A Litany for Bold Women's Day, Women of the ELCA

This litany may be used during congregational worship and women's organization events, or at other times and places.

It would be fitting to share the "Leader" role among several women. If there are musicians in the group, they might softly play background music as the leaders speak each bidding and then accompany the response with a brighter harmony. Women and girls speaking the responses may answer in any or all of the roles they live: For example, one may speak up as married woman, mother, and grandmother; another as young woman, sister, and single woman.

Members of the assembly may lift up other bold women in prayer near the end of this litany. Biblical women not otherwise named, other women in church history, and bold women in your own community may be named here.

A Litany of Thanks for Bold Women

Leader: Lord our God, we give thanks today for the witness of bold women. From the earliest times until today and on into the future, bold women show all of us how to live as God's beloved children in God's beloved creation, carrying out our baptismal call to work for justice and peace for all God's creatures.

Leader: For Eve, mother of us all, sinful and beloved, we say:

All: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Miriam, who danced beside the Red Sea, we say:

Young women: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Mary, mother of Jesus, who pondered the angel's words in her heart, we say:

Mothers: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Mary Magdalene, first to hear the voice of the Risen Christ, we say:

Single women: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Naomi, who rejoiced in her grandson Obed, we say:

Grandmothers: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For the Syro-Phoenician woman, bold enough to challenge Jesus himself for her child's sake:

Daughters: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Mary and Martha of Bethany, who served the Lord together in their different ways, we say:

Sisters: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For the persistent widow, who would not rest until she won justice, we say:

Widows: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: For Katharine von Bora Luther, who ran to embrace change in her world, we say:

Married women: Thank you, Lord!

Leader: There have been bold women all around us on our way, if only we look for them. For whom do we thank the Lord today? Name her aloud and let us thank God for her witness.

(Members of the assembly may speak the names of other bold women aloud, briefly describing her witness. After each one, the group responds:)

All: Thank you, Lord!

(When the group is done naming bold women, the leader concludes:)

Leader: For the witness of all bold women, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Lord our God, we thank you and we praise you. Lord our God, let their boldness flourish in our own hearts as we live out our baptismal call to serve you and our neighbor, with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength.

All: Thank you, Lord! Alleluia, Amen!