“Try singing these words to the tune of Adeste Fideles: O come, Christ-Sophia, full of grace and wisdom; Come bless us, come challenge us to make life anew. Come bring us power, beauty, hope, and harmony. O come, thou Christ-Sophia, O come, thou Christ-Sophia, O come, thou Christ-Sophia, wisdom and peace.” Jann Aldredge-Clanton has written 36 original texts about Christ-Sophia which are intended to be sung to traditional church songs. They are part of this uplifting collection of rituals which use inclusive language on themes of justice, peace, and healing. The image of Christ-Sophia is the thread that brings to life all of the 21 ritual celebrations and 36 pieces of music. There are rituals for wise aging, mourning loss, a newborn baby, diversity, All Saints’ Day, Advent and Christmas, winter solstice, and many more. A great book for small groups, liturgists, and prayer leaders everywhere. Jann is a Baptist minister, co-founder and pastor of an inclusive worship comunity in Texas.”
James Conlon
Director and Chair, The Sophia Center
“Praying with Christ-Sophia is marvelous; it is inviting, inclusive tender, and transformative. A welcome gift for all who long to give expression through ritual, symbol, and song to what lies deep within. A wonderful book! Courageous and creative!”
Beverly Wallis James
The Christian Ministry
“At the beginning of this impressive collection of litanies, prayers and hymns, Jann Aldredge-Clanton states that the book “comes to you as an invitation to join the creative adventure of developing egalitarian sacred symbols and rituals that bring healing and power.” We who confess Jesus Christ are not all comfortable with a Christology that readily and unselfconsciously uses the term Christ-Sophia. To put forth, as this author does, a liturgy and hymnody using Christ-Sophia is to make a courageous statement that many members of mainline denominations would call unacceptable or even heretical.
Yet to read this book as a statement from the feminist “fringe” would be to do violence to its deep and profound beauty. This is a book worth owning, reading and using. It is an invitation to join a creative adventure of reshaping what “is” into what is “becoming.”
A refreshing drink of water, this book does not argue a point of view. It is a gift of thought and poetry, of idea and metaphor, of cadence and song, offered to give words to some of life’s most poignant, difficult and joyful moments.
Praying with Christ-Sophia: Services for Healing and Renewal provides over 20 services in detail for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, as well as for occasions of healing, peacemaking, birth of a baby, wise aging, mourning a loss, and nurturing creativity. The services are followed by 36 hymns set to familiar tunes consonant with the liturgies.”
