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...
"This is the way"
ReplyDeleteOur host has spoken. I have tried hard (from a position of leadership - parish board president) to convince our little parish to do similar 'out reach' - that is public speech that is 'counter-cultural' in the way the advert is above, to no avail. The majority of those in leadership always get squeamish, and fall back on a kind pietistic "that's confrontational and not what we are about". I argue it is a false "conservativism" (or just laziness) to not "confront" the devil in the culture, so far to no fruit.
Orthodoxy in America is a failing institution, led by those who are comfortable in the status quo...