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Thy Will Be Done: A Woman’s Unique Journey

1 Sep , 2010  

Written by Kerry O’Donnell | Posted by:

Filmmaker Alice Dungan Bouvrie documents the life of Sara Herwig, a transgendered woman with aspirations to become a Presbyterian minister.

When filmmaker Alice Dungan Bouvrie was working towards her Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations, a chance meeting led to the documentary Thy Will Be Done, the story of Sara Herwig’s fight to become an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church.

Bouvrie was completing her internship with a professor from MIT, who combined film with anthropology. It was during this time that she heard about MIT Professor Emeritus John Southard, who had come out to his colleagues that he was a cross dresser.

While working on Southard’s story (Ankle Straps), Bouvrie met Southard’s wife, Jean, a Presbyterian pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Waltham (FPCW), Massachusetts. FPCW was very welcoming to the LGBT community. One of the members that Bouvrie met was Sara Herwig, a male to female transsexual.

Sara, born Steven, was raised in the Midwest with a very conservative evangelical background. Steven met his ex-wife Billie in junior high. After finishing school, they married and he began the ordination process. But Steven had also struggled for years with gender issues. The day finally came when he knew that he had to deal with those issues before he could move on with his life. He dropped out of the ordination process. It was during this time that he also realized that it was either transition to female or suicide, which, according to Bouvrie, is common among transgendered people.

It was almost a 10-year process for Steven to become Sara. She was alienated from her family, friends, and the church. But through it all, she never lost her commitment to become a minister. In September 2007, Herwig was accepted as a candidate for ordination in Jean Southard’s church.

Bouvrie’s camera has documented the struggles of Herwig’s journey to become a minister with a church of her own. The Presbyterian Church requirements of ministers are that they live in fidelity in marriage – between a man and a woman, or they live a life of chastity in singleness. The Church’s conservative groups do not recognize Herwig as a woman but instead see her as a gay man.

Herwig’s remarriage to Jenn, a biological woman, has complicated her ordination even more. The Church states that anyone who is in a same sex relationship is not eligible for ordination. In a catch-22, Herwig’s ordination is being fought because she is seen as a gay man and also because she is in a same-sex relationship – as a woman.

The film not only documents Herwig’s struggles with the church, but also the alienations and healing with family members. Herwig’s mother, daughter and ex-wife all participated in the film and Bouvrie reports that both her daughter and ex-wife will be flying to Boston to attend the MFA screenings.

Herwig has shared with Bouvrie how cathartic the making of the film was for her. “No one had ever asked me what the journey has been like” she once told Bouvrie.

Bouvrie says she went through her own journey of faith while working on the film. She also sees the film as going much deeper than just Herwig’s battle for ordination. “I think we have to ask ourselves how our scriptural interpretation impacts the way we see differences in others. And not just in Christianity, but all religions as well,” says Bouvrie.

Thy Will Be Done will be screened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts September 10–12th and 17–18th:
http://www.mfa.org/index.asp

For more information on the film and to view the trailer, visit http://www.gfem.org (click on media database and type in THY WILL BE DONE).

The film’s Facebook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89831&id=115827228256#!/pages/THY-WILL-BE-DONE/115827228256

Alice Dungan Bouvrie:
abouvrie@comcast.net
http://www.mineralkingproductions.com


Thy Will Be Done will be screened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts September 10–12th and 17–18th: http://www.mfa.org/index.asp For more information on the film and to view the trailer, visit http://www.gfem.org (click on media database and type in THY WILL BE DONE). The film’s Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89831&id=115827228256#!/pages/THY-WILL-BE-DONE/115827228256 Alice Dungan Bouvrie: abouvrie@comcast.net http://www.mineralkingproductions.com

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