“Rise Up, O People, Proclaim Christ-Sophia Has Risen” Video

This video comes as a gift for your Easter celebrations, inviting hope of healing, resurrection, and new life.

Rev. Larry E. Schultz conducts the Chancel Choir of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, in singing “Rise Up, O People, Proclaim Christ-Sophia Has Risen” to a familiar hymn tune, with pictures from various artists.

This video comes as a gift for your Easter celebrations, inviting hope of healing, resurrection, and new life.

“Christ-Sophia” is the central divine symbol in this song. This new symbol holds power for inspiring social justice through shared power and fulfilling the biblical promise of new creation.  “Christ-Sophia” resurrects a lost biblical symbol and offers new possibilities for wholeness by making equal connections between male and female, black and white, Jewish and Christian traditions, thus providing a foundation for communities based on partnership instead of domination.Sophia, the Greek word for Wisdom, is a resurrected biblical female divine image that opens new possibilities for justice, liberation, and new life.

New Testament writers link Christ to Wisdom, a feminine symbol of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. Wisdom (Hokmah in Hebrew) symbolizes creative, redemptive, and healing power. In their efforts to describe this same power in Christ, the apostle Paul and other New Testament writers draw from the picture of Wisdom. The apostle Paul refers to Christ as the “power of God and the Wisdom (Sophia) of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and states that Christ “became for us Wisdom (Sophia) from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). The book of Proverbs describes Wisdom as the “way,” the “life,” and the “path” (4:11,22,26).  The Gospel of John refers to Christ as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Bringing this biblical connection of Christ and Sophia to our worship can inspire powerful partnerships that contribute to peace and justice in our world.

The new linguistic symbol of “Christ-Sophia” awakens the imagination to the continual birthing that takes place through creation and resurrection. “Christ-Sophia” inspires hope that the Divine Feminine, killed by patriarchy, can rise again to bring new power and wisdom. “Christ-Sophia” gives rise to a living faith. “Christ-Sophia” frees us from narrow ways of thinking and challenges us to new ideas and new ways of being. “Christ-Sophia” empowers us to make the vision of the new creation a reality.

Hymn Lyrics:

Words  © Jann Aldredge-Clanton, from Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians (Eakin Press, 2006). For permissions, contact: www.jannaldredgeclanton.com For additional inclusive music for all ages, see: https://www.jannaldredgeclanton.com/music.php.

Performed by: Chancel Choir of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina (http://www.pullen.org/). Conductor: Rev. Larry E. Schultz

Visual Artists:

Alice Heimsoth: two photos inside Ebenezer/herchurch Lutheran, San Francisco (http://www.herchurch.org/) and two photos from “Sisters Stepp’in Pride” events. © Alice Heimsoth. Used with permission. http://www.aliceheimsoth.com/gallery/258290; http://www.aliceheimsoth.com/Other/herchurch-Easter-2012/22366832_Whhj3j#%21i=1792348850&k=DT4MQbt; http://www.aliceheimsoth.com/Events/2006/Sisters-Steppin-Pride/1832109_NXQqNT#!i=91664484&k=s9sTA

Pam Allen: “Mary Magdalene and Butterflies” © Pam Allen. Used with permission.

Mirta Toledo: “Sophia” © 2003 Mirta Toledo. Used with permission. http://www.afrolatinart.com/#/mirta-         toledo/4532396991; https://www.jannaldredgeclanton.com/books.php#book3

Bridget Mary’s Blog: two photos from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/

Mary Plaster: “Sophia, Divine Wisdom” © 2003 Mary Plaster. Used with permission. http://www.maryplaster.com/mary.html

David Clanton: photo of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church Chancel Choir, Orchestra, & Congregation © David M. Clanton. Used with permission.  http://www.davidclanton.com/;  http://david-clanton.artistwebsites.com/

Recorded by: Ward Productions, Pinehurst, North Carolina