175 Moment for Mother’s Day (moment for mothers and all women)

John Cressman
May 10, 2009

1834 to 2009 defines the 175th anniversary of a Christian community enduring here at Breslau. (that’s according to our church records)

200AD to 2009AD defines the 1809th anniversary, only one of many, of women being recognized in Christian ministry.
(that’s according to a papyrus manuscript dating about 200 AD, which we know today as the book of Romans)

57AD to 2009AD defines the 1952nd anniversary, of the possible date of writing of the manuscript by Paul.
(that’s according to the Reference Edition of The New Revised Standard Version of our bible)

In Romans 17:7, the apostle Paul describes a woman, Junia, as ”prominent among the apostles”, and “in Christ before I was.” The writer tells us that Junia was in prison with Paul, was an apostle and was prominent among apostles.

History presents women among the leaders of households and businesses and as pastors, in the early church.
Examples are:
Mary, the mother of John Mark, from Acts.
Chloe according to I. Corinthians.
Lydia, from Acts.
Nympha from Colossians. 
Priscilla, from Romans.

Also, the Old and New Testaments contain accounts of women instructing and teaching and prophesying.

Accounts of persecution and death, for women, are found in both biblical and secular records.
Tacitus writes of the trial of Pomponia Graecina, a woman of high rank, who was accused of "foreign superstition" and handed over to her husband as judge for trial. This woman was the first Christian persecuted for the faith that history records outside the New Testament. She suffered for her testimony even before the New Testament was completed!
Pliny the Younger writes in his letter to Trajan …"I thought it the more necessary, therefore, to find out what truth there was in this (accusation against Christians) by applying torture to two maidservants who were called ministers.

The apostle Peter's wife was martyred before him during the Neronian persecution at Rome. Clement writes…
Some of those persecuted were of high rank, giving up much for their Gospel witness. Eusebius writes, "At the same time, for professing Christ, Flavia Domatilla, the niece of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls of Rome at that time, was transported with many others, by way of punishment, to the island of Pontia
Eusebius writes about those who suffered martyrdom at Pergamus around the time of Polycarp's death, "Of these we mention only Carpus and Papylus, and a woman named Agathonice; …
Women in Church History, by Rev. Kathryn J. Riss

Thanks to Eusebius, who lived from 265 to 340, we’ve leaped all the way into the 4th century….
Leap again, 12 centuries, to the 16th century and consider the record of Martyrs Mirror, especially the European Anabaptists between 1524 and 1660. Many of the martyrs are women who lead, teach and suffer for their faith.

Isn’t it curious that 1st century believers honored women ministers.
In our time, the 21st century, the ordination of women in the broader Mennonite church continues to be an issue and in our time, this is truly bizarre.

We have only taken time to glimpse a tiny fraction of the accounts of women, critical to the Christian tradition.

In recent time, in the last 175 years, how would we define the leadership roles for women in our church experience? How would we define changes in those roles?

Considering the feminine, let’s consider the sculptures of Henry Moore. Moore states: "... For me everything in the world of form is understood through our own bodies. From our mother's breast, from our bones, from bumping into things, we learn what is rough and what is smooth. To observe, to understand, to experience the vast variety of space, shape and form in the world, twenty lifetimes would not be enough.

David Sylvester, art critic wrote, ...Moore's figures, of course, represent nothing but themselves, but are made to look as if they themselves had been shaped by nature's energy. They seem to be weathered, eroded, tunnelled-into by the action of wind and water. Moore's reclining figures are not supine; they prop themselves up, are potentially active. Hence the affinity with river-gods: the idea is not simply that of a body subjected to the flow of nature's forces but of one in which those forces are harnessed"

I like that, that these images of women, of earthly vessels, embody an understanding of women as godlike, in whom the forces of nature are harnessed.

Maryanne is going to introduce us to another art form.