All Monthly Webinar
July 20, 2022

Mission U
July 21-23, 2022

Faith Talks
July 21, 2022

The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Amie Stewart, ordained deacon in the NC Conference and Director of Conference Relations at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.

The news is rife with heartbreaking scenes of women in deep places of suffering: women who fled the Ukrainian war; mothers who are unable to purchase formula for their infants; the faces of those in communities ravaged by the recent mass shootings.

The lectionary reading for Trinity Sunday spoke to me considering these present realities, at the intersection of suffering and hope.

Read: Romans 5:3-5

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Reflect: How can I respond, and how can I do anything of significance?

In seminary, a professor referred to a book titled, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History. I confess that while I purchased the book, I did not read it. But that phrase lingered with me – “signs amid the rubble.” An unconscious prompting to look for hope even in darkness.

In early March, Polish women and families left strollers on the platforms of train stations for Ukrainian women to use. These strollers are signs amid the rubble. They are emblematic of the Spirit’s ability to fuel our longing to work for hope.

Take Action: Consider one or two ways in the next month that you might work to establish a “sign amid the rubble.” The simpler the better. Send a text message to reconnect with a friend. Deliver a bag of groceries to a food pantry. Pick up trash you notice in the community. May these simple actions foster greater awareness of the Spirit at work within you to exemplify the hope of Jesus.

In partnership,

Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women

Check out these upcoming events open to women clergy and laity alike.

Just Energy 4 All Monthly Webinar
June 15, 2022

Faith Talks
June 16, 2022

Voices From the Field: Listening to Women from Liberia
June 22, 2022

Just Energy 4 All Working Group
July 5, 2022

Mission U
July 21-23, 2022