ELCA's Winter 2004 Mosaic Television On 'Women In The Early Church'

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Women in the Early Church" is Mosaic Television's
Dec. 1 release, a 30-minute documentary shot on location in places such as Rome and The Vatican that examines the roles of women in the church and how they influenced the formation of Christianity.
Mosaic Television is a quarterly video program produced by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Department for Communication. It is intended for educational use in a variety of congregational settings including Sunday school classes, adult forums, youth groups, women's and men's groups, new member classes, congregational council, committee and other organizational meetings.
The program focuses on women in the first three centuries of Christianity, said Tim Frakes, Mosaic Television producer, ELCA Department for Communication.
"This issue of Mosaic Television looks at the roles women played as the Christian Church developed from an obscure Jewish sect to become the religion of the Roman Empire," Frakes said in a description of the program. "Women's important roles in the development of the early church are now widely recognized and future pastors learn about their contributions in seminary."
"Women in the early church had some significant roles to play," Melissa Ramirez Cooper, Mosaic Television host and associate director, ELCA News Service, said in the program. "They served as teachers, scholars, evangelists and leaders of house churches. Some founded monastic communities, and others turned their own homes into hospices and orphanages. A number of women made some of the most courageous witnesses of all, becoming martyrs for their faith in Jesus Christ."
The program features interviews with several church scholars. They are Dr. Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre, assistant professor of religion, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; Dr. Cynthia Jürisson, associate professor of American church history, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC); Dr. Elizabeth A. Leeper, associate professor of church history, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa; and the Rev. Robin D. Mattison, associate professor of New Testament and Greek, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP). LSTC, LTSP and Wartburg are three of the eight ELCA seminaries; Luther College is one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities.
"For the last 40 years, women scholars ... have started to say, 'how can we tell the story of women in a way that is a little more honest, perhaps, to the role[s] that women have really played in the church?'" Johnson-DeBaufre said in her interview.
"Easily 25 percent of the people that [the Apostle] Paul mentions as active collaborators with him on his projects in the early church are women," Juerisson said.
"Women in the Early Church" can be viewed for free on the Web. It is also available in VHS and DVD formats. Some ELCA colleges and universities carry Mosaic on local cable channels.
Each issue includes a user's guide with a synopsis of each segment and discussion questions. Annual subscriptions are available through the ELCA Department for Communication.
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Specific information about Mosaic Television subscriptions and the content of each issue are available on the Web at http://www.elca.org/mosaic/ or by contacting the ELCA Department for Communication by phone at 1-800-638-3522, ext. 6009.

Editors: Digital photographs that accompany "Women in the Early Church" can be requested by e-mail at mosaic@elca.org or by phone 1-800-638-3522, ext. 6009.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news