A Paradigm-Shifting Lectionary for the Whole Church

Excerpt:

Because of the androcentric nature of biblical texts there are only an estimated 205 named female characters compared to an estimated 1,181 named men. But androcentrism is more than numbers. In a recent Women Erased presentation for FutureChurch, Gafney pointed out that because of male authorship, “Even when a woman is present, her story is serving a male story. If it’s focused on her, the larger arc is still a male story.” Given these realities — and the fact that the lectionary is a catechetical (teaching) text — it is unsurprising that in her introduction Gafney writes “not many of my students or parishioners can name even 10 women in the biblical canon.”

Since lectionary committees — guided in part by the Scriptures themselves — have selected predominantly male-oriented texts, people rarely learn about biblical women on Sunday — or any other time for that matter.