This year I began a read-the-Bible-in-a-year program. I have always been inspired when our bishop and others I know talk about doing this. I thought 2009 was as good a year as any to begin. I am not sure what I expected when I began. Mainly it is a good spiritual practice and it will help me read parts of the Bible that I most likely would never get to, or quite frankly, might avoid. I have extended an invitation to members of our church community to join in the 'challenge'. We will get together every few weeks and see what gems have shaped us, troubled us, helped us pray.

Early on in Genesis, I began to notice names….names of women that have not been spoken much in the life of the church. Now it is no secret that women's stories and women's names are often missing from the scripture and from history in general. There are many reasons for this….the culture in which they were written and told, the status of women in those cultures, and mostly who did the writing. Something inside me said:"Write down these names". So I have been keeping a log of the names of these women in my journal. Adah, Zillah, Sarai, Milcah, Hagar, Reumah, Dinah, Deborah, Oholibamah….on and on. Mostly they are identified as someone's wife, someonee's daughter, someonee's concubine. Again, a reflection of the time in which these words were written.

It caused me to think of all the people, not only women, who live in the shadows of our lives, whose names are rarely spoken. Those with unspoken names who contribute to our well being, our history, our daily comfort, our unfolding future. How often I buy groceries, pay for them, and walk out of the store without ever having read the name tag of the person who served me, without ever saying:"Thanks so much, Charlotte." I don't know the name of the person who delivers my newspaper in the frigid morning hours. The list is endless.

We all like to have our name known, have it spoken aloud in intimate and public places. Do you remember when your name was written on the blackboard as a child, how good it felt?Even if your name was there for a negative reason, seeing your name in print is a powerful thing.

So today, I pledge to speak the names of those I meet. I will ask those whose name I do not know, to tell me their name, so they are not simply a face to me, but someone I may known in a different way. I will continue my list of the women in the Bible who have lived in the shadows of our faith stories, who if the culture had been different, might have been the leading character instead of a marginal one. I will do this because the scriptures have also told me the words of the Holy One: "I have called you by name and you are mine."(Isaiah 43:1)