St Mary REdcliffe Parish Magazine Dec 2019 Jan 2020

at church |
theology groups
ONE NIGHT, I came to a very
lovely concert at SMR. It was
not my first visit — I’d been several
times before — but something
about the light, the dark and the
music resonated deeply on this
occasion.
As I was wondering out at the end
I cast my eye casually over the
information table at the back of
the church, and my attention was
caught by an invitation to join a
Feminist Reading Group. Well, I
thought, maybe interesting things
were happening in this place, it was
not just a beautiful building. And
so it proved.
The Feminist Reading Group meets
every month. Our most recent
book has been Womanist Midrash: a
re-introduction to the women of the Torah
and the Throne by Wilda Gafney.
It is written by a black American
woman exploring the lives of early
Old Testament women (think iron
age). Certainly outside the comfort
zone of this writer. Gafney uses
FEMINIST THEOLOGY GROUP
— A PERSONAL VIEW
— WENDY GILLMAN
a powerful mix of academic
rigour and creative storytelling
(midrash) to light up the stories of
these shadowy women who lived
their lives so long ago. She makes
them accessible to us and points
to the parallels to the constraints
under which they lived and those
of the black women in the culture
she is representing. And so we learn
more about other lives, past and
present, more about each other and
ourselves, and certainly more about
the Old Testament.
Next up is a work of biographical
fiction: Phoebe by Paula Gooder,
a Deaconess in the 1st century, to
whom Paul entrusted his Letter to the
Romans — arguably his theological
masterpiece, says the blurb.
Come along and join us as we engage
with the the world of the early
Christians and explore St Paul’s
theology. I seem to remember
Paul was not known for his liberal
attitudes towards women — should
make for interesting meetings!
— Wendy Gillman
Feminist Theology Group: for more information and times of meetings please
contact Helena Hoyle King — email: helena.m.hoyle@gmail.com
at church | education
“WHAT DOES IT MEAN
IF GOD IS HOLY AND LOVING?” —
SARAH YATES
EDUCATION OFFICER
THIS IS THE QUESTION which was addressed by the children
in Year Six from St Mary Redcliffe Primary School in their
recent workshops.
We started by listening to some passages from the Bible that talk of God
being Holy. The children were asked to think of synonyms for holy or holiness
as they heard each passage. Here are some of the words they came up with:
special; sacred; important; worthy; honoured; noble; truthful;
great; beautiful; the one and only; pure; perfect; correct; just; wise;
the highest; beloved; peaceful, fair, kind, caring, restful, traditional.
I asked one of the volunteer helpers (Steve, fortunately an ordained
minister) if he could describe what God would be like if he were just
‘holy’…. He asked the children to think of a teacher who was very strict
but very fair. The teacher would want everyone to have 100% in a test
and to be perfectly behaved. The teacher was perfect himself and expected
the pupils to be perfect. If you weren’t able to achieve perfection, he was
disappointed in you.
We recognised that this was a hard picture to deal with and so we went
on to look at some other Bible passages which talk about God being
love and having a loving nature. Again, the children were asked to write
down synonyms of these words and here are some they came up with:
adored; trusted; special; caring; gentle; loving; compassionate; kind;
respectful; generous; fair; perfect; believing in others; courageous;
calm; peaceful; truthful; always with you; a tower of strength; complete.
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