Liz Shercliff and Kate Bruce have written a new book called 'Out of the Shadows', which looks at the women in the Bible with the aim of helping preachers to focus on these women when the opportunity arises.
“Only 93 of the women in the Bible speak,” says Liz Shercliff, Director of Studies for Readers in the diocese. “As a result they are rarely preached on. However, the Bible’s women are not weak. They stride onto the page and change what they find there.” In order to encourage people to preach on, read about and study some of the Bible’s women, Liz got together with Kate Bruce to write a new book, Out of the Shadows.
Each chapter identifies when the women occur in the Lectionary, what they say in the Bible, some research about them and a suggested sermon. “The aim is to enable preachers to focus on these women when the opportunity arises,” says Kate Bruce. Some stories are read in new ways, others tell stories that have been almost lost. Each chapter identifies the ‘shadow’ that has obscured its hero – for example, the chapter about Eve is entitled “The Long Shadow of Blame.”
For preachers and worship leaders the book also includes homiletic points at the end of each suggested sermon and a new Collect to be used in the service.
Songs of Praise presenter Kate Bottley says the book is “important, accessible and comprehensive … I commend it to you with urgency.” The Bishop of Chester, Mark Tanner urges preachers to “decide today that these women will not remain in the shadows.”
The book follows on from Liz’s earlier work Preaching Women, also from SCM Press. You can buy the book here