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...
The irony is that we at our most recent pastoral conference were discussing whether or not the time has come for us as Orthodox priests to abstain from signing marriage certificates to clearly delineate the mystery of marriage from what the state is conferring on people.
ReplyDeleteThe Russian State follows Church teaching in only extending legal marriage to heterosexual unions. Hence, its clergy avoid our uniquely Western dilemma.
DeleteThe Russian State follows Church teaching in only extending legal marriage to heterosexual unions. Hence, its clergy avoid our uniquely Western dilemma.
Delete