Who will face Franz Jägerstätter in the Championship Round of Lent Madness 2017? That's the question of the day following Franz's narrow victory over Stephen 53% to 47% in the first of two Faithful Four matchups.
Two things are certain: 1) Franz's opponent will either be Amelia Bloomer or Florence Nightingale. 2) Today's Celebrity Bloggers, Laurie Brock and Anna Courie, are terrific writers and we're grateful for their witness.
To make it to the Faithful Four, Amelia Bloomer stymied Philipp Melanchthon, Fanny Crosby, and Raymond Nonnatus while Florence Nightingale made it past Anselm of Canterbury, Henry Beard Delany, and Martin Luther.
In case you missed the final in-season Monday Madness episode of 2017, watch it here. Tim and Scott are not BOTH in the Holy Land for Holy Week, but one of them is. And it's definitely not Tim. Because he's busy.
Amelia Bloomer
Imagine a world - or a church - without women’s voices.
Without the laughter of Sarah, without the judgments of Deborah, without the mutual joy of Mary and Elizabeth, and without the Easter proclamation of Mary Magdalene.
Amelia Bloomer didn’t have to struggle very hard to imagine. In the 19th century in which she lived, women in the United States were silenced by culture, by law, and by religion. Amelia, however, was not willing to allow others to silence the voice God gave her.
Amelia began using her voice as a leader in the temperance movement, a movement in America that, seen through our own 21st century experiences, can seem extreme. Amelia and those who advocated for temperance wanted alcohol sales banned. Amelia herself would not dine in a home where alcohol was served. Amelia had seen, in a country where women had little if no opportunity to work outside the home, her gender dependent upon wages brought home by husbands, the same wages readily spent at pubs and bars where pay was distributed. Cities and towns encouraged establishments to sell alcohol while spending no money on public wells for clean water. Amelia has heard the voices of women abused and neglected because of alcoholism.
Amelia used her voice to lift up other women. She published The Lily, a newspaper devoted to women’s issues. Its early articles focused on temperance, but as Amelia listened to the voices of other women leaders, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Lily addressed a range of issues, from fashions that allowed better mobility for women to voting rights. Amelia said of her newspaper, “It is woman that speaks through The Lily. It is upon an important subject, too, that she comes before the public to be heard.”
In reading biographies of Amelia, we likely wouldn’t know how the voice of God guided Amelia. She rarely wrote about the influence her Episcopal faith had on her viewpoints or even how her faith molded them. She was, however, a devout member of the Episcopal Church in Seneca Falls and frequently clashed with other women’s rights advocates for her unwillingness to condemn the Church outright, arguing she preferred to reform the Church from the inside as a member.
Throughout her life, Amelia was involved in a vast array of charitable and church organizations. She had sewing parties to make clothes for those in
need. She and her husband welcomed several orphans into their home, worked for church ministries, and continued her dedication to temperance, often lecturing inebriated men on the street of the dangers of alcoholism and offering them help.
What would the world and the church be like without women’s voices?
Thanks to the work of women like Amelia Bloomer and those who continue her work to strive for justice, dignity, and equality for women in the church and the world, may a reality without women’s voices never be.
-- Laurie Brock
Florence Nightingale
The year is 1854……
Florence is tired. And cold. So bitterly, bitterly cold. She pulls her cape around her more tightly with her left arm as her right arm lifts the lamp that lights her way to the infirmary. Florence is lost in her thoughts. She has wondered, yet again, how she can help so many soldiers. They are all so sick. The pain and anguish of their plight sits heavy on her heart. In moments of doubt, she wonders how God can be found on a battlefield…..
Her boot sticks once again in the mud on her way. She is irritated by the inconvenience. Will the weather not even bend to help her improve conditions?
She sighs as she lifts her shoe and shakes off the debris. Tonight will be difficult. A new load of wounded has been delivered to the hospital and Florence knows it will be a long night as walks between the wounded, and teaches the young nurses to wash, wash, wash. Florence wonders how hand washing can be such a foreign concept. She wonders why fresh air, clean hands, and clean linens would be such a revolutionary idea to taking care of their fellow man. She wonders how to teach people the basic necessities of life that should be available to all. She wonders if her fellow doctors and nurses see the face of God in their patients as she does. Florence wonders how to make them see beyond the lumps of misery on their cots.
Florence takes a deep breath as she opens the doors to the ward. She knows from experience that the stench of death, decay, rotting flesh, old (and new) blood will steal her breath and make her stomach heave. Even an old nurse will never forget that unique sickly-sweet smell of skin that is no longer healthy. The skin that seems to turn first bright pink, then green, and finally black as it rots before their eyes. She is frustrated that the hospital does nothing to address the vermin that are attracted to death. She knows that it is vital to the repair of the body that those broken cells be nurtured in an environment that is clean both in air, surroundings, and supplies. Florence knows that in a room that is overflowing with with the sick and wounded, the environment is often the largest hill in her b
attle towards health.
As Florence proceeds, she sees John* lying next to the door. Florence turns to her first patient of the night, smiles, and shares a little of God in that singular moment with her patient, and says, “‘To be a fellow worker with God is the highest aspiration of which we can conceive man capable.’ Come, let’s get you well.”
*John represents one of many patients Florence served and is not to be confused with a specific individual. The writing here is the creative license of the author to best represent the times and environment in which Florence worked. Any errors are my own.
-- Anna Courie
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166 comments on “Amelia Bloomer vs. Florence Nightingale”
I thought I was going to vote for Florence, but because it is my niece's 23rd birthday today, I went with Amelia who did so much for women's rights and who struggled with the patriarchal church structure. But I will be happy if Flo wins!
The writing here is always exceptional and Spirit-filled, but the final paragraph of Florence's essay gave me chills. "Let's get you well." The work of the Church, writ both small and large. Beautiful, and thank you!
I marched in the women's march this last January because of and in honor of women like Amelia in hope that my 12 year-old daughter will never have to demonstrate for women's rights and dignity in the future.
Florence is a worthy saint who captures my imagination and emotions, so I am sorry that I have to make such a choice, but I have to vote for Amelia.
For DFW folks, there is a collection of Florence Nightingale information/memorabilia at Texas Womens University's Huey Library! On 4/21 at 2, the collector, Dr. Paterniti, will speak on his amazing collection.
Laurie and Anna, thank you both for such beautiful, prayerful write-ups today. You and your fellow CBers have led this Lent Madness into a deep understanding of what it means to be faithful in this world. Blessings (and Pulitizers!!) to you all.
the writing about Florence made me tear up. Flo for the win!
Flo has been a heroine since my toddler self. We had a book in our house about her which was read to my sister and me since we were young. Once I could read I read I would read the book for myself. My grandmother was a nurse. I have many friends and several of my cousins are nurses. There was also a booth at camp meeting. They would give out nursing hats to us. I love Amelia too but she did not equal Florence in getting down to the nitty -gritty in the midst of war. Getting her point across was a struggle. She had to struggle much more but was a woman who would give orders to a doctor
Not related to Flo vs. Amelia, but a fun article in today's Washington Post about matching your Myers-Briggs personality type to a patron saint: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/03/29/for-holy-week-heres-how-you-can-match-your-myers-briggs-personality-type-to-a-patron-saint/?utm_term=.35209af64428&wpisrc=nl_faith&wpmm=1
Laurie,
Were people paid in bars? "... her gender dependent upon wages brought home by husbands, the same wages readily spent at pubs and bars where pay was distributed." Thanks for a great article.
I'm NOT a nurse and I voted for Florence:)
Ok, so many of my favorites have fallen out of contention, but Florence is still in it, to win it!!
This was a no-brainer for me. In spite of Amelia's work to promote the cause of women and the invention of comfortable bloomers I felt her bias re temperance a bit much. How did she treat the Eucharist in her Episcopal Church or was this a grape juice church. Also instead of not dining in a home that served alcohol, she could have attended and restrained from imbibing. It would have been a great opportunity for Amelia to show her hosts one could enjoy themselves without using alcohol. In some cases non-verbal preaching can have a better impact.
So Florence definitely got my vote. I wonder how often she had to revert to poring whiskey over a wound or serve a wounded soldier a swig or two to deaden pain? Just saying!
I'm not sure if any Episcopal parishes in Amelia's day would have used grape juice for the Eucharist. In any event, the process for reliably preventing grape juice from fermenting into wine was still a few decades away from being developed.
Perhaps Ms. B. would have been a bread-only communicant.
In any event, I also agree with the rest of your comments.
Some years ago our church did a series on men and women who were official, unofficial, or otherwise qualified to be saints. One of the women covered was Florence Nightengale. She was an active menber of the Church of England, and her faith is what brought her to her nursing vocation. I admire what Amelia Bloomer did, and voted for her at least once in this series, but my vote must go to Florence.
My Great a Uncle Joe was a doctor, his younger sister (my grandma) was his assistant, and my cousin is a registered nurse, therefore, Florence Nightingale earns my vote!
As an old soldier, I have seen Florence Nightengale at work in Army nurses and Red Cross Donut Dollies at work in combat zones. When the differences were needed, they made it. When a soldier died on the battlefield, they cried but carried on. Florence Nightengale represents the best in both women and men who serve and heal.
I voted for the Lady with the Lamp.
We haven't seen this big of a difference in the votes for a while now! It is surprisingly refreshing.
Two strong contenders, today. I voted for Florence three times in the past, while I voted for Amelia twice.
I voted for Florence because of her own costly service to those in need during the Crimean War (service that had the effect of ruining her own health for the rest of her life in the process), and for her foundation of the values and ethos of the modern nursing profession.
While I honour Ms. B.'s commitment to achieving full citizenship rights for women, I feel that she crossed the line into prudery in her temperance activities, particularly by never dining in homes in which alcohol was served. I believe that true holiness is NEVER prudish.
I've been predicting a Nightingale-Jägerstätter final since Franz's first appearance. Now, as it could be a reality, I'm on the horns of a dilemma: How will I vote tomorrow? Will it be the battlefield nurse or the conscientious objector? However it ends, I hope for a close one.
If you think I would vote against Whiskipalians, think again. Florence for the win. I haul from a long line of nurses, at least four generations worth. And this quite seals it: “‘To be a fellow worker with God is the highest aspiration of which we can conceive man capable.’ Come, let’s get you well.”
Voted in honor of Great Aunt Julia, Aunt Katie, my beloved sister Nancy, and a few ciusibs who are the newest nursing students. God bless all your hearts and hands!
I find myself very sad about the probable outcome of this vote. We need nurses, don't get me wrong. But, eventually a man would have done what Florence did, and nurses would probably make more money today! But, only a woman could have stood up to say, stop counting us as bit children! And, today, we are in danger of falling so far back in the progress we have made to date. I am sad, sad, sad.
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Everybody loves and appreciates nurses - me too. And health care is at the forefront of the issues we're wrestling with in our country right now. My family includes a number of medical people. Those things make Florence an easy "yes!"
On the other hand, we're choosing a person, not a profession. Amelia Bloomer is a more difficult woman to appreciate (which was probably true in her lifetime as well as in ours). Both devoted their energy and creativity to their visions of God's purposes for humanity. I voted for Amelia because she's losing and she's harder to sentimentalize.
Very hard choice again today. But as a fellow nurse, as so many of us are, I am voting for Florence.
One has only to experience first hand, as many of us have, the smells and sights that Florence did and with no help from Doctors.
She was a Saint
For my mother, for my mother-in-love, for my niece, for several young women in my church who are nurses or soon-to-be nurses, for the many nurses (female and male) who have provided care and comfort over the years to me and my loved ones -- the Lady with the Lamp.
Nightingale a Unitarian in her younger years.
My name is Zoey, and I love Florence nightingale. She helped so many.
Mums comment - what a tough vote!!!!
Great reason Zoey. I'm so glad you are taking part in Lent Madness this year, and hope you will be back next year, too.
Go Amelia!!!!
Florence truly did God's work, saving lives and bringing comfort to the sorely afflicted. AND she was Anglican.
I voted for Florence in her last battle. My mom and step mom are retired nurses. I have friends that are nurses. BUT AMIELIA IS MY VOTE. Woman's rights activist with a commpstionate soul.
My wife and I surprised ourselves today by voting for Amelia. When we learned that she "frequently clashed with other women's rights advocates for her unwillingness to condemn the Church outright, arguing she preferred to reform the Church from the inside as a member", that won Amelia our votes.
Thank you, Laurie Brock, for this information.
Amelia worked longer and harder. Florence's work was complete by the time she was thirty.
GO AMELIA!
Darn, and here I was hoping Amelia might win this thing. Fantastic write up for Florence Nightingale, all the same.