Rachel Sabbath Initiative: Saving Women's Lives

The Rachel Sabbath Initiative: Saving Women's Lives supports the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal 5, which focuses on improving maternal health.  The Religious Institute calls on congregations and denominations across a range of faith traditions to raise awareness and support for the UN's targets of reducing maternal mortality worldwide and achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015.

Fifty-three national religious leaders have joined the Religious Institute in calling on congregations to participate in the Rachel Sabbath Initiative, and to involve religious leaders and faith communities in promoting access to reproductive health care globally and preventing maternal mortality. To sign up to hold a Rachel Sabbath, click here.

Observing Rachel Sabbath

Each congregation will determine when and how it will observe a Rachel Sabbath.  The suggested Scripture texts for the Christian Lectionary and Jewish Parashot (see below) may be useful in choosing a date for a Rachel Sabbath observance.

Rachel Sabbath in your congregation might include worship, education, social action, or any combination of these.  During worship, for example, Scripture readings, congregational prayer and the sermon might address some aspect of motherhood and parenting; raising healthy children; or our global responsibilities to assuring reproductive health and reducing maternal mortality.  The resources below include worship materials you may use or adapt to your congregation, including a bulletin insert, responsive reading, and suggested hymns and music. 

The resources also include a fact sheet, stories from the field, a sample newsletter article and a bibliography that will be useful as education and advocacy tools.  The Social Action Resources for Congregations is a list of resources for the Social Action Committee to help your congregants become involved in advocacy for increased funding for international maternal health and universal access to family planning services.

Rachel’s Story

The Rachel Sabbath Initiative is named for the matriarch Rachel in the Hebrew Scriptures, who died in childbirth (Gen. 35: 16-20).

Rachel first appears in Genesis 29, when she encounters Jacob, her future husband.  Her story progresses with heartache over preempted love and infertility.  Eventually, Rachel gives birth to a son and the desire for even more children.  Like millions of women today, “. . . she suffered severe labor.”  In Genesis 35, with a midwife by her side, Rachel dies after delivering her second child.  Jacob’s caravan stops to bury her on the road to Ephrath.  (In many cultures, the bodies of women who died in childbirth were considered a threat to those still living.)

Rachel’s story speaks to the persistent need for maternal health care, particularly in the developing world, to save the lives of more than half a million women who die every year in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications.

Later in the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Rachel again:  “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15).  Rachel speaks today to the needs of the one million children left motherless every year due to maternal mortality.  These children are three to 10 times more likely to die themselves within two years of their mother’s death. 

The Rachel Sabbath Initiative is a call to faith communities to honor Rachel and her children by committing to saving women's and children's lives around the world.

Attachment: 

Rachel Sabbath: National Endorsers

Rachel Sabbath: Facts on Global Maternal Health

Rachel Sabbath: Bibliography

Rachel Sabbath: Social Action Resources for Congregations

Rachel Sabbath: Stories from the Field

Rachel Sabbath: Sample Newsletter Article

Rachel Sabbath: Bulletin Insert

Rachel Sabbath: Suggested Lectionary Readings

Rachel Sabbath: Suggested Torah Portions

Rachel Sabbath: Responsive Reading

Rachel Sabbath: Suggested Hymns and Music