Morning Meditation: Women and Church Leadership

Dear God of Justice and Restoration, This morning I sit with the words of Isaiah 1:17 — "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed" — and I think of Phoebe, carrying Paul's letter to Rome in her hands, entrusted with the very words that would reshape an empire. I think of Junia, whom Paul called "outstanding among the apostles," and how her name was quietly changed to a man's in later manuscripts, as if her calling could be erased with a copyist's pen.…