15.01.2013
Archbishop Launches BACI Lent Bible Study Resource
The Biblical Association for the Church of Ireland today (Tuesday January 15) launched its Lent 2013 Bible Study Resource on Gender Justice at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Braemor Park, Dublin 6.
Commending the resource, the organisation’s patron, Archbishop Michael Jackson said: “These Bible Studies on Gender Justice emerge in the Season of Epiphany for use in the Season of Lent. They are most helpful in our human grappling with light and darkness, glory and suffering in biblical and theological ways. It is early enough in 2013 for parishes and communities to embrace them”.
“The studies take a positive trajectory which leads us through from Genesis 1: 27 to Galatians 3:28. They are nonetheless far from naïve about a bigger and brutal picture; and I quote: ‘It would be to deny the complexity of human existence if we did not take the time to explore more fully the problematic and painful experiences of why gender relations go wrong.’ . . . The imperative is laid down for us to hold together intellectual engagement and the beginning of modelling communities in which justice between the genders is a reality. We have a long way to go before we have even started, I suggest,” he added.
(You can read the full text of the Archbishop’s talk here)
This set of five Bible Studies pairs passages related to the theme of gender justice from the Old Testament and the New Testament each week, offering reflections, notes and questions for group discussion. It is hoped that each one will help participants consider how these texts of scripture may challenge and inspire us today.
The particular themes for each week are as follows:
1) Pushing social boundaries
2) Sin, responsibility and justice
3) Gentile women in Nehemiah and Acts
4) Power, abuse, victimhood and mutuality
5) Destitution, determination and inspiration
A selection of prayers on the theme and a bibliography are included for use throughout the series; also a questionnaire which participants are asked to return as requested by the ACC’s Bible in the Life of the Church project, which has asked member churches to reflect on this theme as well as on Economic Justice, which was our subject last Lent.
These materials were written and compiled for BACI by Dr Katie Heffelfinger, Dr David Hutchinson Edgar, Revd Canon Dr Ginnie Kennerley, Revd Dr William Olhausen, Dr Jason Silverman, Revd Canon Helene Steed, and Ms Jacqui Wilkinson.
The Bible Study Resource was also formally launched in the Good Book Shop in Belfast by the Rt Revd Harold Miller.
BACI is pleased to announce that the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, has graciously agreed to act as co–patron of BACI with Archbishop Jackson.
The resource is available both in printed form (€2.50 per copy through the Bible Society, R E Resource Centre or Good Book Shop) and on line (free from <bibliahibernica.wordpress.com>).