The Book of Ruth will be the focus of Bible Study for the Anglican Consultative Council Meeting in Lusaka. The Anglican Communion News Service reports:
When members of the Anglican Consultative Council meet in Lusaka next month for its 16th meeting (ACC-16), they will discuss – in the context of intentional discipleship – issues ranging from gender justice, refugees and migration, the environment and reconciliation; and they will do so against a backdrop of prayer, Bible study and worship.
And members of the Anglican Communion throughout the world are being invited to join with them as they explore the Book of Ruth in a series of daily Bible studies.
The Bible studies have been prepared by a group of biblical scholars that met 16 times via Skype in 2014 and 2015, specifically written with ACC-16 in mind. They are also part of the Bible in the Life of the Church [BLC] initiative which aims to encourage the Anglican Communion to read the Bible together across the different contexts in which Anglicans are called to witness and minister.
The Bible study books include a dramatised reading of the book of Ruth by Ellen Davis and a series of woodcuts illustrating the story by Margaret Adams Parker. Both were first used in the book “Who Are You My Daughter? – Reading Ruth Through Image and Text”.
Anglicans around the world are invited to study the book of Ruth either at the same time as the ACC or at another time. The ACC Bible study books can be downloaded (pdf) from the ACC-16 webpage in English, French and Spanish. The daily Bible studies will be published on ACNS from 8 to 19 April.
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I always see it as Naomi's story. [It was Naomi that was Ruth's inspiration to convert .] The kingsman redeemer Boaz was put in place by society to offer survival for a poor, childless, widow. Boaz showed Ruth mercy in the midst of ill fate, sheer brokenness and sinfulness.
A foreshadowing of Christ and his bride, The Church.
Ah-HA! Maybe that's the reason that GAFCON and ACNA are "boy"cotting (pun intended) Lusaka.
I am not a theologian, nor do I play one on TV (or on the internet). But biblical scholars I trust indicate that the same Hebrew word used to describe Adam's feelings for Eve ("dabaq") is used to describe Ruth's feelings for Naomi. Moreover, a song based on Ruth and Naomi's vows to each other, "Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee," was sung at countless heterosexual weddings for several generations, and is now having a resurgence at same-sex weddings.
Very interesting... I find the study of Ruth an appropriate choice.
dabaq means to: cling, cleave, keep close, stick together. I don't think it necessarily describes feelings. But it does describe Adam and Eve, and Ruth & Naomi's position. (although, I think it was more one-sided with Ruth).
A curious choice. A Moabite wife of a Hebrew man who dies before they have children seduces a married relative, marries him, and bears children who are considered descendants of her first husband and making him responsible for her mother in law in her old age. Under the Levitical law of marriage, these hints of universality, sexual seduction and polygamy are accounted to her as righteousness.
A plot worthy of a soap opera though I hesitate to speculate which province is playing which role. But, then, maybe that's its connection with the Anglican Communion.
Ruth's faith made her righteous. Jesus, King Solomon, King David were her direct descendants. It's a miracle what God did with the outsider, pitiful, childless, widow. And it gives everyone hope.
The Book of Ruth and a Soap Opera, you say? Why, I have just that in mind!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYKrQv-P87Q
The soap opera is (gone but not forgotten) Guiding Light. The story, is the torturous love affair (in the soap's final months in 2009) of Olivia and Natalia ("Otalia" to us fans).
Olivia is willing to lose her (Roman Catholic!) lady love Natalia---quoting Ruth here---to a "nice normal guy", Frank.
But True Same-Sex Love wins out in the end! <3<3 Learn it well, Anglicans... 😉