Worship Resources for Celebrating Women in Ministry Sunday

W omen in Ministry Sunday falls on the third Sunday in May for churches in the Reformed Church in America. Unfortunately, this day can get lost in the shuffle of graduations, end of the year ministry celebrations, and the overall busyness of the month of May. Even still, Women in Ministry Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate the way God has gifted and called women throughout history and in your own congregation.

On this page you will find a round-up of worship resources you can use to celebrate the ministry of women during a service of worship. In addition to the worship resources offered below, your church may be interested in the She Is Called Women of the Bible study series. Each volume in the series is available online for free or orderable as a print book (in English and Spanish).

The Women of the Bible study series digs deeper into the stories of women in Scripture and inspires us to celebrate both these biblical women and the women in our own lives and congregations who are answering God’s call to lead and serve—in whatever way that might be. From Mary and Martha to Zipporah and Hagar, this Bible study series returns to the beautiful stories of Scripture in order to inspire men and women alike in their spiritual journeys. As your congregation or ministry setting seeks to celebrate Women in Ministry Sunday, this Bible study series is a resource that could be used as a group Bible study, a guide for personal study, or even the springboard to a future sermon series.

In addition to the resources available below, if your church would like some practical steps for becoming more inclusive of the gifts of women all throughout the year, here are four steps to help your church move in the right direction of being an egalitarian church. You may also be interested in the history, stories, and resources available as part of the Reformed Church in America’s celebration of five decades of women in ordained ministry as elders, deacons, and ministers of Word and sacrament.

Worship resources

Beyond the Bible study series, there are many creative opportunities for celebrating Women in Ministry Sunday with your congregation. Included here are a few prayers, Scripture suggestions, song ideas, and other creative items to use as you plan your Women in Ministry Sunday service.

Illustrating ministry visually

As you plan to celebrate this day, consider the wide variety of forms ministry can take. Some women serve in pastoral ministry or church leadership, some serve as chaplains or specialized ministers, others serve in ministries of feeding people or teaching and leading children, and still others have gifts of visitation or creative arts. There are many gifts, but one Spirit.

What visuals or worship elements illustrate those areas of ministry?

• For the story of the woman at the well, place a bowl of water somewhere visible or highlight the baptismal font in some way.
• For the lesson on Priscilla and Aquila, invite a team to share the way God has called them to use their gifts together.
• Find pictures of women in your congregation’s history. Make a photo collage, bulletin board, or online photo gallery of these women and talk about the ways they served with faithfulness.
• Invite people to share stories of women who inspired them in their faith.

Scripture readings

Use one or two of these passages of Scripture as a preaching text for the sermon or as readings during other parts of the worship service:

Genesis 2:18-23 (Eve as ezer kenegdo, “a helper as his partner”)
Genesis 16, 21 (Hagar and Sarah)
Exodus 4:24-26 (Zipporah)
Judges 4-5 (Deborah)
Judges 19–21 (The Levite’s Concubine)
1 Samuel 25:2-35 (Abigail)
2 Samuel 21:1-14 (Rizpah)
2 Kings 11:1-3 (Jehosheba)
The Book of Esther (Esther and Vashti)
Joel 2:28-32 (Joel’s prophecy)
Luke 1:39-56 (Mary and Elizabeth)
Luke 2:36-38 (Anna the Prophet)
Luke 8:43-48 (Woman with the issue of blood)
Luke 10:38-42 (Mary and Martha)
Luke 18:1-8 (The Persistent Widow)
John 4:1-42 (Samaritan Woman at the Well)
Acts 2:1-21 (Pentecost)
Acts 9:36-42 (Tabitha / Dorcas)
Acts 18:1-4, 24-26 (Priscilla and Aquila)
Romans 12:3-8 (one body, many members)
Romans 16 (Phoebe)
Romans 16:7 (Junia)
1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (varieties of gifts, same Spirit)
Galatians 3:25-29 (“no longer male and female”)
1 Peter 4:8-11 (serve with whatever gifts you’ve received)

For more Scripture reading suggestions, check out A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church by Wilda C. Gafney.

Song suggestions

Here are a few hymns to use in worship.

• Carolyn Winfrey Gillette writes modern words to familiar hymn tunes, and she has a marvelous collection of hymns about women in Scripture. These three correspond to sessions in volume 1 of the Building God’s Church Together #SheIsCalled Bible study:
  • “Mary Gladly Told Her Cousin” (Luke 1:39-56)
  • “Once a Woman Seeking Water” (John 4:1-42)
  • “She Suffered Twelve Long Years” (Luke 8:43-48)
• “God of the Women” by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
• “Called As Partners In Christ’s Service”
• “Come, All You People”
• “For Such a Time as This” (words by Carol M. Bechtel, to the tune of “Amazing Grace”). Here is the text:

A hymn of joy today we raise
For ministries and gifts;
For all the ways you bid us join
Your cloud of witnesses.

Your faithful life, O Christ, inspires;
Your brokenness makes whole;
Your resurrection calls us forth
And opens long-closed doors.

For all the saints whose lives shine forth
As templates of your grace,
We give you thanks and pledge our lives
In gratitude to trace.

Our world cries out to hear your name;
The Church in mission risks,
As men and women join to serve
For such a time as this.

A Word about Language

As you prepare for Women in Ministry Sunday, take a moment to consider the kind of language traditionally used in your service of worship. Do you use expansive language for God (language that expands our perception of God) rather than limiting language? For example, how often do you speak to attributes of God such as compassion, mercy, tenderness, and love? Do you utilize the many metaphors in Scripture that help us understand God more deeply? Some examples of these metaphors are: God as a potter shaping the clay (Isaiah 64:8), God as a bird protecting vulnerable offspring (Psalm 91:4), God as sun and shield (Psalm 84:11), and God as the gardener who takes care of the vine (John 15:1), just to name a few.

Do you use inclusive language for God’s people (language that is welcoming and hospitable of the people who are gathered)? When welcoming people into the service of worship, a greeting could be used that includes the whole congregation, such as: “Friends in Christ” or “Beloved in the Lord.” Read your selected Scripture passages carefully, and note instances where the language might be heard as exclusive (such as places where the word “man” is used, but a wider audience is intended and appropriate). Is the meaning of the Scripture better captured by another translation? Will it be necessary to explain the intention of the passage if the translation you read from might be heard in an exclusive way?

For additional reading on why gender-inclusive language matters, read this two-part article by Jeff Miller on CBE International: part 1 and part 2.

Liturgical elements

Call to worship

This call to worship is drawn from 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (Common English Bible).

One: There are different spiritual gifts,
Many: but the same Spirit.
One: There are many of us,
Many: but the same Spirit who gives to us all.

One: There are different ministries,
Many: and the same Lord.
One: There are many places for us to serve,
Many: and the same Lord who calls to us all.

One: There are different activities,
Many: but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.
One: There are many of us,
Many: and one God who calls and equips us for service.

Virtual church ideas

Involve all the generations! Invite a “senior saint” to share her story after worship, during coffee hour. Ask the young women who are home from college to lead prayers and litanies, to read Scripture, or to participate in worship leadership in other ways. Invite children of young families to draw or write about the favorite women in their lives or in the Bible. For some communities, this will feel like a part two of Mother’s Day; there are so many creative possibilities for expanding this over two Sundays and expanding the circle of women being celebrated!

Congregational prayer

A litany to honor women

This litany is adapted by Rev. Liz Testa from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals and used with permission. It makes reference to women from the Reformed Church in America, both past and present. If your church is part of another denomination, you can substitute the names of women who have served in your tradition.

We walk in the company of the women who have gone before,
Mothers and sisters of the faith, both named and unnamed,
Testifying with ferocity and faith to the Spirit of Wisdom and Healing.

They are the judges, the prophets, the martyrs, the warriors, poets, lovers and Saints
Who are near to us in the shadow of awareness, in the crevices of memory,
in the landscape of our dreams.

We walk in the company of Deborah,
who judged the Israelites with authority and strength.

We walk in the company of Esther, who used her position as Queen
to ensure the welfare of her people.

We walk in the company of you whose names have been lost and silenced,
who kept and cradled the wisdom of the ages.
We walk in the company of the woman with the flow of blood,
who audaciously sought her healing and release.

We walk in the company of Mary Magdalene,
who wept at the empty tomb until the risen Christ appeared.

We walk in the company of Phoebe,
who led an early church in the empire of Rome.

We walk in the company of Perpetua of Carthage,
whose witness in the third century led to her martyrdom.

We walk in the company of Saint Christina the Astonishing,
who resisted death with persistence and wonder.

We walk in the company of Julian of Norwich,
who wed imagination and theology proclaiming “all shall be well.”

We walk in the company of Sojourner Truth, who stood against oppression,
righteously declaring “ain’t I a woman!” in 1852.

We walk in the company of the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,
who turned their grief to strength, standing together to remember
“the disappeared” children of war with a holy indignation.

We walk in the company of Alice Walker,
who named the lavender hue of womanish strength.

We walk in the company of Ida Scudder,
who saw the critical need for women’s health care in India, got trained as a doctor,
and transformed the system by building medical facilities and schools there.

We walk in the company of Joyce Stedge-Fowler,
who stayed true to God’s call, serving faithfully with determination and humor,
paving the way for women’s ordination in the Reformed Church in America.

We walk in the company of Denise Kingdom Grier,
who is called to be a bridge in and across denominations, communities and the world,
and inspires and invites others to do the same.

We walk in the company of all Mothers and Sisters of the faith,
who teach us to resist evil with boldness,
to lead with wisdom and strength,
and to heal with compassion and love.

We walk in the company of one another.

In Jesus’s name we pray.
Amen.

A litany for women in ministry: past, present, and future

A litany in honor of women here and around the world

Manifesto for women

“Let Us Be Women Who Love,” written by Idelette McVicker, was originally published at www.shelovesmagazine.com.

Let us be women who love.

Let us be women willing to lay down our sword words, our sharp looks, our ignorant silence, and towering stance and fill the earth with extravagant love.
Let us be women who love. Let us be women who make room.
Let us be women who open our arms and invite others into an honest, spacious, glorious embrace.

Let us be women who carry each other.
Let us be women who give from what we have.
Let us be women who leap to do the difficult things, the unexpected things and the necessary things.
Let us be women who live for peace.
Let us be women who breathe hope.
Let us be women who create beauty.
Let us be women who love.

Let us be a sanctuary where God may dwell.
Let us be a garden for tender souls.
Let us be a table where others may feast on the goodness of God.
Let us be a womb of life to grow.
Let us be women who love.

Let us rise to the question of our time.
Let us speak to the injustices in our world.
Let us move the mountains of fear and intimidation.
Let us shout down the walls that separate and divide.
Let us fill the earth with the fragrance of love.
Let us be women who love.

Let us listen for those who have been silenced.
Let us honor those who have been devalued.
Let us say, Enough! with abuse, abandonment, diminishing and hiding.
Let us not rest until every person is free and equal.
Let us be women who love.

Let us be women who are savvy, smart, and wise.
Let us be women who shine with the light of God in us.
Let us be women who take courage and sing the song in our hearts.
Let us be women who say yes to the beautiful, unique purpose seeded in our souls.
Let us be women who call out the song in another’s heart.
Let us be women who teach our children to do the same.
Let us be women who love.

Let us be women who love, in spite of fear.
Let us be women who love, in spite of our stories.
Let us be women who love loudly, beautifully, divinely.
Let us be women who love.

Charge

Use this charge, or benediction, at the end of a worship service.

God’s gifts and mercies have been lavished upon us with abundance.
These gifts and mercies have been taken up by many faithful people,
      and this day we celebrate the faithful women
      who have used their gifts and shared God’s mercies with us.
May we, inspired by God’s grace and the faithful women in our lives,
go forth from this place,
      ready to serve,
      ready to listen,
      ready to answer God’s call.