Copts clarify rules on women receiving the Eucharist

(LA Copts) - The following is a summary of a study dealing with women receiving Holy Communion presented by the Medical Subcommittee of the Holy Synod, which convened at the Synod’s request in March 2016 at Logos Center.

The Christian Church clearly teaches that sin alone defiles a believer and that men and women are temples of the Holy Spirit, which only leaves a person in the case of death in sin. Thus, a woman is a pure dwelling place of the Holy Spirit every day of her life.

However, because of piety and the proper care concerning the Holy Mysteries of the Church, and for the preservation of the received traditions, it is fitting for both men and women to refrain from Holy Communion during periods of physical unpreparedness, which include all kinds of bodily secretions such as nocturnal emissions of semen for men (i.e., “wet dreams”), the menstrual cycle, the period of postpartum bleeding, and normal marital relations, except in special cases at the advice of the spiritual father of confession and for pastoral reasons.

We further assert that any woman in these states is not forbidden at any time from all other spiritual activities, including personal prayer, reading the Holy Scripture, serving, and attending the Divine services.

We also emphasize that a child (male or female) can be baptized on any day after his/her birth.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 1, 2016 at 8:49 PM

    Does this mean that if a married man or women has sexual relations they can not receive Holy Communion? What are they suppose to do? Go to confession? If yes, how does that square away with the marriage bed being undefiled? What is the Chalcedonian Orthodox view on this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 6:39 PM

      The phrase "normal marital relations" here is surely referring to rule that married couples abstain one the night prior to taking communion on Sunday morning. It's not saying there is a problem to the married state in general. Confession has nothing to do with this because it is not a matter of sin; it is a matter of reverence for the Sacrament.

      Delete
  2. HabashiDecember 2, 2016 at 8:12 AM

    Hopefully saner than this nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Byzantine, TXDecember 2, 2016 at 8:19 AM

      It's not unheard of in Orthodoxy. Sex the day before communion and the rest have all been taken up by different churches at different times even to just the last few years.

      Delete
  3. DrZDecember 2, 2016 at 9:32 AM

    I'm not being facetious, but trying to understand this directive: if someone has a cold and a runny nose, would he/she be considered to have bodily secretions and therefore physically unprepared to take communion?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 6:31 PM

      No. Clearly not.

      Delete
    2. DrZDecember 5, 2016 at 9:52 AM

      In that case, I understand the concern with "voluntary" secretions due to normal marital relations, but the argument for the others (e.g.:the menstrual cycle), as it's put forward, just does not make sense. To me, the menstrual cycle, as it's put forward in the directive above, is equivalent to other bodily secretions such as runny noses that the person has no control over.

      Basically, I think the way this directive has been formulated is problematic. If you want to get into specifics, be specific (i.e. include all bodily secretions). I think it would have been better to put forward the historical and traditional thinking behind this issue, and then to leave it up to the individual spiritual father's discretion to advise the faithful.

      Delete
    3. Byzantine, TXDecember 5, 2016 at 10:16 AM

      It's a canonical issue - no reason to leave it to someone to make special distinctions on such a black and white issue. As to involuntary actions, as a priest if I pricked my finger and am bleeding I can't celebrate the Liturgy. If I cut my finger DURING the Liturgy I can't celebrate the Liturgy. Blood has always been an issue of importance treated with special deference by the Church.

      Delete
    4. DrZDecember 5, 2016 at 11:06 AM

      Thank you for clarifying the canonicity(?) of blood. I'm not well versed in the canons, so I was not aware it rose to that level.

      Delete
  4. maximusDecember 2, 2016 at 10:39 AM

    http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/menses.aspx
    http://www.pravmir.com/article_660.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. CJDecember 2, 2016 at 2:16 PM

    Aren't you supposed to abstain as part of the fast (starting midnight before you receive)?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 6:30 PM

      You're supposed to abstain the entire evening before.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses

Image
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...
Read more

Big news for the Western Rite, ROCOR, and Bp. Jerome

Image
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013 ( ROCOR ) - An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops is Held On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was held, presided over by its First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York. Participating in the meeting were permanent members of the Synod of Bishops: His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany; His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America; His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, and His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. Deliberating on the matter of Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, the Synod of Bishops made a decision as follows: “During a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, presided over by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, A DECISION WAS MADE: on the activities of Bishop Jerome of Ma...
Read more

OCA takes strong stand for canonical Orthodoxy

( Orthochristian.com ) - The primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada, will concelebrate with the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, in western Ukraine later this week. The Ukrainian Orthodox Diocese of Chernivtsi and Bukovina “awaits the visit of the primate of the Orthodox Church in America on June 1–2, 2024. Solemn services will be held in the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Chernivtsi, with the participation of both primates.” The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America formally rejects communion with the schismatics of the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” recognizing only the canonical UOC under Met. Onuphry. The Ukrainian primate was the honored guest at the OCA’s 18th All-American Council in July 2015.
Read more