For the Good of the Church

What do we need to learn and receive from the other to help us address challenges or wounds in our own tradition? That is the key question asked in what has come to be known as ‘receptive ecumenism’. And nowhere is this question more pressing and pertinent than in women’s experiences within the church.Based on qualitative research from five focus groups, 'For the Good of the Church' expose the difficulties women face when they work in a church – sexism, unfulfilled vocation, and abuse of power and privilege, as well as the wide range of gifts and skills which women bring in light of these.The second part of the book continues to draw on the particular wounds and gifts, which arise in the focus groups. Specific case studies are used to identify gifts of theology, practice, experience, vocation and power. Against negative prognoses of an ‘ecumenical winter’, Gabrielle Thomas reveals how radically different theological and ecclesiological perspectives can be a space for learning and receiving gifts for the well-being of the whole Church.

‘This important book draws together how we learn both from other churches and from the voices of women. As it does so it challenges us to reflect on how we listen properly to the experiences of those who are different from us or whose voices are sometimes not heard. It is a rich resource and well worth reading carefully and thoughtfully for all the wisdom it contains.’, It would have been enough to tell the fascinating story of a fruitful project with women deeply committed to a wide range of churches, but Gabrielle Thomas does even more. She gives prophetic insights, together with wise, accessible theology, on key issues (including painful ones) relevant to all churches, and in the process she adds an important dimension to one of the most promising Christian movements of our time, Receptive Ecumenism

Gabrielle Thomas is Lecturer in Early Christian and Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School, Connecticut and is an ordained priest in the Church of England. Prior to moving to the U.S., she worked as an assistant professor (research) at Durham University, U.K. and served as a Minor Canon in Durham Cathedral. Her publications include the monograph The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and she has written articles for the Scottish Journal of Theology, Exchange and Studia Patristica, as well as a number of chapters for edited collections, and articles for the popular Christian press. She is a member of the theological reflection group of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which meets at Lambeth Palace bi-annually and serves on the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith project.