Susan J. White

Pilgrim Press 

Susan White poses two very significant queries: How do we find women in the history of Christian worship? In What kinds of spaces have women chosen to worship? To answer these questions, she uncovers a rich heritage, documenting and gathering a much-neglected, but abundant wealth of stories of women and worship.

Stephanie Y. Mitchem

The Pilgrim Press 

Stephanie Y. Mitchem explores African American women's religious practices and spirituality from the perspective of healing. She asserts that the embedded practices and functions of health can indicate black women's value and meaning, and such understanding becomes a rich ground for womanist theologians.

Joy A. Lawler

Abingdon Press 

Bible People: Women will help you to discover information and reflect on insights relating to important female figures the Bible: Mary, the mother of Jesus; Ruth & Naomi; Rahab; Elizabeth; Bathsheba; Rebekah; the Woman Caught in Adultry. Contains helps and marginal notes that a leader or individual user will find helpful.  

Linda H. Hollies

The Pilgrim Press 

Hollies takes a look at the “bodaciousness” of women of color through stories of biblical women such as Queen Esther, Mary, the “bent over woman” in Luke 13, and other unnamed biblical women. She launches her discussion of this bodaciousness through the lens of womanist theology. She discusses the journey of African American women who drew strength from their destitute state by weaving a quilt of resistance and resiliency, and encourages African American women and other women of color to be bold enough to move from their places of stagnation to places of victory.

Mary Crist Brown

The Pilgrim Press 

Nancy Peeler Keppel and Jeannette Stokes

United Church Press  

God Speaks, Women Respond is a collection of essays by women in ministry in the United Church of Christ. The richness and diversity of voices offer a rare and useful glimpse into the complexities of composing meaningful lives of service in the face of sometimes overwhelming obstacles.

The essays will encourage women who are already active in the church. Clergy, whether UCC or not, will find here a commonality of experience. Anyone considering a career in lay or ordained ministry can read these stories to better understand the processes and possibilities of living in response to God's call. Congregational leaders can learn more about how church dynamics appear from the other side. Anyone seeking inspiration for the life of faith can draw strength from the journeys of these women.

Linda Clark, Marian Ronan, Eleanor Walker

The Pilgrim Press  

Explores the many-faceted questions of feminism and the Christian tradition, women and worship. The authors call for a transformation of religious symbols and rituals, and acknowledgment that women should - and can - be as integral to worship as men. The book contains descriptions of exercises - to be conducted individually, in small groups, or in large ones - that will help women increase their awareness of their religious depths.

Marilyn Breitling & Jean Stewart Berg, Editors

Coordinating Center for Women in Church & Society, UCC 

Coordinating Center for Women in Church & Society, UCC 

LaVerne McCain Gill 

Linda H. Hollies

The Pilgrim Press 

On Their Way to Wonderful is an exploration of multicultural marriage (Ruth and Boaz) as well as diversity and racism in Scripture (Ruth, a Moabite who God allows to enter the forbidden Jewish blood line). Women will relate to this resource as it touches on issues that impact their lives, such as making critical decisions, handling relationships, and renewal of the self and soul. Includes study questions and space for journaling.

Michele Hower

The Pilgrim Press 

In this rare celebration of single mothers, Howe presents narratives on a variety of single mother's experiences and follows up with prayers supporting relevant scripture passages. The book's fifty prayers addresses such issues as finances, friendship, fear, loneliness, and anger, while offering hope and encouragement to the single mother on her often-uncertain journey. Howe also includes prayer activities single mothers can engage in with their children to further nurture the familial bond that all mothers strive so hard to attain.

Diann L. Neu

The Pilgrim Press

Return Blessings offers a number of prototype blessing ceremonies related to the environment that invite participants into greater consciousness of the earth as well as a renewed commitment to preserving the delicate balance of nature against the forces of global warming, toxic waste, deforestation, erosion, and an increasing incidence of cancers and other pollution-related illness. The author’s four main chapters correspond to the four seasons, and advert often to the fact that the seasons are reversed between the northern and southern hemispheres (an awareness rarely noted in Euro-American texts!) These models are less specific to women and could be adapted for a conference or congress on eco-theology. 

Lesley A. Northrup

The Pilgrim Press

Northup offers a captivating, in-depth examination of many of the issues regarding women's ritualizing -- such as the common patterns and images used, the construction of sacred space and time, the value of narrative, and the patterns of politics and social action. A fascinating, definitive study of post-modernism and universality in the context of women's worship.

Church Women United

Serendipity House

Charla Hudson Honea, Editor

The Pilgrim Press

There are two categories of women today - those who have breast cancer and those who are afraid of getting it. For the one in nine who will be diagnosed with this silent killer, the most valuable source of strength and support is survivors - those who have already embarked on the journey to healing. The First Year of the Rest of Your Life gathers stories and reflections by some of these remarkable women, who by sharing their most personal experiences are shattering the silence - and saving lives.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim

The Pilgrim Press  

Korean North American women live with a legacy of severe oppression, which has been passed down through generations. In Korea, women suffered under prevailing religious beliefs and cultural practices. When they immigrated to North America, they remained dominated and subordinated, due to barriers such as racism, classism, and sexism. Grace Ji-Sun Kim asks, what is the "good news" for these women, and how can they come to understand God is with them? Kim's visionary work is also a pioneering effort -- Korean North American women's theology is in an early stage of development and she is one of only a few Korean North American women theologians. Kim exposes an additional layer of oppression for Korean North American women -- an accumulation of han. She characterizes han as a prevalent sense of unresolved resentment against injustice suffered and a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against them. The Grace of Sophia proposes that linking Jesus with Sophia can be a meaningful way of portraying Christ to Korean North American women. The biblical figure Sophia, understood in conjunction with wisdom elements of Asian religious tradition, will offer a liberating and healing Christology for these women.

Jane McAvoy

The Pilgrim Press 

Jane McAvoy constructs a feminist theology of atonement - or satisfaction for our sin - that draws on the insights of six medieval women mystics: Julian of Norwich, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hildegard of Bingen, Margery Kempe, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Catherine of Siena. These Christian writers reveal alternatives to a theology of oppression. Salvation, for them, means experiencing the death and resurrection of Christ not as life-denying, but as a life-affirming celebration of God's love for us through the sustaining love of Jesus.

LaVerne McGain Gill

The Pilgrim Press 

Gill examines six Bible stories using the "Justice Reading Strategy" she employed in her book Daughters of Dignity. This strategy goes beyond the biblical narratives that direct attention to the primarily male leaders and instead focuses on a more holistic view of the story--a view that seeks discernment about God's purpose in the narrative rather than the human preoccupation with heroes and heroines. The women surrounding Moses, Michal, the daughters of Zelophehad, and Susanna, are compared to contemporary women such as Ida B. Wells Barnett, who resisted economic, political, religious and cultural oppression. Study questions are included at the end of each chapter

Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Editor

The Pilgrim Press

"International in its sweep, War's Dirty Secret documents with sobering specificity the endemic sexual violence against women in war, no matter the continent, whatever the circumstance. It's editor, Anne Barstow, has marshaled scholars and activists from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas to expose this hidden depravity of warfare."

- Dana Green, Dean and CEO, Oxford College of Emory University

Carter Heyward

The Pilgrim Press

Carter Heyward explores the boundaries of therapy, challenging the values and codes that govern counseling and psychotherapy. The result is a theology of healing based on peer relationships - one that embraces such themes as mutuality, voice, compassion, earthcare, and ambiguity.

Nancy Chinn and Harriet Gleeson

The Pilgrim Press 

"Written by two women on their transformative life journeys, its chapters trace new categories of spirituality: right-relationship to the earth, care of the body, suffering through and out of suffering, risk-taking, relationships of heart and sexuality, anger, feasting. In every instance the left brain, so given to words, is enriched by the right brain and its power to summon up images. Together they chart a path along which these two women and Holy Wisdom rub up against each other, like silk that creates static or like flint that shoots off sparks. The friction ignites a fire that illuminates deep truths helpful to everyone else on the journey..."

- Elizabeth A. Johnson, from the Foreward

Elizabeth G. Watson

The Pilgrim Press  

Wisdom's Daughters tells the life of Jesus through the eyes and hearts of fourteen New Testament women. Readers can visualize Jesus calling these women to follow him and become the bearers of his message, when all of the disciples except John deserted him. Each story begins with references to key biblical passages and then opens up in three parts. First, each woman speaks in her own voice in a way that knits together the scriptural traces with the ministry of Jesus. Second, the author comments on the various questions that biblical and feminist scholarship has raised regarding this woman. Third, the reader is offered questions in order to reflect on connections with the biblical character and on implications for the present. Elizabeth Watson's book is an imaginative, tested resource for spiritual nurture. It can be stimulating for church or discussion groups as well as for individuals in private study and devotions.

Susan Towner-Larsen & Barbara Brewer Davis

United Church Press

 "This book is an attempt to reflect on the endless ways that quilting is a context for the spiritual journey. Each chapter centers on a theme that connects to life in the Spirit and to life as a quilter. The metaphors and stories that thread their way through these two overlapping worlds, demonstrate emphatically that the sacred exists in the routine happenings of our lives." --from the Introduction

Barbara J. Essex

The Pilgrim Press  

INSIGHTS Bible Studies for Growing Faith is a series of short-term, thematically-based resources for individuals and groups seeking to find meaning and direction for their lives by exploring the Scriptures in ways that are helpful and inspirational.

Karen L. Roller

The Pilgrim Press 

Alice Quinn

Women, INK. 

Diann L. Neu

The Pilgrim Press

In Women’s Rites Neu first surveys developmental theories relating to rites of passage, then summarizes the most significant literature in the field of women’s liturgies. A sketch of steps in a typical planning process leads into four thematic chapters on creating community, women’s typical reproductive life-passages and events, and mourning deceased loved ones. Each chapter presents a wide variety of model liturgies, both those planned by the author and others collected from local groups in, for example, Argentina and Canada.