There's not an awful lot of women written about in the Bible who take leadership roles. It's as if there aren't any. Maybe it's a conspiracy by the men to keep them all silent, either that or there weren't any.
Sadly the truth is the former that the church as it began to grow silenced the women, re-interpreted their roles. so it's great to come across a wee story of a big woman called Tabatha. She's given a title no other woman is given in the New testament: mathetria, the feminine form of the Greek word for 'disciple'.
Quietly and silently there are many women to play leadership roles such as Mary and Elizabeth but we Bible is rather hesitant to tell their story. So maybe we ought. maybe we should find them and tell them. Maybe that would be a great contemporary reading. maybe we should ahve far more women taking part in the worship on Sunday...
Anyway, the passage is Acts 9:36-43. Tabitha is raised from the dead and there are lots of parallels with other raising stories. It links in all over the place as a sacred story. Pity it's not one we hear often. Indeed hardly ever. I wonder why that is...?
So ideas on how we could tell it, proclaim it, learn it, sing it, read it, symbolise it, walk into it?
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