Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Greek Archdiocese hosts talk: Female Religious Leadership

(Orthodox Times) - The second webinar of FoRēL – Female Religious Leaders will take place on Monday, February 8 at 1 PM ET.

The conversation will focus on “Female Religious Leadership: Interfaith Perspectives” and will feature Alyaa Ebbiary, Faith and Belief Forum, Rabbi Melinda Zalma, Jewish Community Relations Council of NY, Mira Ungewitter, Pastor and Projekt: Gemeinde, and Spyridoula Fotinis, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Mother Teresa. Joan of Arc. Fatima az-Zahra. Malala. Anne Frank. Queen Esther. Indirah Gandhi. A few impactful women come to mind when we think of female leaders of different faiths. But many faiths have a complex relationship with female leadership. In many faith traditions, women are barred from certain positions simply because they are women. Why is this? Are there female priests? Rabbis? Gurus? In this webinar, we will speak with four female religious leaders from different faith traditions. How do they understand their leadership? What is their experience being a female leader in an often male-dominated context? What is the value of female religious leadership, and do they think there are any limitations to the ways that women can lead in their faith communities? Join this webinar for what promises to be a challenging, exciting, and inspiring discussion with these powerful women of faith!

The event is free and open to all. After the webinar, there is an optional meet & greet to continue the conversation.

Registration is required: https://goarch.zoom.us

What is FoRēL? Read more here.

17 comments:

  1. Does not bode well. What is a "religious leader" anyway? The Orthodox Church is not a religion. It is the path to union with God incarnate. Religion is a system of belief and practice.

    There is a religious element to the Church but our leaders lead us into the union through administering the Holy Sacraments and rightly dividing the word of Truth.

    I am beginning to dislike and mistrust anything coming from the Greeks.

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    1. Mr. Bauman I think you're right. I too have begun to mistrust any statements from those in communion with Constantinople.

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  2. It’s based on a lie. They list “female leaders of different faiths” and pretend that’s the same as “female religious leaders”.

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  3. This is, or should be, deeply embarrassing. But I've reached a point where very little coming out of the GOA surprises me anymore. I don't know what is going to halt their drift towards religious indifferentism and outright heresy. Sometimes I wonder if the EP's schismatic intervention in Ukraine might not have been a blessing in disguise for the long term health of the Church. The Russians have their share of problems (mostly around meddling in secular politics), but I thank God for their clear witness for the Orthodox Faith. When is the last time anyone has been able to say that about the Greeks?

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    1. I agree with you John. They have tipped their hand. Everything from "first without equal" to female deacons to climate crisis to giving humanitarian awards to abortion advocates to ordaining schismstics in Ukraine...has revealed them to be on the short road to apostasy.

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    2. Check out the advancement of the gay agenda that is gaining momentum in the Ukraine. The schismatics and phanar in league wit
      h this movement.

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    3. Do you have any links/sources Archimandrite Gregory so we can check it out?

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  4. Michael and John,

    I would suggest your falling for sampling bias by focusing on GOA. GOA is just larger percentage of the faithful as well as the richest here in NA. Sister Vassa is ROCOR for example. The list of academic and Orthodox intellectuals who attend "human sexuality" conferences reveals progressive/secularized Orthodox come from ALL churches and jurisdictions.

    In other words secularization effects everyone more or less equally. Also the idea that a nostalgic "Mother Russia" will conserve Orthodoxy (from "papist" Constantinople, blah blah blah) is naive in the face of the reality of this across the board secularization IMO.

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    1. Jake, no doubt but this specifically referenced the Greeks and I have been trying to ignore them ever since they sent a priest with known pedifile issues to a small parish here in Wichita. He molested the son of a woman I later became good a
      friends with. Plus, a fine retired priest in his early 70's came out of retirement from Florida to serve the parish. Then when a younger priest was found, the GOA left Fr. Dean high and dry. Four of the wealthy men of my parish got together and made sure Fr. Dean and his wife were taken care of. Fr. Dean reposed a couple of years ago but his wife is still with us.

      Know my bishop and my priest. The rest....



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    2. Plus, Jake I suspect my parish is about 50/50 or worse. My best friend is a black prison dentist who I helped lead to the Church. He is Biden all the way. He was astounded I am not. He came into the Church, in part, because he sees I "get him". First white guy who ever has--or so he says. But, I have radically different experience than most Kansas white guys my age.

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  5. "Mother Teresa. Joan of Arc. Fatima az-Zahra. Malala. Anne Frank. Queen Esther. Indirah Gandhi. A few impactful women come to mind when we think of female leaders of different faiths."

    I feel like "Female religious leaders" and "female leaders of different faiths" could have been said differently. Does the Catholic Church consider Joan of Arc a "religious leader?"

    And Anne Frank, with all due respect, is not known in the world because she was a religious leader. This seems to show blatant lack of familiarity with her life story? Whom did she lead? Whom could she have led?

    Malala is a well-known education advocate who happens to be a Muslim. But surely she herself would not call herself a "religious leader."

    "Women leaders from different faiths" sounds more accurate. Plus, is this event already being criticized for using a term like "Female?" How intolerant.

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    1. I noticed the misuse of "leader" was well Matvey Cass. Unfortunately if it is not mere illiteracy, it reveals something of the background motivation/agenda.

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  6. A word about Anne Frank: she led no one in any capacity. Her father, Otto was the one who led those in the attic. His faith and leadership kept them together. He is the only one who survived the camps. He severely edited his daughter's diary to keep most of her sexual content out.

    In the play, as in the diary itself, Otto is the primary figure.
    Go figure--male spiritual/faith headship in a Jewish family. Who knew?

    I had the honor of depicting him in the play while in high school. I learned a lot about being head of a family. His courage was founded on his faith in the God of the Jews.

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    1. Ah shucks Michael, don't let facts get in the way of religious reform! (sarcasm rightly detected)

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    2. Jake, I thought the proper term was "spiritual but not religious" anyway.

      Seriously, Otto Frank was a really courageous man of faith. His daughter was a typical teenager of her time. Mr. Frank found her diary and had it published.



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