Katie Snipes Lancaster
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Letty Russell

I’ve always loved that our church has two stained glass windows with the symbol of the World Council of Churches (look for a little blue sailboat at the top of the window when you first enter the sanctuary, and another in the Mallott Chapel). Theologian Letty Russell was central to the work of the World Council of Churches during her career, which at the time of her death said about her “She will be remembered for her deep commitment to the church, and to the ecumenical movement, and to the thousands of women whose lives she has touched globally.”1

She paved the way for women in leadership every step of her career. She was one of four female scholars graduating from Harvard Divinity School in 1954 and was not able to be awarded “top honors” even though her excellence in scholarship would have otherwise led to honors because “it would put the men in a bad light.”

As one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (a precursor to the PC(USA)), she served in the East Harlem Protestant Parish in New York City (1952–1968) followed by a long career at Yale Divinity School (1974–2001). At Yale Divinity School, her colleagues considered her “one of the world’s foremost feminist theologians.” She was respected for her “uncanny ability to articulate a vision of the church that is radical in its feminist-liberationist critique but, nonetheless remains anchored in the historic traditions and communities of the Christian church.”2 She was passionate about “connecting the work of the church to a worldwide movement for peace and social justice.”3

Her time in Harlem coincided with the second wave of both antiracist and feminist struggles, and there is a sense that, for her the liberation of women and the civil rights movement goes hand in hand. She writes “Differences of race, gender, sexual orientation, language, or culture are not problems to be solved and controlled by a dominant group, rather they are important ways of assuring that God’s gift of riotous diversity in all creation will continue. Because of God’s gift, new voices are able to be heard and languages and cultures are able to flourish…. God makes unity in difference possible by the gift of the Spirit enabling people of all nations to understand one another, no matter what language is spoken…. God’s gift of understanding across difference is expressed in the outpouring of the Spirit which transforms the lives of people and their communities…[the Spirit] breaks open structures that confine and separate people so they can welcome the difference and the challenges and opportunity for new understanding that they bring.”4

For any of us who have struggled with suffering or grief she says “As we await our full liberation as children of God, we know that our human life has hidden in its midst the power, and the glory of a God who cares enough to suffer with us. Through this we know already that human life is destined, not for suffering, but for partnership with God: a partnership so strong that not even suffering will break it; a partnership that will one day be fulfilled in the New Creation where the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces (Isaiah 25:8). When God’s spirit breaks into our lives in small anticipations of this time of glory, we suddenly discover that we are somebody, not because of anything we have done…but because we have accepted the presence in our lives of the One who calls us to partner.”5

Let us pray with Letty Russell:

God, you give us the gift of riotous diversity in all creation.
Because of your gift, our ears are open to hear new voices,
and you celebrate the flourishing of all languages and cultures.
Make unity possible by the gift of your spirit.
Transform the lives of people and their communities.
Break open the structures that confine and separate us.
And let us welcome difference and challenge and opportunity
for the new understanding brought forth.
Where there is suffering, suffer with us.
Partner with us. Let nothing break us and our connection to you.
We give you thanks that you place within us
a vision for a day when all tears cease, all suffering ends,
and anticipate your presence in our lives anew.
Amen.

1 Kobia, Samuel. “Remembering and Honouring Letty Russell.” July 18, 2007. https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/rev-dr-letty-russell.

2 Farley, Margaret A., and Serene Jones, eds. Liberating Eschatology: Essays in Honor of Letty M. Russell. First Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999.

3Russell, Letty. “Moving to the Margin.” Dialog 36, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 305–310.

4 Russell, Letty M. 2006. “Encountering the ‘Other’ in a World of Difference and Danger.” Harvard Theological Review 99 (4): 457–68.

5 Letty M. Russell, Becoming Human (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1982), 59.