Mothering Sunday—a day for honouring all our mothers.

Mothering Sunday...

A day to honour all those women in our lives who have loved us—whether we call them  mother  or  gran  or  sister  or  wife  or daughter  or  aunt  or  nan  or  friend or boss.

And also a day for honouring all those women in our family of faith who have loved and nurtured our church community - whether we call them friend or sister or minister or elder or  deacon or the lady who does the teas.

Today, I want to remember four women from the early church, who showed what it is to love God and then to nurture a church community.  The first is Lydia, a gentile business woman, who out of her generosity provided the meeting place for the first gathering of Christians in the Greek city of Philippi. We read about her in the Book of Acts chapter 16.

And then Priscilla, a Jewish tentmaker, who, with her husband Aquila, instructed Christian communities and leaders in three of the principal cities of the Roman Empire—Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome itself. We find more about her in Acts 18; Romans 16; 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Timothy 4.

Then, the two unnamed slave women in Bithynia (now modern-day Turkey) who were deaconesses in the church there in the second century.  The Roman governor, Pliny the Younger, had them tortured just to find out what Christians really believed. We read about them in Eusebius – a collection of documents from the early church.  I find it difficult, 1900 years later, to read the few lines about these two women leaders being tortured to satisfy a politician's curiosity without tears.

And finally, I think today of Correne and Ann-Marie and other women who have been at the heart of Church from Scratch.

A prayer for today:

O God, help us to retell the stories of the mothers of your church. We repent of the way in which the church has so often treated women in the past and commit ourselves to honouring one another in your church. 

Create in us a spirit like that found both in Lydia and in Priscilla—a spirit open to yours, eager to receive and act upon your good news. Help us to have the same courage as those two slaves. 

Thank you for all we have treasured in the Godly women we have known.

In the name of the risen Christ, we pray this. 

Amen.