Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses
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...
Excellent! Thank you for posting!
ReplyDeleteMany years, to Father Peter. May his voice not soon fall silent.
DeleteMany years, to Father Peter. May his voice not soon fall silent.
DeleteHeers is horrid. His ratiocination is pseudopatristic pettifogging, Orthotoxic spin on ‘one issue voting’ employing exotic ‘based’ vocabulary to restate the propaganda that trump is an ‘outsider’. Yes, an outsider as in the outer darkness where the worm never sleeps...
ReplyDelete"...His ratiocination is pseudopatristic pettifogging..."
DeleteHa, very true. However, Trump IS an outsider to the status quo, and he is probably no worse or better morally than Biden or most of the rest
Morality aside, trump is a straightup caudillo and Stochastic Terrorist, as well as his son calling for ‘total war’ as he faces defeat in polls and his supporters such as Bannon calling for beheading of Dr. Fauci and the head of the FBI. Apparently this is now mainstream.
DeleteThe first few minutes I dropped my vegetarian shawarma and though he wanted us to vote for Biden, then I opened up a Michelob Ultra (low carb, so fasting) and realized I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, who is his Bishop? He was a Greek priest, then ROCOR, and now......?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAs near as anyone can tell he is in ecclesial limbo, which as any internet canon warrior can tell you is "invalid". So he is invalid, or an invalid, or something...
DeleteNo, Heers is a priest of the Church of Greece it appears. He should keep his bulbous nose out of American politics and focus on his adopted home which also has a fascism problem.
DeleteWho is a fascist? Trump? 70 million people who voted for him? Please, save your hyperbole for people who don't know better...
DeleteIf t looks like a fascist, talks like a fascist and walks like a fascist it’s probably fascist.
DeleteHeers is copacetically CoG I hear.
It's Gypsy Orthodoxy, and who doesn't love to hear stories about St. Paisios?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Gypsy Orthodoxy, if we are going to have Fr Peter's perspective, we should get some balance and have our moderator add Brother Nathanael. :)
ReplyDeleteAnecdotally, among neophytes Abp. Alexander’s rebuke of Heers is unpopular. A catechumen told me he didn’t understand how the Church which owns the Truth could ‘bow to the state’ by adopting pandemic safety measures. He seems to be a fan of Jay Dyer, and the last time I saw him at church he didn’t even wear a mask.
ReplyDelete"...last time I saw him at church he didn’t even wear a mask..."
DeleteA stout man or two of your community should step up and escort him out the door. Not sure if Heer has unconsciously adsorbed America's individualistic streak and incorporated it into his idiosyncratic theology, but his thrice-holy-blessed-and-transubstatiated-spoon/temple theology is silly and non-normative.
What he is taping into, correctly in my opinion, is the tendency among too many Orthodox bishops/priests/laity to compromise with the world and bring in secular assumptions (about this or that - including politics) into their thinking.