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...
Internet resources are nice and fill a small niche - but in my estimation there MUST be the following:
ReplyDelete1.) at local parish level, a small group of people who are committed to meeting newcomers and walking them through whatever service is going on, then introducing them around at coffee hour.
2.) perhaps another internet social networking site who has these volunteers available to meet inquirers at a third place before church to help them "warm" up to church or offer a pre-service tour of the church and "pre-game" summary.
3.) churches who are willing to take Vespers or other non DL services OUTSIDE the church. Speaking from experience, while I was very won over through internet sources, there was a long lag time before I worked up the gumption to attend a service. I was AFRAID. If there had been a Vespers in a park or at a private room in a coffee shop, that would have been enough "taste" for me to feel comfortable to enter a church.
hope this helps