Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentious topic by climbing up the ladder to the highest platform and then jumping into the deep end head first) dives right in and says there is no reason beyond personal preference to not have female clergy. You know, when people ask me about women in priesthood, they say, 'Sister, why can't women be priests?' And I say, 'Women CAN be priests. We don't WANT them to be priests.' Because you see, God can do anything, and the Church, by divine authority, uh, can do anything, but, the Church doesn't want to - and that's a legitimate reason. What I don't like is when we TRY to pretend that there are other reasons for this, because it's legitimate not to want something, and there are reasons not to want this - right? - but, we shouldn't pretent that there's some... reason, that, for example, the maleness...
This is wonderful news. I am glad to read that it will "peer reviewed" by real scholars which I assume means scholars with earned doctorates and connected with accredited universities. This will be a great improvement over http://orthodoxhistory.org which included sensationalist articles like a religous version of "The National Enquirer".
ReplyDeleteYes, each article is peer reviewed by scholars with earned doctorates (though in a few cases, the person might have a Th.M. and decades of teaching and publication experience). I have a field of peer reviewers from whom I can draw. Also, if you look at the authors to this first issue, each person has a doctorate degree with only one exception and that exception was fully vetted. Also, each submission is blind peer reviewed. This will even be the case for the papers from our forthcoming symposium in Princeton.
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