Irish Scholar Reveals who Gandmother of Virgin Mary Was
December 17, 2010
By James Cooper
IrishCentral.com

The great-grandmother of Jesus, grandmother of the Virgin Mary, was a woman named Ismeria, according to a University of Limerick lecturer/historian who has analyzed Florentine medieval manuscripts. "I don't think any other woman is mentioned" as Mary's grandmother in the Bible, the Limerick-based Catherine Lawless, told Discovery News. "Mary's patrilineal lineage is the only one given."

Heroic, Female and Muslim
December 15, 2010
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times

What’s the ugliest side of Islam? Maybe it’s the Somali Muslim militias that engage in atrocities like the execution of a 13-year-old girl named Aisha Ibrahim. ...

Why Elizabeth Edwards Left God Out of Her Last Goodbye
December 9, 2010
By David Gibson
Politics Daily

A dying person's last words are often, and perhaps too easily, held out as the key to understanding all that went before, and so it has been with Elizabeth Edwards.

Judith’s Story Recalls Triumph — with a Nasty Sword
December 7, 2010
By Jonathan Groner
J Weekly

When most of us think of Chanukah, we think of the Maccabees — the High Priest Mattathias and his five sons — and their religious and military struggle against the Hellenist Syrians. It's a pretty male-dominated story.

Catholics Await Gender-Neutral Liturgy
December 6, 2010
By Mary Kate Boylan
WeNews

"He" and "mankind" have been dropping from some religious texts in favor of gender-neutral terms. Lacking a papal initiative, priests who modify the Catholic liturgy are doing it one by one. Father George Hill, a Catholic priest, says that when he looks out on women in his congregation, he finds it insulting to tell them to pray for the "peace and unity of mankind."

Korean-American Women and Ordination in the Church
December 3, 2010
By Theresa Cho
Sojourners

In 2004, I was the 40th Korean-American clergywomen to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination. Forty seems like such a small number when you consider that in 2011, Korean-American Clergywomen (KACW) will be celebrating their 20th anniversary. However, many Korean-American women are still wandering the desert of the ordination process without a rock, well, pitcher, or even a drop of water in sight to quench their thirst to serve as God has called them.

Church-based Outreach Group Caters to Prisoners' Human Needs
December 3, 2010
By Rebecca Cusey
The Washington Post

Jesus left his followers with precious few commands: Love thy neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the prisoner among them. So why do so many churches have such a hard time with that last one? Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank, for one, is waiting for a good answer.

Indian Widows Swell Temple-Filled Town
December 1, 2010
By Swapna Majumdar
WeNews

The Indian temple town of Vrindavan continues to attract widows facing the traditional ostracism of village life. Many say they prefer to live on less than $1 a day than to go back to the families who cast them out. Widows facing financial deprivation and ostracism in their villages continue to gravitate to the temple town of Vrindavan, in the largest state of Uttar Pradesh, to literally sing for their supper, finds a Nov. 29 study.

Israel's Divorce Ruling Leaves Matter Unsettled
November 30, 2010
By Michele Chabin
WeNews

An Israeli women's rights organization is deciding whether to ask the High Court here to reconsider its ruling on a divorce practice it says allows men to blackmail estranged wives seeking to remarry. "The court did not completely ban the practice of paying off recalcitrant husbands," said Susan Weiss, director of the Jerusalem-based Center for Women's Justice.

The Other Puritan Dinner Party
November 25, 2010
By Joanna Brooks
Religion Dispatches

Years ago, I saw feminist artist Judy Chicago's legendary installation The Dinner Party (1979), a table set with hand-fashioned settings for 39 women guests of honor from Ishtar and Judith to Christine de Pisan and Sojourner Truth. Seeing the Dinner Party was, of course, a religious experience, just as Chicago intended it to be.