What would have happened if Mary had said no to the angel Gabriel? What if there was no one to meet Jesus in the garden following the resurrection? Or if a prostitute named Rahab had not helped the Hebrew people reach the Promised Land?

The Bible would be a very different story. 

And Lindsay Hardin Freeman's new book, The Scarlet Cord: Conversations with God's Chosen Women, lets twelve biblical women - all strong, spirited, dynamic and passionate figures - tell their stories, in their own words, exploring from the inside both their choices and their dilemmas, that would shape the Judeo-Christian future.

Freeman, an Episcopal priest of twenty-five years, points to the discrepancy in the numbers of men and women named in scripture as one reason for writing the book. "Fewer than 200 of the individuals named in the Bible are women - compared to over 3000 named men. Those women were passionate, dynamic, risk-taking people - who didn't make history by being nice or even necessarily pleasant." 

The book's title is taken from the scarlet cord let down from the walled city of Jericho by the prostitute Rahab who risked her life to help the Hebrew people enter the land they believed that God had promised to them. The scarlet thread image is woven through the text in striking full color portraits of each of the twelve women by California artist Karen Canton, as each chapter takes a step into the mind and makeup of some of biblical history's most challenging personas and moments. Included are Eve, Rahab, Sarah and Hagar, Ruth and Naomi, Hannah, Deborah and Jael, the Shulammite woman of the Song of Solomon, Martha of Bethany, the unnamed woman by the well in John 4 and the three Marys, (Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha of Bethany).

Each first person narrative is accompanied by a short profile of the person's biblical and historical significance, and a series of questions to help engage the contemporary reader more fully in the narrative. A Learn More section with endnotes delves more deeply into historical context and contemporary scholarship. 

The result of a five-year scholarly and spiritual journey, The Scarlet Cord: Conversations with God's Chosen Women, is available worldwide through bookstores and online at Amazon.com, or via the website www.scarletcordbook.com.

Author Bio:

The Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman is an Episcopal priest, mother, editor, author, and is serving as interim rector of Trinity Church in Excelsior, Minnesota. The former editor of Vestry Papers, she has won over thirty writing awards for journalistic excellence.

Dear Elsie,

The local Diocesan ECW Board members met in Los Angeles last week for our annual leadership retreat. We were so inspired by the theme for Triennial 2012, that we have decided to embrace the theme right now as we work to make ECW more relevant to ALL women in this diocese who are members of the Episcopal Church. "Many Paths" challenges us to look at ALL the ways we live out our Christian witness, and to discover and share them with all of our sisters on the "One Journey".

Thank you and the National ECW Board for choosing such an inspiring theme. The Los Angeles Episcopal Church Women would like to invite other diocesan ECWs to join us in adopting the Triennial theme now instead of waiting for 2012. 

What a Celebration we'll have in Indianapolis!