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...
Looks like this council is fostering a different kind of pan-Orthodox unity than what the Ecumenical Patriarch intended.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on. "Anti-Ecumenist?" Better to just say "Orthodox." I am so saddened by the attempts to brand some Orthodox opinions as somehow backward or unacceptable, instead of as a healthy and vital part of Orthodoxy and Orthodox dialogue (I said part, not necessarily the whole). Are we going to brand Saint Mark of Ephesus as "anti-ecumenical" now? These differences of opinion and interpretation are the life signs of the Church!
ReplyDeleteArchpriest Theodore Zisis calls himself that. You can imagine little air quotes over the term if you'd like.
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