305 - Hope-Expressed, Shared, Alive

Hope-Expressed, Shared, Alive
By Constance Parvey

AS strangers, our first gesture was to express our interest in theology. By professions we were theologians, biblical scholars, mothers, housewives, and students, and some combined two or three of these vocations. Our lives were diverse and so were our responses, but there were three points that we soon found in common: (1) our destiny as women, (2) our conviction as Christians, (3) our vocational experience of being marginalized in our patriarchal churches.

One of the group members asked the question: "What is the hope that is within us? What propels us forward? Why do we keep struggling?" Through this question, with all our diversity, we found another common ground. We realized that for women to live in faithfulness to the gospel, in equality of responsibility with men, within the structures of church, is a struggle shared by all and not merely a private, personal problem.

After two days of exchange, our group discussions had to end. We then had the problem of how to communicate our explorations to the other participants at the conference. We felt that the issues with which we were dealing were so fundamental and so large that they could easily seem abstract and irrelevant. We decided that in order to communicate their immediacy and seriousness we would make a comedy of ourselves. We wanted to show through our bodily movements and gestures the thoughts and feelings that were behind our words and how they were integrated one with the other.

So, this is how the "Dramatic Poem" which follows was born. Each thought is active and all of us were actors. A Scottish woman read the poem, we expressed it in movement and gesture. It was hilarious. The conference went into peals of laughter as everyone identified (something which our words alone would not have been able to do). We laughed about how much time, effort, and energy we spent in justifying our right to assume leadership in the life, thought, and organization of the church, and how little energy we had left for probing and sharing from our own theological depths.

Our poem is a first sketch for a new story of creation. As is, it has only three days. It is an unfinished creation, yet to be shaped. It points

The Rev. Constance Parvey is the Director of the Study on Community of Women and Men in the Church, World Council of Churches, Geneva. This dramatic gesture is reprinted, with permission, from the International Review of Missions, April, 1978, pp. 170-173. It is preceded with this note: "A sparsely furnished room on a side street in Brussels was the setting. Ten persons were present. They ranged in age from 23 to 60. All were participants in a European Women's Conference sponsored by the Sub-Unit on Women of the World Council of Churches and held at the Reformed Church of Belgium, February, 1978."

306 - Hope-Expressed, Shared, Alive

to a time, yet to be found. It expresses a spirit, hovering over the waters....

In the beginning, there were ten women.

Around a table covered with papers
They sat in their chairs.
A very formal gathering it was,
Met to discuss important and serious church business-
"Women and Theology."

On the first day, they wrestled with so many of the old denominational idiosyncrasies-
Regarding ordination and subordination,
Orders of creation and episcopal domination,
The interpretation and significance of Scripture, of tradition, of the continuous revelation of God-or not (?)
And of how women were to realize themselves
From an old to a new situation.

What was needed, they saw,
Was a more careful study and examination
Of Biblical texts and contexts-
Of Genesis I and Galatians 3
I Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5.

Tossed between Peter and Paul-

They searched for a Rock and a self-justification
For their feminine message of salvation.
They saw, too, through feminist theology,
The exciting possibility for the discovery of new images of God-

Of Mother, Sophia, Wisdom,
Comfort, Nurture, and Consolation.

And certainly, said some, in a tentative way,
"We must find a more Christian understanding of the body."

All these, they agreed, were very important
And yet, all these were impossible.

Seven years they had tried,
And darkness fell upon their very dull, dispirited bodies.

But in the darkness they slept,
And as they slept, they dreamed dreams,
They saw visions.

307 - Hope-Expressed, Shared, Alive

And it was the end of the first day.

Then came the second day-
And it was morning

While still in their chairs,
They remembered being told
That feminist theology is not a speculative theology
Born behind desks.

And behold:
A new question came to them-why do you stay in the church?

What is the hope that is within you?

And suddenly,
They were freed from their chairs
And began to share their new visions and dreams-
And the light of day came and shone on them,
And a new spirit was breathed into their bodies-
They found new strength: they relaxed and began to laugh.

New depth and dimensions of God came to them-
Out of the chaos of pain, hurt, mistrust, and competition,
Love began to take concrete form-
Redemption transformed from a dead concept to an experienced new life-
Hope, expressed and shared, became a living hope,
Visible and growing-

A tired community, burdened by histories and ideologies
Became an inspired Presence-

And they knew one another . . .

What was formerly split between body and spirit
Became connected.

They dared to let live the forgotten, undiscovered, repressed
Layers of their beings and becomings.

And it was the end of the second day.

The third day, they rose again-They were amazed.
They found that former things had passed away-
Peter, Paul, and the Rock were… left on the shore-

And they walked on the water …