2017 Photo Gallery of Easter in Memory of Her
/Karen Lefforge shared with me these beautiful photos of Easter In Memory of Her 2017. Thank you Karen!
I am writing this morning to invite you to one of the most special events of the year. This is the fifth performance of a creative work I co-authored with Rev. Betty Adam - Easter in Memory of Her. Additional information can be found on Brigid's Place website which sponsors and organizes the event for the church.
What follows is the blurb about the Holy Saturday event posted on the Christ Church Cathedral website.
Once again on Holy Saturday, Brigid’s Place invites you to Easter in Memory of Her, an innovative service of music and mediation that celebrates the voices of the women who loved Jesus — Mary the Mother, the woman at the well, the woman who anointed Jesus, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene.
The service imagines the thoughts and prayers of the women surrounding Jesus and blends them with the music performed by singers from the Houston Chamber Choir and words written by Rice University professor April DeConick and Cathedral Canon Betty Adam.
Following last year’s service, DeConick commented, “The performance of Easter in Memory of Her at Christ Church Cathedral was stunningly beautiful. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the congregation including my own. The women soloists were outstanding yet again. Every time I see this performance I am taken to the cross. It has become my Easter.”
Adam shared, “Easter in Memory of Her continues to be a powerful experience for me — to confront the cross together with these beloved women, whose grief pours forth as well as their unwavering devotion. It helps me gain a deeper understanding of my own spiritual journey. I am so glad we can bring a presentation of such depth and beauty to the Houston area.”
Easter in Memory of Her will be held on Holy Saturday, April 15, at 4 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The performance 2015 of Easter in Memory of Her at Christ Church Cathedral was stunningly beautiful. I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation including my own. The women soloists were outstanding yet again. Every time I see this performance I am taken to the cross. It has become my Easter.
I was just interviewed for the audio-blog "Joyful Journeys" by Teresa Maron about the making of Easter in Memory of Her. To listen, you can tune in on your computer at any time HERE.
There is a 7-minute introduction with a GEM OF WISDOM offered by co-host Lauren Santerre. Then Teresa asks me about my inspiration for the Easter play and and its future as a new tradition.
Join us on Holy Saturday, April 4, at 4 pm, Christ Church Cathedral for an innovative Easter pageant that is becoming a Houston tradition.
As you know, this Easter I have worked with Reverend Betty Adam of Christ Church Cathedral here in Houston to create an Easter event for Holy Saturday that would remember the biblical women. My idea for the production was to focus on the faithfulness and feelings of the women who followed Jesus to Jerusalem and remained with him as he died.
As I wrote the script with Betty, I "stayed" with each woman in her story as it is recorded in the bible, and as I did so I imagined what it would be like to be that woman. What was her relationship with Jesus? Why was she with him at his crucifixion? What was going through her mind and what was she feeling in her heart?
As I wrote, I realized how different each woman's relationship with Jesus was, and how their reactions to him were very personal, just as our own are. I realized how much of their spirituality we have lost because we have forgotten to include them in our Easter services.
So I wrote a piece called "Remember the Biblical Women At Easter" and it has just been published by Huffington Post
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I hope that if you can't attend our special service on Holy Saturday, that you will join us in spirit during the hour 4-5 p.m. by rereading the women's stories in the bible and remembering their faithfulness and steadfastness, and their prominence in Jesus' life and death. How do their stories touch you?
I am excited to invite you to a special service that will be performed at Christ Church Cathedral (Houston, Texas) on Holy Saturday (March 30th) this year.
It is a service remembering the biblical women in the life of Jesus who followed him to the cross and remained steadfast by his side as he died. The idea for this service came when Reverend Betty Adam approached me and asked me to help create a service that would feature the women followers of Jesus. I was so honored and excited to get involved in this project and within a couple of weeks Betty and I had written a script and asked local musicians to get involved in creating an original score for voice and harp.
The musical performance and meditation features five women in the life of Jesus who remember Jesus as they stand near the cross and look on. We hope that this remembrance of the women can become part of the traditional cycle of Easter services performed in Christian churches across the world. We choose Holy Saturday because it is a silent time, a time vacated and empty when churches strip their altars and when clergy only perform last rites services. We thought that this time, from 4-5 p.m., would be an appropriate time to remember the women who have been forgotten, whose voices we seldom hear, but who remained steadfast and faithful to Jesus, even to his death.
Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity since 2006
Chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University 2013-2019
Figure Foundation Book Award for The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion From Antiquity to Today (New York: Columbia University Press 2016)
Grant Recipient with James McGrath and Charles Häberl, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Mandaean Book of John: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2012-14
Co-Founder and Executive Editor of GNOSIS: Journal of Gnostic Studies (Leiden: Brill) since 2015
Editorial Board of Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press) since 2019
Editorial Board for Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Leiden: Brill) since 2008
Grant recipient and Faculty Leader of Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Research Seminar, Emerging Religions 2017-2019
Chair, Society of Biblical Literature, Committee for the Status of Women in the Profession, 2016-2018
Research Fellow in the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious 2014-2015
Associate Editor for Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks on Religion, ten-volumes, 2016
Faculty in the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Rice University, since 2006
Grant recipient and Faculty Leader of Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Research Seminar, Mapping Death, 2010-2012
Associate Editor for Vigiliae Christianae, Journal and Monograph series (Leiden: Brill) 2014-2015
Co-chair of Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section, Society of Biblical Literature, 2012-2018
Founding Chair and Member of Steering Committee of Mysticism, Esotericism and Gnosticism in Antiquity Section, Society of Biblical Literature since 1996
Member of Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, Society of Biblical Literature, 2012-2018
Founder of the Cognition and Culture in the Humanities Workshop, Rice University, 2011-2013
29th Annual Loy Witherspoon Lecturer, University of North Carolina 2013
Centennial Lecturer for Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan 2012
Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Annual Lecturer, Carleton University 2009
Member of Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society since 2002
Member of Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society since 1988
Affiliated with the Society of Biblical Literature since 1987
Affiliated with the International Association for Coptic Studies since 2006
Affiliated with the North American Patristics Society since 2006
Affiliated with the American Academy of Religion since 2007
Affiliated with the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism since 2016
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