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...
"As the Ecumenical Patriarch pointed out in his opening address, to deal with the problems of secularity “there is one necessary condition, namely the unity of our Church and the prospect of addressing the contemporary world with a unified voice.”"
ReplyDeleteWe cannot speak with one voice while the Czech Lands and Slovakia and the OCA are silenced.
The OCA occupies a peculiar position because of its irregular "autocephaly". That some Orthodox jurisdictions interact with the OCA on a day-to-day basis, then draw back at certain times, perpetuates the problem. Perhaps one task of a 2016 Synod ought to be to render truly canonical this jurisdiction which deserves proper status in fact, not just "in claim."
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