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...
Alas, he fails to mention the name of our Savior.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that was easy. But I also wondered why Archbishop Demetriod didn't make the Sign of the Cross or begin with "In the name of the Father..." I'm sure many in the crowd thought he was some kind of alien. God bless him!
ReplyDeleteHow can he pray to the Father without mentioning Christ, the one Way and Mediator? No Trinity, no Cross = no one offended. BRAVO! St. Paul preached "Jesus and the Resurrection" to the pagans in Athens who knew nothing about the true God. Surely Abp. Demetrius can mention Christ at the RNC. So this must be the new "openness" the EP/GOA bishops boast about as they criticize other local churches in the clergy-laity conference video.
ReplyDeleteWell, I read the comments and expected worse. An explicit reference to the Heavenly Father, implicit and veiled references to His Son and His Spirit (obvious to those with ears to hear). Certainly Orthodox in the underlying ethos, with a generous (too generous?) acknowledgement of and adjustment to the "American Civil Religion" and it's expected norms of "public prayer".
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think we should be doing this sort of thing - that is participating in the American Civil Religion - particularly now that it is on its death bed and its children (i.e. ideological secularism, anti-Christianity, etc.) are in power. However there are those who disagree (i.e. that we should continue "to try" and "to dialogue") though they are largely of the generation of Abp. Demetrios himself...it won't be long to this sort of silliness is gone from the landscape...
Christopher