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Does Wait Mean Never?

From a talk given to a group of women in Leipzig in 2012  Advent I don't know about you, but sometimes I get this panicky feeling when I realize that Advent is just around the corner. There is so much to do: shopping for gifts, innumerable Christmas parties to attend at school, sport clubs, church. Getting organized for out-of-town guests, etc. What comes to your mind when you think of Advent? Christmas markets and Glühwein? (A German hot mulled wine) Advent calendars and wreaths?  Candles, cookies, shopping, gifts? Food, music, church, gatherings? Waiting is the topic I want to speak on this evening. Advent is the time during which we eagerly (or maybe not so eagerly) wait for Christmas! If you google the word, you might find this definition on Wikipedia: Advent, anglicized from the Latin word adventus meaning " coming ", is a season observed in many Western Christian churches , a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the

Womanhood and the Story of the Gospel

“What does it mean to be girl?” My daughter’s question was straightforward enough, but it caught me off guard and I fumbled around in my thoughts and my words. If you are anything like me, I imagine you too would struggle to give a simple answer that would satisfy the curiosity of a child. Would your definition span history and cultures? Would you tell her that the differences between boys and girls are merely biological? The more one tries to narrow the definition, the harder it gets. And yet the answer to this question is of paramount importance in light of the current state of confusion surrounding the topic of gender. Some would answer that despite anatomical differences, girls and boys are basically the same. Others would want to focus on the differences, assigning certain qualities to one gender or the other. Others still might question the concept of gender altogether, dismissing the universal binary for a sliding scale.  Defining womanhood is a great challenge in