Worship and Liturgy

Church Publishing 9781640654013 $18.95 paper | 5.5 x 8.5 | 160 pages August 17, 2021

The Writing Work of the People

Liturgical Writing as Spiritual, Theological, and Prophetic Work Jill Y. Crainshaw Invites readers to use their own voices to enliven personal and collective worship. What ideas, hopes, dreams, and laments do the words of worship stir in our hearts and minds? What images of God swirl up out of our communal prayers and hymns to shape what we believe and who we are as people of faith? We know that words can heal and draw us together, or words can hurt and divide. Christian communities proclaim and embody this wisdom each time we celebrate God’s Word made flesh in Jesus. Leaders and worshipers in differing contexts write and speak in a wide variety of ways. As such, this book is for pastoral leaders, chaplains, and other ministers who imagine, craft, and offer worship words for each Sunday—and in the diversity of everyday moments. “This book breathes with Abundant Life. . . . Crainshaw is unapologetic about the divine power of the biblical and liturgical words we inherit and invites the reader to consider if these sacred words are the seeds of our own speech and life.” —The Rev. Dr. Tricia Lyons, Senior Advisor to the Dean for Evangelism Formation, Virginia Theological Seminary JILL Y. CRAINSHAW is Blackburn Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. The author of many books and articles, including When I in Awesome Wonder: Liturgy Distilled from Everyday Life and They Spin with Their Hands: Women’s Ordination Rites: Renewing God’s Story with God’s People, she is also a published poet. Crainshaw is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (US).

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Year A Church Publishing 9781640651623 $36.95 paper | 6 x 9 | 360 pages August 17, 2021

Year W Church Publishing 9781640654747 $36.95 paper | 6 x 9 | 360 pages August 17, 2021

A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church

Wilda C. Gafney What would it look like if women built a lectionary focusing on women’s stories? What does it look like to tell the good news through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news? How would a lectionary centering women’s stories, chosen with womanist and feminist commitments in mind, frame the presentation of the scriptures for proclamation and teaching? The scriptures are androcentric, male-focused, as is the lectionary that is dependent upon them. As a result, many congregants know only the biblical men’s stories told in the Sunday lectionary read in their churches. A more expansive, more inclusive lectionary will remedy that by introducing readers and hearers of scripture to “women’s stories” in the scriptures. A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, when completed, will be a three-year lectionary accompanied by a stand-alone single year lectionary, Year W, that covers all four gospels. “In a predominantly patriarchal world that still diminishes the lives, gifts, contributions, and voices of women, Professor Wil Gafney offers a distinct, bold, women’s lectionary for the whole church and academy.” —The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, Dean, Duke University Chapel, and Associate Professor of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School WILDA C. GAFNEY (WIL) is a Hebrew biblical scholar and Episcopal priest, a former Army chaplain, and congregational pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. She is a graduate of Duke University (PhD) and Howard University (MDiv). In addition to her biblical scholarship, she is also an editor, essayist, and author of several other books, and is The Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School.

A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, when completed, will be a threeyear lectionary accompanied by a stand-alone single year lectionary, Year W, that covers all four gospels.