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IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction and reflection and reflection and reflection and reflection Spend some time reflecting on the images of Jesus below, portrayed as a crucified woman. Which image makes the biggest impression on you? Why? Are there aspects of the images that you find difficult or disturbing?

Image aImage aImage aImage a: : : : A painted wooden cross, made in memory of a Baptist woman in El Salvador. Her name was Maria Cristina Gomez, and she was a primary school teacher and an active member of her

church. In April 1989 she was murdered because of her involvement in grassroots politics. This cross, painted in Salvadorean style, was commissioned to celebrate her life and her faith. Image bImage bImage bImage b: : : : A sculpture made by Edwina

Sandys in 1974 for the United Nations Decade for Women. She says, 'Christa represents the oppressed and devoured women of our jails and prisons, any women forgotten, hidden, abused or thrown away, the suffering woman in all of

us.' Image cImage cImage cImage c: : : : This is a sketch of a stitched panel, a work in response to the rapes of thousands of Bosnian women.

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We have our being from him (Jesus Christ) where the foundation of motherhood begins, with all sweet protection of love which endlessly follows. . . The mother can give her child a suck of milk, but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself and does... The mother can lay her child tenderly to her breast, but our tender mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed breast through his sweet open side, and show us there a part of the godhead and of the joys of heaven, with inner certainty of endless bliss. This fair lovely

word 'mother' is so sweet and so kind in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of him and to him who is the true Mother of life and of all things. To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge, and this is God. JJJJulian of Nulian of Nulian of Nulian of Norwich orwich orwich orwich –––– femalefemalefemalefemale writer and mystic writer and mystic writer and mystic writer and mystic 14141414thththth CenturyCenturyCenturyCentury The image of a crucified woman simultaneously suggests that women, through our common humanity with

Christ, have a claim to the power and divinity from which Christianity has systematically tried to exclude us; and illustrates in a very vivid and striking way the actual physical violence that is done to women day in, day out, all over the world. For the crucifixion to have any impact, Christ had to be male.. there is nothing unusual about a woman suffering grotesquely humiliating agony, whether she is a 5 year-old girl repeatedly raped by her father, a prostitute brutalised by her pimp, or a middle-aged woman suffering from environmentally-induced cancer. And yet women have the strength and the spirit not only to endure this suffering, but to

struggle against it and in the middle of it to create warmth and beauty. The image of a crucified woman demands recognition, from people who prefer denial, of women's suffering and women's strength. Until we are let down off our crosses to become fully human, the image of a crucified woman is a vital reminder that we too are in God, and God is in us. Kate Chedgzoy from MovementKate Chedgzoy from MovementKate Chedgzoy from MovementKate Chedgzoy from Movement magazine magazine magazine magazine, Spring 199, Spring 199, Spring 199, Spring 1990 0 0 0

Must we not say that the very limitations of Christ as a male person must lead women to the conclusion that he cannot represent redemptive personhood for them? ... Women play an important role in the Gospel vision of the vindication of the lowly in God's new order. Jesus as liberator calls for a renunciation, a dissolution of the web of status relationships by which societies have defined privilege and deprivation. Theologically speaking we may say that the maleness of Jesus has no ultimate significance. Christ is not necessarily male, nor is the redeemed community only women, but a new humanity, female and male. Christ, as redemptive

person and Word of God, is not to be encapsulated 'once-for-all” in the historical Jesus. The Christian community continues Christ's identity. Christ the liberated humanity is not confined to a static perfection of one person two thousand years ago. Rather redemptive humanity goes ahead of us, calling us to yet incompleted dimensions of human liberation. Rosemary Radford RuetheRosemary Radford RuetheRosemary Radford RuetheRosemary Radford Ruetherrrr

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem... How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Luke 13.3Luke 13.3Luke 13.3Luke 13.34444

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“The image of a crucified woman is a vital reminder that we too are in God, and God is in us” Read the passages below and discuss your initial responses. Then think through some of the questions below:

• Do you think the maleness of Christ excludes women?

• Do you think it is important to use imagery that shows God/Christ as feminine?

• Most female Christa images are of a crucified figure. Is this problematic? What might a risen Christa look like?

bn www.creativecommons.org.uk Created as part of SCM’s year theme 2008-2009 Liberating Gender