Mary Magdalene and the Gardener: Women Leaders in the Church

Mary Magdalene might be the most understood person in the story of Jesus. Yet, Mary was also the first person to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection. It was Mary who first took the good news of his world-changing resurrection to the apostles. What can the story of Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus, the ‘Gardener’, tell us about the future of women in the Church? Examining the spiritual significance of Mary’s relationship to Jesus, the trans-historical significance of the resurrection and the contemporary question of the role of women in the Church, Mary Magdalene and the Gardener is a meditation on a world changed by one word; the word that made the resurrection real was ‘Mary’.