The 2017  keynote speaker for the Sacramental Life Women’s Retreat sponsored by the Shenandoah Presbytery and New Castle Presbytery is Dr. Frances Taylor Gench.   Her topic is “Reframing Eve”.

The Garden Eden has a terrible litter problem! It is knee deep in our prejudices and preconceptions. The retreat will provide an opportunity for women to engage in interpretive litter control by reconsidering the Genesis portrait of the most maligned woman in all of scripture. We will engage in close study of Eve’s story, consider influential misreadings of it as well as new insights provided by feminist rereadings, and reflect on ways in which it has impacted, and continues to impact, our imaginations, beliefs, attitudes, behavior, art and popular culture.

Frances Taylor Gench is the Herbert Worth and Annie H. Jackson Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.