We conclude our miniseries on the Women of the Word by taking a look at what the Scriptures say about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord. We will limit ourselves to the biblical witness about Our Lady, as Anglicans have never required belief in the extensive doctrines which grew up around her in the Middle Ages. We discover that quite apart from these doctrines, the Scriptures present her as a woman of deep and persevering faith. Like all humans, she is a sinner in need of God's saving grace, and she didn't always understand her son's mission and what that meant for her. But she always stayed faithful to her son no matter what, and for that we should honor her the more.

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In this lesson, we explore the witness of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, as recorded in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel. Here we see her incredible faith, in the face of opposition and religious ridicule, vindicated by God and richly rewarded. In addition to inspiring the Mother of our Lord in her pregnancy, we are also still reading about Hannah and singing her song today!

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In this lesson, we explore the place of women in the Bible, especially against the backdrop of contemporary culture which claims that the BIble is fundamentally misogynistic and has led directly to the oppression of women.

After laying a foundation to appreciate the Bible's witness about women, we explore first Rahab the Canaanite, who exhibited heroic faith in Israel's God, and thus saved her whole family, and became by God's grace an ancestor of the Messiah. Rahab teaches us that no matter how bad our beginnings, God generously honors simple trust in him, which is more than sufficient for our salvation.

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