The Junia Project

Advocating for Women's Equality in the Church and Home

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About Harriet Reed Congdon

Harriet is a wife to a retired chemistry teacher, mother to three sons, and grandmother of seven who reflects on theology and life in Portland, Oregon. Born in Japan as a “hafu” (a colloquial term for half Japanese and half any other part of the world), her cultural identity is just one of several stories that she has of being caught in-between worlds. In the years since graduating with an MDiv and teaching Bible/biblical languages at Multnomah University, rereading her Bible from that middle space has become an adventure of rediscovering faith and God. Harriet is on the teaching team at Cascade Church Portland but she feels the most at home in the woodshop (and not the kitchen).

Whispers of Hope and Subversion in the Old Testament

April 28, 2015 by Harriet Reed Congdon

It may seem strange that I became an egalitarian through the back door of Old Testament patriarchal culture and history. But it worked for me because the whispers of subversion became louder than the voices of patriarchy and oppression. Those whispers sounded like God. My Old Testament studies gave me permission to rethink the New Testament and how its writings might also be subversive to patriarchy. Eventually I followed those whispers into the egalitarian camp. I was all in.

Filed Under: egalitarianism, Personal Stories, Women and the Bible, women in the old testament Tagged With: Carolyn Custis James, patriarchy

Hope Rekindled: Giving My First Sermon

March 28, 2014 by Harriet Reed Congdon

Last Sunday I preached for the first time in my own church. I had preached before – but never for the church I attended.

Filed Under: church leadership, egalitarianism, General, Personal Stories, Women and the Church

The Power of Your Story

January 27, 2014 by Harriet Reed Congdon

A culture is built around the stories it tells. After telling my story of spiritual abuse and marginalization as a woman leader in the church, a man who attended a different church dismissed my story since it was not his own faith community experience.

Filed Under: Personal Stories, Women and the Bible, Women and the Church Tagged With: Acts of the Apostles, Adam and Eve, Apostle Paul and women, Genesis 2, patriarchy

Between Eden and Eternity: The Unwritten Story

November 8, 2013 by Harriet Reed Congdon

Perhaps in this middle time between Eden and Eternity, God the Father is growing humanity toward maturity so that the systems, cultural dynamics, and patterns of the past are not what write our script but only Christ and his Kingdom.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Creation in the Bible, Eden in the Bible, imago dei

No Middle Ground for Women in the Church

September 13, 2013 by Harriet Reed Congdon

No Middle Ground for Women in the Church

There was a time I tried to keep both a hierarchical view of authority in the church and a freedom for women to use their Spirit-given gifts as they felt called by God. I had started wrestling through the issues of a woman’s place in the church. But I got caught in the middle where I was undecided about how far I would go along the spectrum of beliefs. I was certainly moving away from complementarian theology (women can only teach and lead other women; husbands lead, wives submit) which took shape during Bible college and was reinforced in my church.

Filed Under: complementarianism, egalitarianism, Personal Stories Tagged With: church leadership, complementarianism, gender equality, gender roles

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