Commemoration of the Feast Day of St. Mary Magdalene with April DeConick
posted July 17th, 2007 at 5:03 pm by Betty
You are invited to the annual celebration of the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, Sunday, July 22, 2007, at Christ Church Cathedral, 1117 Texas Avenue, Houston. Worship begins at 6pm. A lecture by Dr. April DeConick will follow the service at 7:00 pm in the Cathedral’s Great Hall. Cost for the lecture is $20.00. Parking is free at the Cathedral parking lot on San Jacinto.
6:00 pm Taize Worship Service
The festive worship in the Cathedral at 6 p.m. will include songs from the Taizé Community, blessing of the new icon of Mary Magdalene by the Rev. Mary Green, a brief talk by April DeConick about Mary Magdalene and the Taize Community, and Eucharist.
Musicians for the service include Anita Kruse (pianist/composer), Jennifer Kenney (flutist), Sonja Bruzauskas (soloist/singer)
7:00 pm Leture Dr April DeConick: “Where Were the Women? What the Gospel of Mary Tells Us”
Who was Mary Magdalene really? A prostitute? A loyal disciple? Jesus’ wife? Dr. DeConick’s lecture will explore these themes and more as it unpacks the theology of the Gospel of Mary, a Gnostic “midrash” gospel. Mary emerges from the text as an early Gnostic church leader administering the eucharist and presenting a homily on its benefits, which include a mystical transfiguration and ascent to God.
April DeConick recently joined the Rice University Religious Studies faculty as Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies. Dr. DeConick is a historian of early Jewish and Christian thought, fascinated by the many ways the Jesus tradition emerges across the literature. She has a deep love for exploring the various expressions of early mysticism, including the spirituality of classic Gnostic thinkers. She is the author of Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas; Voices of the Mystics: Early Christian Discourse in the Gospel of John, Thomas and Other Ancient Christian Literature . Soon to be published is her The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says, to be published in December, 2007.
