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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2014
Matthew's story of the Canaanite woman is an unusual and disturbing story in the Gospel tradition. Alongside other Gentile stories in Matthew's very Jewish Gospel, it signifies the opening of the doors on the Gentiles and their inclusion in the community of faith. The woman's language and the silence of Jesus speak powerfully to the contemporary context within Anglicanism. The liturgical language she employs teaches us how to speak in worship, while Jesus’ silence addresses our own experience of suffering and the seeming deafness of God. In the end, the narrative, for all its exegetical difficulties, is a powerful story of communion and the ultimately gracious response of God. As Anglicans we need to recover the depths of our own speech, grounded in Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer, as expressions of the grace of an inclusive God who teaches us how to speak and how to wait in faith.
This article originated as a paper at the Anglican Summer School, Trinity College Theological School, University of Divinity, February 2014.
The Revd Professor Dorothy A. Lee is Dean of Trinity College Theological School and Frank Woods Professor of New Testament, University of Divinity, Australia.
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