“We Are the Body of Sophia”– “We Reflect Her Divinity” Song Video

When I was teaching English at Dallas Baptist University, I read All We’re Meant to Be, by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty. Here I discovered more than enough biblical support for gender equality in the church and in all areas of life. All We’re Meant to Be started me on my journey of claiming all I’m meant to be. Even though I delighted in my teaching vocation and viewed it as a ministry, now I could see myself in other kinds of ministries as well. So I was receptive when the call came to pastoral ministry that included social justice activism and writing on gender equality,

Soon I discovered that for all people to become all we’re meant to be we need to dismantle patriarchy that gives greatest value to white, heterosexual, able-bodied, financially privileged males. At the foundation of our patriarchal culture is an image of a white male God. I began to find numerous biblical female divine names and images. It was then I felt  in the divine image not in some secondary way but fully, just as I’m created to be. My creativity began to blossom into songs, liturgies, and stories that include the Female Divine.

When we know at the deepest level that we are Her sacred dwelling place and that we reflect Her divinity, we can claim the fullness of all we’re meant to be, including the gift of our creativity.

We Are the Body of Sophia

We are the body of Sophia;
we are Her sacred dwelling place.
We are Her voice of peace and freedom;
we are Her wisdom and Her grace.

Words © 2019 Jann Aldredge-Clanton    

We Reflect Her Divinity

We reflect Her divinity,
claiming all we are meant to be.
We reflect Her divinity,
claiming our creativity.

Words © 2019 Jann Aldredge-Clanton            Music  © 2019 Katie Ketchum

Video Credits

Performed by: Katie Ketchum

Music: Katie Ketchum, “We Reflect Her Divinity”

Lyrics: Jann Aldredge-Clanton

From: Hersay: Songs for Healing and Empowerment

Recorded at: Joe Hoffmann Studios, Occidental, CA

Visual Art:

Katie Ketchum: Hersay book cover, “She Is Materializing,” and “Guadalupe” paintings

Mirta Toledo: “Sophia” painting

photos from The Gathering, A Womanist Church

photo of Representative Barbara Jordan

Stacy Boorn: two Christ-Sophia paintings

photo of Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall

photo from UN Commission on the Status of Women

Elaine Chan-Scherer: “Our Lady of Charity” painting

Photo of Roman Catholic Women Priests

Alice Heimsoth: two photos inside Ebenezer/herchurch Lutheran, San Francisco