I am proud to announce that Shawna R. B. Atteberry is now listed with the religion websites at Alltop. Whoo-hoo!
Jul 122011
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35).
This is the new commandment Jesus gave the disciples on the night of the Last Supper, the night he was arrested. Earlier this year I wrote a post on seeing the love Jesus talked about in action in Egypt as Christians and Muslims protected each other through two terrorist attacks and during the marches. It’s happening again. This is from The Lead at Episcopal Cafe:
Egyptian muslims have been using social media late this week to organize an effort to protect their Christian neighbors this weekend during their Easter celebrations. It’s the second time this has happened since the church bombing on New Year’s Day. Christians returned the favor during the Tahir Square protests.
Considering the latest sectarian tensions and hate speech that have hit the country, especially after the mass demonstrations witnessed at Qena demanding the resignation of the governor for being a Christian, many fear that Egypt’s Coptic community may be at risk.
Muslims have before turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass, offering their bodies and lives as ‘shields’ to protect Egypt’s Christian community following the terror attacks that struck the country on New Year’s Eve, targeting the Two Saints Church in Alexandria and leaving 21 dead.
Similarly, during Egypt’s revolution, Christians in Tahrir Square acted as human shields to protect praying Muslims as the demonstrators were threatened by attacks from pro-regime thugs and snipers.
From here.
This is how the commandment Jesus gave us the night he was betrayed and arrested looks like in real life. It’s an image I will keep in my heart as I travel through the Easter season.
Apr 232011
“Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome. They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Then they and many other women had come with him to Jerusalem. . ..Joseph [of Arimathea] bought a long sheet of linen cloth, and taking Jesus’ body down from the cross, he wrapped it in the cloth and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid” (Mark 15:40-41, 46-47).
At sunset the Sabbath began; the first Vigil Saturday. What did they do that Sabbath? How did the mother of God, who had just watched her son die, and these other women who had followed him right up to the cross spend that Saturday? Did they go to synagogue? Did they say the prayers? Did they take part in the joy of the Exodus? Would they go to the Temple? Would they worship side-by-side with the people who had condemned and cheered her Son and their Savior to death? Would they too pray Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do?” Or was their grief and anger too great? Did they just stay inside, holding on to each other, comforting each other as best they could? They saw where Joseph buried Jesus. They knew he did not have the time to properly anoint and wrap the body of their Beloved. They knew what they would do the first thing Sunday morning. But what did they do that long, long Saturday?
I know the Resurrection happened. I know tomorrow I will celebrate the Resurrection with my brothers and sisters in Christ. And this day is a long day for me. The waiting. Living an entire day between the last breath of death and the first breath of resurrection. It is hard. It is long. My first reminder is during morning prayers when I see there is no Gospel reading. There will be no Gospel reading tonight when I pray Compline. This is the only day of the year, we do not read the Gospel. The Gospel is in the grave, and we feel that loss, that void. Today the Church lives between life and death. And we long for, anticipate, and hope for Sunday morning. We live in anticipation and expectation of waking up Sunday morning to the creedal cry of the Church: “HE IS RISEN!” “HE IS RISEN INDEED!” I long for tomorrow when the silence of death will be broken. When I will walk into the sanctuary and see the cross draped in the victorious white of the Resurrection. We will sing ALLELUIA! Our first Alleluia since the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. We will hear the Gospel. We will renew our baptismal vows. We will take communion. We will pass the peace. We will worship our risen Lord and Savior. But today is one of silence and waiting–vigil.
I will always wonder what the women who watched Joseph place Jesus’ body in the tomb did on that first Saturday. They didn’t have our hope. They thought Jesus was dead, and the kingdom he proclaimed was destroyed with him. What did they do on that day between death and life?
Originally posted April 7, 2007.
Like many of you who read this blog, I have been watching what’s been happening in Egypt avidly. After almost three weeks Mubarak has stepped down after very peaceful protests. The only violence that happened started with the government, not the people. And yesterday when Mubarak said he wasn’t going anywhere, the people did not let their anger lead them to violence, their protesting remained peaceful. The thing that has touched me the most, moved me to tears, is the way that Coptic Christians and Muslims are taking care of each other, and showing the entire world what it looks like to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Or as the Quaran says: “…Do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, the poor, the neighbor who is near of kin, the neighbor who is stranger, the companion by your side…” (4:36, emphasis mine).
Here is how Egyptian Muslims and Christians loved their neighbors:
From Ahram Online
On New Year’s Eve a Coptic Church was bombed in Alexandria, Egypt, killing 21 people. The Copts did not stand alone in their outrage. Their Muslim neighbors joined in and protested with them. On Ahram Online two Muslims made these powerful statements:
“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.
“This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly Street. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”
The Cross within the Crescent became the symbol for Egyptians who did not want fundamentalists on either side to define their religions. Muslims promised their Christian brothers and sisters they would attend the Coptic Christmas Eve service (January 8 on the Coptic calendar) and stand as human shields to protect their Christian neighbors. They were as good as their word. Muslims all over Egypt attended mass at Christian churches across the country to show their solidarity, not only with their neighbors, but for peace and safety from terrorist acts. (Thank you to chantblog for bringing this article and picture to my attention.)
Two weeks later Trahrir Square was filled with people demanding democracy: Muslims and Christians gathered against the totalitarian government demanding Mubarak step down, and a democratic government that listened to the people–all of the people–be organized. While his country’s unemployment rate was 30% and the cost of food doubled, Mubarak was sitting on $70-80 billion dollars. Yes BILLIONS, not millions. I can understand why the Egyptians said enough is enough (not to mention being imprisoned and tortured for not pulling the tyrannical line). And we in US we complicit in the dictatorship: we set up Mubarak and supported his regime.We give 1.5 billion dollars a year to Egypt for their military. We were also complicit in the tyranny when our government originally sided with the Mubarak regime to keep “stability” in the region. But that military stayed neutral throughout the protests. They did not attack the protestors nor did they try to make them leave. They stayed on the circumference and only acted if they needed to break something up. If Mubarak commanded them to disperse the protestors, they did not obey. The government shut down the internet in the country because people were using Twitter and Facebook to connect and organize. The people still found ways to organize and gather to protest tyranny.
Last week things did become violent as goon squads were sent out to attack the people. The general belief is that Mubarak and his officials sent the goon squads out to violently disperse the protesters. But the protesters held their ground and fought back. They were not leaving the square. Again the military stayed neutral. They broke apart fights and shot in tear gas when groups started fighting, but they did not take sides.
Friday, February 4, came: the Muslims holy day when this beautiful picture was posted on Yfrog. Nevine Zaki, who was in Tahrir Square, snapped this photo of Christians ringing around their Muslim brothers and sisters, so they could pray safely.
Nevine Zaki/Yfrog
As the Muslims protected them during Christmas Eve mass, now the Christians protected Muslims as they prayed on their weekly holy day.
But that’s not the end of it. On Sunday, February 6, Egyptian Christians held a mass in Tahrir Square and Muslims joined in. According to UPI.com:
Egyptian Christians held a mass of unity in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Sunday to show solidarity with the country’s thousands of anti-government protesters.
Muslim prayers also resounded in the square “in what seemed a show of interfaith harmony” five weeks after a suicide bomber killed at least 21 people at the end of a New Year’s Eve mass in Alexandria, The New York Times reported.
“We are all one,” people began chanting in Tahrir Square after the outdoor Coptic Christian mass was completed.
* * * * * *
Sunday’s mass was “for all Egyptians, Muslim and Christian, and I am proud to be Egyptian today because we are showing the world how important our country is for all the people who live here,” a 33-year-old Christian identified as Farid told the Egyptian news Web site Bikya Mass after the liturgy was completed.
The CopticNews.org, a Canadian site, posted this video from Sunday’s Mass at Tahrir Square, 2/6/11. (I can’t get the video to embed.)
Anticipation built this week as it appeared Mubarak was going to step aside. Then Mubarak spoke Thursday. It was one of the most patriarchal, clueless speeches, I think I’d ever heard. Mubarak made himself out as the old-style patriarch who ruled the entire family with an iron fist. His general message was: “I am your father, and you are my children. Obey me or suffer.” Mubarak was so out-of-touch with the rest of Egypt that he thought all he had to do was play the old-time paterfamilias/ruler, and the people would just go home. Instead they erupted in angry shouts of “Leave! Leave! Leave!” They marched on the palace and the state’s TV station. More people came. The people weren’t going anywhere until Mubarak was gone. And once again the people didn’t get violent. The protesters stayed peaceful. Personally I think Mubarak was trying to goad them to violence, so he could unleash the military on them. The people did not take the bait. Today Mubarak stepped down, and those thousands of people who stood their ground peacefully and demanded a democratic government are celebrating in Tahrir Square and across Egypt.
Myths have been busted in Egpyt. The myth that Arabs/Muslims always resort to violence to change government is gone. The myth that there has never been a peaceful protest or change of government in the Middle East is gone. The myth that Muslims and Christians are enemies, and that Muslims always terrorize and murder Christians in Muslim nations BUSTED. And this myth was busted on the global stage. In Egypt we saw Muslims protecting Christians as they worshiped. In Egypt we saw Christians protecting Muslims as they worshiped. In Egypt we saw Christians and Muslims worshiping side by side, and standing in unity and solidarity to make their country a better place.
This is what it looks like to “do good to the neighbor who is near of kin, the neighbor who is stranger.” This is what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like in real life. This is what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like in oppressive regimes where doing the right thing is, not only hard, but deadly. This is what Jesus was talking about when he told the parable of The Good Samaritan to illustrate “who is my neighbor?” It’s easy to give empty lip-service to loving our neighbors, but this is what it looks like when the rubber hits the road. This is what it looks like when it’s not easy, but you do it anyway.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Do good to the neighbor who is near of kin and the neighbor who is stranger.”
Oct 072010
Sophia’s Rosary
Rev. Laura M. Grimes, Ph.D.
Copyright 2010
Spiral Bound, $14.99
E-book, $11.99
In my Empowered Reading for Women list there is only one worship resource listed, due to the lack of material using gender neutral or feminine terms for Godde. I commented that I had a friend who was working on prayer and liturgical resources using feminine language for Godde, and Sophia’s Rosary is the first resource Rev. Laura Grimes has published. Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which I thought was the perfect day for my review of this wonderful resource.
For those unfamiliar with the Rosary it is a series of prayers and mysteries. In the traditional Catholic rosary the Apostle’s Creed is said then The Hail Mary’s are interspersed with Our Father’s (The Lord’s Prayer) and the mysteries. The mysteries revolve around the lives of Mary and Jesus. The Joyful Mysteries include the annunciation and birth of Jesus, the Sorrowful Mysteries revolve around the Cross and Tomb, the Luminous Mysteries give glimpses of Jesus’ ministry, and the Glorious Mysteries encompass the Resurrection, Ascension and Mary’s Assumption. You can see how the Catholic rosary is prayed here.
Sophia’s Rosary is just that: a rosary that prays to Sophia instead of to a male God in the name of a human woman, who somewhat represents the divine feminine. For those who pray with the rosary, this book provides a way to pray to Godde as Mother and Holy Wisdom. All pronouns are feminine, and the mysteries revolve around Godde as Mother and Sophia as well as women of the Bible.
One of Laura’s goals was to separate Mary from Godde the Mother because women
sense the ambivalence in Mary’s functions as (officially) humble handmaid become exalted queen of heaven and (unofficially) the feminine face of God. If the human Mary is our only faint experience of God the Mother, women are at a permanent disadvantage in experiencing themselves as created in the divine image, compared to men who can fully identify with the divine Jesus as one like themselves. Mary can even become an irrelevant human role model for modern women when she is viewed in traditionally pious terms as the passionless mother of one perfect child, born without the ordeal of labor which forms the sacred rite of passage for all other birth-givers on this planet.
Sophia’s Rosary is an attempt to resolve this dilemma by providing a simple, powerful means of connecting with God the Mother directly, while freeing Miriam of Nazareth to be “truly our sister…” (p. 3).
Laura has rewritten The Apostle’s Creed, Jesus’ Prayer and the Gloria to reflect the motherhood of God and Sophia as Holy Wisdom. The mysteries are both about Godde as Mother and Sophia as well as mysteries of biblical women including:
- Mysteries of the Matriarchs
- Mysteries of Women’s Prophecy
- Mysteries of Women’s Courage
- Mysteries of Women’s Leadership
Even if you don’t pray the rosary, the book is worth getting for using the mysteries as a guide for Bible study. Laura gives several uses for using Sophia’s Rosary. It can be used with both the Catholic and Anglican rosaries, for meditation, or as a guide for personal prayers. It can be used privately or communally on retreats, in prayer groups, or in spirituality classes. Laura has built a lot of diversity into Sophia’s Rosary.
Rev. Laura Grimes
Laura holds a doctorate of theology from Notre Dame, and she is an ordained priest in the Independent Catholic Church. She was ordained as a bishop by the Sophia Catholic Communion in 2007. She pastors the St. Junia the Apostle Chapel. She lives in Dayton, Ohio with her husband and two children. You can find out more about Laura on her site, where you can buy her book. She has been working on using gender inclusive language in the church for both people and Godde for years, and she plans on putting out more resources for liturgical and prayer use. She has also recently released Sophia’s Book of Hours for those who like to pray the Daily Offices (there will be a review up as soon as I get my copy).
May 212010
It’s been busy here, which is why I haven’t had a chance for coffee the last few weeks. My biggest news is that I’m now the Chicago Protestant Examiner for Examiner.com. So I’m getting the hang of reporting and actually covering things that are happening now and talking to living people instead of researching things that happened over 2,000 years ago and interviewing people in my head. It’s a change. 
I am feeling really good. Joining the gym has really helped. Swimming and practicing yoga just sets me right. I love how both are a melding of meditation and movement. My time with my personal trainer is good as well, but I don’t get the spiritual practice on the machines the way I do in the water and yoga poses.
My biggest thing right now is time management: figuring out when and how long to work on various writing projects: The Book, Examiner, other freelance work, and being an editor on The Christian Godde Project (really need to get back to translating Luke), not to mention all the research that goes with each. Plus all the daily life stuff: running errands, cleaning, laundry, showering, eating, sleeping, etc. etc. Not to mention The Hubby appreciates it when I talk to him on occasion. 
My in-laws and a nephew are coming to see us in June, so that means we have a lot of cleaning out, organizing and cleaning up to do in the next few weeks. They’ll be here during the Printer’s Row Book Fair (every bookaholic’s best dream and worst nightmare), and I will be preaching at church that Sunday. My father-in-law wants to hear me preach. I’m a little psyched about it, but I’m sure it will all be fine. The Old Testament passage for that Sunday is Jezebel. And I love Jezebel. Wondering how much fun I can have with her even in a liberal Episcopal Church. We’ll see.
This weekend is pretty quiet. Tomorrow is cleaning and writing. I also need to make a trip to the grocery store for odds and ends. Then Sunday is Pentecost. I’m looking forward to that. Ooh, that reminds me: I need to start reading Acts 2:1-21 in the Greek, since I will be doing that Sunday morning. We will have the Acts passage read in several different languages in the service: English, Spanish, German, French, and Greek, and who knows what else. Last year each person started reading a few verses full voice, then read quietly while they walked through the sanctuary, then the next person picked up and read then walked. By the end of the reading, they were people reading the passage in different languages all over the congregation. It was so powerful. I’m not sure that’s they way we’ll do it this year, but I’m sure it will still be powerful.
I hope everyone has a good weekend and a blessed Pentecost!
Apr 292010
Soon afterwards [Jesus] went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources (Luke 8:1-3, NRSV).
One of the arguments that complementarians make for women staying at home is that it is God’s plan for men to work and financially support the family. As long as I’ve been on the other side of the argument, pointing out that women have always worked and supported their families monetarily, it was only last week when it hit me what these verses were saying. I’ve used these verses to show that women were disciples and followed Jesus in his travels just as the 12 did. But last week it hit me between the eyes: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna plus other women “provided for them out of their resources.” The Greek word translated as resources can mean property, possessions, resources, or means. These women financially supported Jesus and his ministry from their own finances.
I’m sure some would say that what they gave Jesus was really the money their husbands made. This could be true for Joanna, but she is the only one with a husband in this passage. Mary Magdalene had no husband, and Susanna is not paired with a husband in these verses. This means their money was theirs. We don’t know how they had these resources. Maybe they were business women like Lydia and Priscilla. Maybe they were widows. But neither woman, nor her resources, is tied to a husband.
It’s a little thing. A little thing that can be easily overlooked. But I think that we should pay attention to this little thing. Women who weren’t tied to a husband, and a married woman who isn’t tied to her home, are following Jesus all over the countryside and supporting him. These little things start adding up to show that roles women played in the Bible are much broader than mother and wife. It also shows the freedom Jesus allowed women to have in his own ministry. He didn’t tell these women to go back home and take care of their husbands and children (and he didn’t tell them to go home, get married, and start having kids). He welcomed them and accepted their support.
These three verses in Luke give us a glimpse of the broader role of women in Jesus’ ministry beyond the home.
Originally posted at The Scroll, April 22, 2010.
