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...
If I may, the name of the radio station in Montreal is "Radio Ville-Marie" and the program is "Voix Orthodoxes" (mean Orthodox Voices).
ReplyDeleteI was the interviewer for that occasion, it was a great honour to meet higumen Philip and have a chance to talk an hour with him. I'm also the director and principal animator of this radio program "Voix Orthodox". We present every week since September 8 2010, a kind of radio magazine about the Orthodox church in Quebec.
It is possible for anybody who understands the French language to listen directly on the web that program (http://www.radiovm.com/Radio_v3.aspx), every Wednesday at 21 h 00, Eastern Standard Time. Welcome to everyone.
Normand Perry
Voix Orthodoxes
www.voixorthodoxes.org
We are also present on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Voix-Orthodoxes-emission-radiophonique/153292434703436?ref=mf
Thanks for commenting! I think I'll do a blog post on your program tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteCDs of Hegumen Philip and other conference speakers will be available shortly. Hegumen Philip also recorded 3 episodes for the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism's radio program "Un Dialogue" that is aired every Thursday noon from 12:30 to 1:00pm also on Radio Ville-Marie.
ReplyDeleteDeacon Anthony Mansour
Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Ecumenism
amansour@oikoumene.ca
1-877-oikoumene (ext. 33)