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What’s Russ’ favorite church hymn? Olivia’s most-used expression? Martha’s favorite book? Ann Marie’s favorite recipe? Learn the answers to these questions and more through this “meet-and-greet” with the FutureChurch team!
Our meet and greet was an informal opportunity for FutureChurch community members to get to know the staff, learn what led them to FutureChurch, and hear some of their hopes and dreams for the season ahead.
Laura James has expanded her “Mary Magdalene and the Risen Jesus” series with six new images to depict all of John’s Resurrection Narrative. Our virtual art show presents a first look at these “Stations of the Resurrection,” exploring the theological significance of each painting. We also hear from Laura James herself about her inspiration and process.
Inspired by contemporary biblical scholarship, this art series was commissioned by FutureChurch board member, Rita Houlihan.
About Laura James: A self-taught artist of Caribbean heritage, Laura James has enjoyed a long career painting in two styles she refers to as ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’. James separates and combines the sacrosanct and the ordinary and has created a diverse body of work that is her own.
Originally captivated by the Ethiopian Christian Art form, James’ sacred work employs this ancient way of making icons and expands on the collection of stories traditionally painted in this style. James is pleased to help black people see themselves in their sacred texts, in African religions and Christianity, a place where racialized people have curiously been excluded in the west. To that end, James was delighted to illustrate The Book of the Gospels lectionary, published by Liturgy Training Publications in 2001; the book is used worldwide by numerous Christian denominations and is currently in its second edition. Her religious art is at the forefront of the movement toward a more inclusive representation of Biblical figures.
LTP book designer Anna Manhart writes, “We like Laura’s work because it is distinct, memorable, popular and timeless, telling stories in a simple, fresh, and direct way. People respond to the expressive faces, eyes, and gestures, colors, and intricately patterned clothing. Her art appeals to varied ages and cultures. The depictions carry the tradition of Ethiopian iconography to the present day, bridging centuries and continents.”
Ms. James is represented by Bridgeman Images, the world’s leading specialists in the distribution of fine art for reproduction, and James’ work can be seen in hundreds of publications from textbooks to film worldwide. James’ third children’s book, My Mother Was a Nanny was recently released, and she continues to work as a commissioned artist. Laura James lives and works in The Bronx, NY. Learn more at www.laurajamesart.com
About Rita Houlihan: Rita L. Houlihan works to restore our historical memory of Biblical women leaders with a focus on Mary Magdalene. She commissions scripture-based art to counter demeaning legends and touch the public’s imagination.
FutureChurch welcomes Princeton Theological Seminary Associate Professor of New Testament, Lisa Marie Bowens, who discusses her ground-breaking book, African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation.
In part one, Dr. Bowens highlights early Black women preachers and petitions from her book that reclaim the liberating messages of scripture to oppose slavery.
In part two, Dr. Bowens finishes her exploration of early Black women preachers with a discussion of Julia Foote. She then discusses early and mid 20th Century ministers and interpreters of Scripture, including Ida Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they resist segregation.
African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation (Eerdmans 2020), is the first book to investigate a historical trajectory of how African Americans have understood Paul and utilized his work to resist and protest injustice and racism in their own writings from the 1700s to the mid-twentieth century. In it, Dr. Bowens takes a historical, theological, and biblical approach to explore interpretations of Paul within African American communities over the past few centuries. She surveys a wealth of primary sources from the early 1700s to the mid-twentieth century, including sermons, conversion stories, slave petitions, and autobiographies of ex-slaves, many of which introduce readers to previously unknown names in the history of New Testament interpretation. Along with their hermeneutical value, these texts also provide fresh documentation of Black religious life through wide swaths of American history. African American Readings of Paul promises to change the landscape of Pauline studies and fill an important gap in the rising field of reception history.
Lisa Marie Bowens, PhD, associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, earned a BS (cum laude), MSBE, and MLIS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MTS and ThM from Duke Divinity School, and a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is the first African American woman to earn tenure in Princeton Seminary’s Bible department. Her research interests include Paul and apocalyptic literature, Pauline anthropology, Pauline epistemology, discipleship in the gospels, African American Pauline Hermeneutics, and New Testament exegesis and interpretation. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Society of Pentecostal Studies, Society for the Study of Black Religion, American Academy of Religion, and a past Fund for Theological Education fellow. Her current projects include working as a contributor and co-editor with Scot McKnight and Joseph Modica on Preaching Romans From Here: Diverse Voices Engage Paul’s Most Famous Letter (forthcoming), contributor and co-editor with Dennis Edwards on Do Black Lives Matter?: How Christian Scriptures Speak to Black Empowerment, and two commentaries, one on 2 Corinthians and one on 1-2 Thessalonians.
During Lent of 2024, FutureChurch organized three listening sessions for the interim stage of the Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission (Synod on Synodality). More than 100 individuals responded to our invitation to engage in Conversations in the Spirit based on the questions offered by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and to discern the movement of the Spirit in our midst. An additional 88 responses were collected through our online questionnaire, which posed the same questions.
A small writing team which included FutureChurch staff and board members undertook the task of synthesizing our listening sessions and questionnaire responses as a sacred responsibility and privilege, and we proudly share the fruits of our conversations with the larger Church.
FutureChurch submitted the report below to the United States Synod team as well as the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. In addition, we have been shared the report with a number of US-based delegates, experts, and consultants to the Synod.
To very briefly summarize: Our conversations revealed a sense that the Church best lives into its call to be a community of love and mercy when all the baptized are involved as co-equals in the life and mission of the Church. We fail to live into that call when we rigidly cling to dogmas and practices that deny or diminish human dignity, and the Spirit that dwells within, thereby preventing dialogue and encounter. We sensed that the Spirit is calling us to move forward as a synodal Church rooted in the teachings and spirit of the Second Vatican Council – free of clericalism – with an empowered laity, an open and reformed priesthood, and a commitment to engaging and living Catholic Social Teaching in the world.
Dear [fill in the name of your delegate],
Dear [fill in the name of your delegate],
On June 10, 2016, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis elevated the July 22nd observance of Mary Magdalene from a memorial to a liturgical feast. This action places Mary Magdalene’s feast on par with those of the male apostles recognizing her role as the primary witness to the Resurrection and a key figure in our salvation history.
The decree announcing the change, which was issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, calls the entire Church “to reflect in a more profound way on the dignity of Woman” and says that Mary of Magdala can serve as “a paradigm of the ministry of women in the Church.”[i]
In a letter accompanying the decree, Congregation Secretary Archbishop Arthur Roche writes, “St. Mary Magdalene is an example of true and authentic evangelization, that is, an evangelizer who proclaims the joyful central message of Easter.” He also recalls that St. Thomas Aquinas gave Mary of Magdala the title “apostle of the apostles” because she was commissioned by Jesus to go and tell the apostles the good news of his resurrection. He concludes, “Therefore it is right that the liturgical celebration of this woman should have the same level of festivity given to the apostles in the General Roman Calendar, and that the special mission of this woman be highlighted, as an example and model to every woman in the Church”[ii]
The change and abundant accolades may come as a surprise to many Western Christians who have been wrongly taught throughout their lives that Mary Magdalene was a public sinner or repentant prostitute despite all scriptural evidence to the contrary. Modern biblical scholarship has shown that Mary Magdalene was a woman of means who supported Jesus’ Galilean ministry, an important and faithful disciple who remained near Jesus through his crucifixion. Chosen by Jesus to be the first to witness and proclaim his Resurrection, she was an important leader and evangelist in the early Christian community and an essential model for Catholics today.
The centuries-long effort to discredit Mary Magdalene began early in the history of the Church as non-canonical documents show the tensions brewing between communities that upheld Mary Magdalene’s authority up and against those who wanted to raise the authority of men in the figure of Peter. The rise of male authority continued to gain strength into the fourth century, when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, prompting the Church to move away from the inclusive practices of Jesus, St. Paul, and the earliest Christian communities and embrace the patriarchal norms of the Roman Empire. As knowledge of Jesus’ many women disciples and women leaders in the early Christian community began to fade from historical memory, Mary Magdalene’s story was conflated with at least two other women (Mary of Bethany and the anonymous woman of Luke 7:36-50) resulting in what scholars today call the “composite Mary.” Pope St. Gregory I first officially propagated this fallacy during a homily he delivered in around 591:
She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. What did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? It is clear, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. What she therefore displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner. She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. She had spoken proud things with her mouth, but in kissing the Lord’s feet, she now planted her mouth on the Redeemer’s feet. For every delight, therefore, she had had in herself, she now immolated herself. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues, in order to serve God entirely in penance.[iii]
Thus, Mary Magdalene’s reputation was hijacked and her true role hidden from Western Christians for fourteen centuries. It should be noted that the Eastern Church never accepted this “composite Mary” but honored her throughout history as the “Apostle to the Apostles.”
Interestingly, this elevation to the rank of feast isn’t the first change made to the annual celebration of Mary Magdalene in recent history. The post-conciliar reform of the General Roman Calendar in 1969 brought changes to the July 22nd memorial in what seems to have been a first – if quiet and ineffective – attempt to reject the “composite Mary” of Pope St. Gregory I:
No change has been made in the title of today’s memorial, but it concerns only Saint Mary Magdalene, to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection. It is not about the sister of Saint Martha, nor about the sinful woman whose sins the Lord forgave[iv]. . . it will make mention neither of Mary of Bethany nor of the sinful woman of Luke 7:36–50, but only of Mary Magdalene, the first person to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection[v]
The Gospel reading for the day changed from the story of the sinful woman of Luke to John 20:1-2, 11-18, which recalls Jesus’ first appearance to Mary Magdalene and his subsequent commissioning of her to go and tell the other apostles. At that time, Mary of Bethany’s memorial was moved to July 29th.
Still, centuries of bad exegesis and false history, preaching, art, and story-telling were not erased from the Western Christian imagination by the quiet changes and a few notes in the revised General Roman Calendar. And so the falsehoods attached to her reputation and the systemic misogyny it represented — lived on.
As a young organization, FutureChurch would take up Mary Magdalene’s cause with Co-founder Christine Schenk leading. In 1997, FutureChurch launched its international campaign to restore Mary Magdalene to her rightful place as apostle to the apostles.
Twenty-three celebrations were held that first year. Sponsors were asked to invite a biblical expert to trace Mary’s true story as presented in scripture. The presentations were followed by a prayer service at which women presided, preached and encouraged attendees to reflect on their own encounters with — and witness to — the risen Christ.
With each passing year the movement grew. In 2016, FutureChurch learned that more than 300 individuals and communities around the world who were hosting a celebration. As the movement grew, creativity abounded. There were many great speakers and preachers, musical celebrations, liturgical dance programs, dramatic reenactments of women leaders in the Church, and countless other variations on the original structure – all of them celebrating the true Mary of Magdala.
Since initiating the world-wide celebrations, FutureChurch has taken additional steps to educate Catholics – including members of the hierarchy – on the true role of Mary Magdalene.
While no single person, organization, campaign, effort or event can claim all the credit for the the elevation, FutureChurch supporters and members certainly played a critical role through their participation in the organization’s nineteen-year effort. Sister Christine Schenk notes:
It’s not often that working to be the change we long to see actually happens in one’s own lifetime. I am extraordinarily grateful for the providence of God, and for the powerful Holy Spirit energy at work in literally tens of thousands women and men over the past 19 years. This would not have happened without them.[vi]
While the most recent change is an important milestone in the history of the Church and in FutureChurch’s effort to restore Mary Magdalene to her rightful place, there is still much work to be done to create equality among genders in Catholic Church. FutureChurch will continue to point out injustice in the Church, to stand up for women’s ministry and leadership, to educate, to empower, and to tell the true story of Magdalene, and to lift up the witnesses of women throughout the centuries who spread the Good News.
[i]Decree: the celebration of St. Mary Magdalene raised to a feast in the General Roman CalendarJune 10, 2016.
[ii]”Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles.” Vatican.va. 10 June 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2016.
[iii]Carroll, James. “Who Was Mary Magdalene?” Smithsonian.com. June 2006. Web. 16 Aug. 2016.
[iv]Calendarium Romanum(Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 131
[v]Ibid, p. 98
[vi]Schenk, Christine, CSJ. FutureChurch’s 2016 Mary of Magdala Celebration. Cleveland, Ohio. 27 July 2016.
During all the phases of the synodal process, faith-filled Catholics across the world concurred regarding the pressing need to re-envision women’s roles in the life, ministry, and governance of the Church. In the October 2023 synod synthesis, participants agreed it was “urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry” (Part II, Section 9, m).
It is urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry (Part II, Section 9, m).
Further, synod participants rightly perceived the relationship between women’s full participation in the Church and the language, images, and narratives that represent women in our liturgical life. Thus, synod participants also proposed changes so that liturgical texts, including the lectionary, include “a range of words, images, and narratives that draw more widely on women’s experience” (Part II, Section 9, q).
There is a need to ensure that liturgical texts and Church documents are more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women’s experience (Part II, Section 9, q).
There is something of consequence at stake for women and for the church as a whole in the choice of scripture passages which are heard in the regular Sunday morning assembly. The ways in which we understand and know God are formed within the liturgy of the church. What we pray and sing, as well as the stories we re-tell in public worship form and shape what we believe about God, ourselves, and our relationship to God and to each other.
Thus, we might ask, “Do the passages selected over the three-year cycle help or hinder us in dealing with what it means for women to have a full and equal role in both church and society? Do the lections chosen praise women for being subordinate or cast them as people who brought sin into the world? Are the stories about women which are in the Bible adequately represented in the lectionary, or does the choice of Sunday readings give the impression that the Bible, and thus our salvation history, is even more male-cemtered than it actually is?”
The insights of synod participants regarding the need to be more inclusive of women’s narratives in our lectionary have been noted by other prominent scholars and officials since the Second Vatican Council. They have raised awareness about the omission of women from the lectionary recognizing that, as Pope Benedict XVI stated, “without the generous contribution of many women, the history of Christianity would have developed very differently,” adding that the “female presence in the sphere of the primitive Church” was in no way “secondary.”
In 1993, the Pontifical Biblical Commission asked that lectionary readings be “more abundant, more varied, and more suitable” and in 2008, the participants at the Synod on the Word, in Proposition XVI asked that “an examination be carried out of the Roman Lectionary to see if the current selection and ordering of the readings is truly adequate to the mission of the church in this historical moment.”
The late Sr. Ruth Fox, OSB, in her respected analysis, “Women in the Bible and the Lectionary” wrote,
A careful analysis of the lectionary reveals that a disproportionate number of passages about the women of the Bible have been omitted. Women’s books, women’s experiences and women’s accomplishments have been largely overlooked in the assigned scripture readings that are being proclaimed in our churches on Sundays and weekdays.
Other prestigious Catholic scholars affirm Sr. Fox’s insights and have written extensively about the “woman gaps” in our Catholic lectionary showing how biblical passages that feature women as prophets, leaders, co-workers, apostles, disciples, deacons, patrons, and ministers in the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures are excluded on Sundays and holy days, relegated to weekdays when few will hear the readings, or made optional. In referring to the omission of readings about women in our lectionary, Professor emerita Katherine Tillman of Notre Dame further notes that “if women’s stories are omitted from the readings, they are not likely to appear in homilies.”
While the Church has honored the contributions of women in important ways, there is a lacuna when it comes to proclaiming their stories of faith, courage, and leadership at mass depriving the faithful of the inspirational narratives of our foremothers in faith whose courage, ministry, sacrifice, and tenacity expanded Christianity throughout the world and shaped our tradition in essential ways. These overlooked stories have the effect of silencing the voices of our foremothers in faith whose voices are indispensable in our broken world today.
Women in the Bible and Lectionary by Sr. Ruth Fox, OSB (text)
Amnesia in the Lectionary by Regina A. Boisclair (audio) (text, Women in Theology)
We Must Restore the Powerful Witness of Women Leaders to the Catholic Lectionary by Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ (text)
Lectionary Readings that Subordinate Women by FutureChurch (text)
Mary Magdalene: Witness, Leader, Disciple, and Apostle to the Apostles by Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ (text)
Rereading Biblical Women by Dr. Jamie Waters (video, Boston College)
We Need More Women in the Lectionary by Jean Kelly
Restoring John 20: 1 – 18 to our Easter Sunday Lectionary – (With comparison between U.S. reading and Canadian reading) (text)
Reading the Bible in the Lectionary: Gift and Challenge by Sr. Eileen Schuller, OSU (text) (video)
The Feast of St. Phoebe by Sr. Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ (text) (video)
Women Erased from the Lectionary by Michael Peppard, Ph.D. of Fordham University (video)
Women’s Prophetic Leadership Changed the Face of the Roman Empire by Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ (text, Vatican News)
It’s Not All About Eve: Rediscovering the Feminine Faces in the Bible by Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ (text, America Magazine)
Vatican II’s 1963 “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” called for a wider selection of biblical texts to be used at Mass thus opening the Bible to Catholics in brand new ways. On Palm Sunday in 1970, as a result of the mandated changes, a new, three-year cycle lectionary was instituted introducing a greater number of books and passages from the Bible to Catholics, as well as, many more sources for preaching. As a result, Catholics are much better informed about scripture and the stories of faith that form the foundation for the work of the Gospel today.
The current Lectionary (book of those readings) was prepared by an international committee of experts and went into use on Palm Sunday, 1970. It has been minimally revised twice. It includes three-cycles of readings (A, B, C ) for Sundays with the majority of readings coming from Matthew (A), Mark (B) and Luke (C) respectively while the Gospel of John is used for the Easter season, some Sundays in Cycle B, and other times. Weekday readings were organized into a two-year cycle.
The Lectionary cycles present 14 percent of the Old Testament and 71 percent of the New Testament. In contrast, the readings in the 1963 Roman Missal used 1 percent of the Old Testament and 17 percent of the New Testament.
Generally, Catholics believe that the stories they hear proclaimed at mass are, in fact, the “heart” of our foundational faith stories – the stories we need to hear most to nurture and inspire us to carry out the work of the Gospel for today’s world. Determining what would be included in the lectionary was a deliberative process conducted by male. In that process, stories were included and others were left out. Further, an examination of the lectionary reveals that many of the stories of prominent foremothers in faith have been left out.
Sources
Liturgy Reflections: Who is Responsible for our Current Lectionary?
How Are Mass Readings Chosen? by Pat McCloskey, OFM
Main Differences Between 1970 and 1998 Lectionary by Felix Just SJ
The Scandalous (but true) Story Behind ICEL’s 1969 Lectionary for Mass by Paul Innwood