Volume 25, Number 3    December 2003

Premiere performance of Midwifery helps heal gender wounds

A gem of interactive theatre art by Roberta Nobleman, premiered at the conference, throws new and touching light on Jesus’ regard for women and on their creative birthing energy. Performed twice by veteran actor/dramatist Nobleman and dancer Linda Telesco, the play contains three vignettes from the Christian scriptures.  They are told through the eyes of Peter’s wife, “Sarah,” a midwife who is now in Rome helping “to birth the new Church.” Prominently featured props include a real birthing stool, “a red tent,” and two brightly colored handmade cloaks illustrating  Sophia-God’s all encompassing care.

Sarah asks: “What are you laboring with today?” and recruits willing helpers from the audience to tell the stories of Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the woman with the issue of blood (aptly named “Flo”), and the bent over woman.  The performance is laced throughout with reflective music and dance inviting both song and movement from attendees.  
The theatre piece was part of a daylong workshop on healing gender issues. A ritual of healing concluded the day. Participants came forward to touch the birthing stool or one of the colorful mantles of God’s care. They could choose to voice some situation in need of healing.  “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace,” each was told.

Earlier in the day Sr. Mary Whited said the key to healing the pain of destructive gender relationships is to re-imagine them. A turning point for Whited came on a trip to Jerusalem. Denied entrance to the Holy Sepulcher because of her gender even though she was co-leader of the pilgrimage, she wept: “I held in my person all women, from every culture and any era, who have been excluded from holy space simply because they were women.”

Genesis and Exodus
Sr. Chris Schenk shared biblical insights. In Phyllis Trible’s revolutionary Genesis interpretation, the word “Adam” (or h’adam) is not a proper name for the first male human, she said, but is better translated as “earth creature.” Biblically, the first human represented all humanity, not just male humans. Differentiation into male (is) and female (issa) came later.
Schenk then turned to Exodus: “We think of Exodus as Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner duking it out, but if it weren't for the Hebrew midwives, Shiprah and Puah, Moses never would have seen the light of day.”  The midwives disobeyed Pharaoh’s edict to kill baby Hebrew boys, so the nation though enslaved grew strong. “And Miriam creatively figures out a way to help Moses thrive at his own mother’s breast.” Schenk said.  “She is helped by someone who isn’t even Hebrew, the Pharaoh’s daughter.  A community of women was being creative and asking: how can we choose life, not only for women, but for men?”