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...
Memory Eternal.
ReplyDeleteI'm unclear about these conflicts. Are the Christians there holding services and being martyred? Or are they protesting and engaging in violent demonstrations?
ReplyDeleteProtesting church closures, mistreatment, etc. Also being targeted for violence.
ReplyDeleteChristians have suffered persecution in Egypt for the past several years, and even more so since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak as Egypt's president last February.
ReplyDeleteI just wrote a commentary on this very topic on my Theology and Society blog today titled "Commentary: Egypt's Policy to Allow Muslims to Destroy Churches, Kill Christians Must End."
Byztex readers can read this commentary by visiting http://theologyandsociety.blogspot.com.