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June 9
Ephrem the Syrian, Columba, James Lawson, and Victoria Woodhull
David Barnhart
June 09, 2025
Ioan Abbey, 2011. There is still a vibrant Christian community here.
Today is the feast day of Ephrem the Syrian, who died around 379 CE. He was a theologian of the early church who wrote a number of Aramaic hymns notable for their feminine imagery, and which employed women’s choirs and voices in leading worship.
Today is also the feast of Columba, also known as Colmcille, who founded the monastery at Iona (and forty more monasteries besides) and spread Christianity in Ireland and Scotland. Since in his part of the world there were few “red martyrs” who had to shed blood for their faith, Celtic Christians came up with the idea of “green martyrs,” who renounced wealth for faithful service, and “white martyrs” who sailed into the unknown to share the love of Christ (like Brendan the Navigator). Many monks from Iona chose “white martyrdom.”
Today also marks the death, in 1927, of Victoria Woodhull, suffragist, entrepreneur, and the first woman to run for President of the United States, in 1872. She was an advocate for women’s right to divorce and bear children on their own terms.
Today marks the death, in 2024, of James Lawson, civil rights leader, United Methodist pastor, professor, and teacher of nonviolence.
Reflection:
Ephrem the Syrian puts the following hymn in the mouth of Mary, mother of Jesus:
“I shall not be jealous, my Son, that You are both with me
and with everyone. Be God
to the one who confesses You, and be Lord
to the one who serves You, and be brother
to the one who loves You so that You might save all.
While you dwelt in me, both in me and outside of me
Your majesty dwelt. While I gave birth to You
openly, Your hidden power
was not removed from me. You are within me,
and You are outside of me, O Mystifier of His Mother.
…You are not merely a human being that in an ordinary way
I should sing You a lullaby. For Your conception is a new thing,
and Your birth is a miracle. Without the Spirit
who could sing to You? A new utterance
of prophecy seethes within me.”
It is hard to imagine most modern North American churches singing anything this bold in worship. Can you imagine?
Victoria Woodhull said in a speech to the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1871:
“If Congress refuse to listen to and grant what women ask, there is but one course left then to pursue. Women have no government. Men have organized a government, and they maintain it to the utter exclusion of women.... Under such glaring inconsistencies, such unwarrantable tyranny, such unscrupulous despotism, what is there left [for] women to do but to become the mothers of the future government? …We mean treason; we mean secession, and on a thousand times grander scale than was that of the south. We are plotting revolution; we will overslough this bogus republic and plant a government of righteousness in its stead, which shall not only profess to derive its power from consent of the governed but shall do so in reality.”
In addition to teaching on peace and nonviolence, James Lawson befriended and became the pastor to James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King, Jr.. He and many other civil rights leaders believed that Ray was a patsy for a deeper conspiracy. You can see a video of Lawson telling the story here.
Prayer: Mother God, you have much to teach us about yourself, and about ourselves, but our society has been historically deaf to half of humanity. Inspire a new green martyrdom among those who follow Christ for the planet and for women, which will create more justice and flourishing for all beings. Amen.