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...
Purple vestments? I guess it's because it's the afterfeast of the Elevation of the Cross. The usual color is red, though I've seen some Russian clergy wear green.
ReplyDeletePurple is a third alternative in the Russian usage.
ReplyDeletegood to see my brother deacon Michael
ReplyDeleteROCOR uses red, because they use white for Pascha as was the practice before the Russian revolution. Since the Patriarchal Parishes (and the Moscow Patriarchate as a whole) use red for Pascha, they use another color for feasts of the Cross, in this case purple.
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