RESPONSIVE READING

Come and celebrate God who calls women to tend the flame.
Did not our hearts burn within us?

Come and celebrate the courage of women who heard their call and, with a fire in their bones, stepped out of the shadow.
Did not our hearts burn within us?

Come and celebrate the lives of women who, even in their mountaintop experiences, never forgot their valleys.
Did not our hearts burn within us?

Come and celebrate the work of women who recognized the risen Lord in the breaking of bread and in the opening of scripture.
Did not our hearts burn within us?

Come and celebrate the perseverance of women who are still struggling to have their gifts recognized by their churches.
Did not our hearts burn within us?

Come and celebrate women who paved the road to ordination for others and encourage us to work for those who will follow.
Did not our hearts burn within us?
Amen.

(by Su Yon Pak, from “Celebrate the Gifts of Women,” PCUSA, www.pcusa.org/women/celebratethegifts/celebrate06.pdf)

A LITANY OF REMEMBRANCE

Let us remember and give thanks for faithful women of God, that their lives may inspire ours.
For Miriam, prophet who led the women of Israel in rejoicing at their deliverance from Egypt;
For the unnamed woman who acted as prophet and anointed Jesus before his burial;
God of abundant life,
We give you thanks.

That we may claim our gifts of leadership and have courage to announce your truth by our words and actions, God of graceful power,
We offer our prayer.

For women mystics of the Middle Ages: for Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, and Julian of Norwich, who used many names and images to praise you and tell of your goodness and love;
God of abundant life,
We give you thanks.

That we may know you more deeply and praise you as one God with many names;
God of graceful power,
We offer our prayer.

For the women of this country who fought against slavery and worked for justice for all people: for Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks; for the women who struggled for women’s rights: for Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony;
God of abundant life,
We give you thanks.

That we may be empowered to strive for justice and peace among all people;
God of graceful power,
We offer our prayer.
Amen.

(Adapted from “Litany of Remembrance” by Rev. Dr. Ruth A. Meyers, Women’s Uncommon Prayers, Geitz, Burke, Smith, editors, Council of Women’s Ministries of
the Episcopal Church USA, Morehouse Publishing, 2000, p. 340.)

Truth and Falsehood

IT IS NOT TRUE that women should feel and experience that being a woman is of secondary value to the community.
THIS IS TRUE that women are created women, in the image of God, co-workers with God in caring for life, in struggling for the liberations of humanity and for a world order that respects each one's dignity.

IT IS NOT TRUE that women--and men--must remain divided by sexism, racism, economic injustices and imperialism.
THIS IS TRUE that all women and men are called to be in solidarity with each other's struggle for dignity and justice, to learn from one another and to challenge one another as sisters and brothers in critical and prophetic solidarity.

IT IS NOT TRUE that becoming a refugee is acceptable and inevitable for millions of women and their children.
THIS IS TRUE that the whole people of God are called to denounce militarism, to challenge the root causes of poverty in the name of the God of Hagar, who as a refugee was the first person who dared to give God a name.

IT IS NOT TRUE that women should accept rape and incest, battering and humiliation, as the fate of women.
THIS IS TRUE that Jesus Christ has come into the world to heal the broken community between women and men, to restore our sense of self, dignity and inclusion.

IT IS NOT TRUE that young girls should not be given the opportunity to learn to read, to write, and to analyze the developments of their countries.
THIS IS TRUE that everyone is called to respond to the gift of life and to the needs of our community with all our heart, all our soul and all our reason.

IT IS NOT TRUE that sexual slavery, bondage and prostitution cannot be counteracted or eliminated.
THIS IS TRUE that Jesus Christ has come into the world to overturn the tables of injustice, that women and men, empowered by the Holy Spirit, should challenge poverty and patriarchal culture.

IT IS NOT TRUE that women and men cannot live in mutual and just relationships, respecting one another's integrity and personhood.
THIS IS TRUE that God the Creator has given us the responsibility and trust to care for all of creation in humility and faithfulness, to work and to love as co-creators of God.
Amen.

(from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/worship/g enderjustice.htm)