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...
Assuming this is true, it appears the "plastic dispensable cups" part is a reference to "zapivka" only - the blessed wine consumed in Slavic tradition parishes after communion. (Interfax often has clunky and strange translations to the English)
ReplyDeleteThis fairly reputable Russia news site claims directives only apply to Moscow diocese:
https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/03/17/russian-orthodox-church-devnew-rules-to-fight-coronavirus-spread-but-only-in-moscow
This purports to be the full original text:
http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5608418.html
"...claims directives only apply to Moscow diocese"
ReplyDeleteI sense some want to contain this contagion of, I don't know, "liberal" lack of faith in a Trice Holy Transubstasiated Heavenly Disinfectant ;) :_)
uummm no. Meduza is a well-known (in journalistic & Russia analysis circles) independent and secular independent news site based in Riga, Latvia. Basically it doesn't have a dog in this fight.
DeleteAs for me (who wrote the initial comment), I'm a journalist myself (who yes is Orthodox) which is why i used words like "claims" and "purported".
Don't assign motives esp if you don't know what your talking about (clearly you've never heard of Meduza - again, very well-known in E. Europe and Russian observer circles).
In short, get lost troll.
Hey, I'm a journalist too!! (or is it to...I'm not an editor) I run www.trollorthodoxy.org. What the skinny on how the EP and his minions in the U.S. State Dept. got to Kirill? Don't worry, I will attribute you first!
DeleteOooh! Now it's fireeaters! Insults against Orthodox Christians who desire to see Churches remain open during a crisis are not helping your argument.
ReplyDeleteMikhail, a "novel" shall we say, way to receive holy communion was introduced and instead of addressing it, you defensively imposed yourself into a discussion where you were not even mentioned. Is this the concern for the Church that you claim to have?
Delete~(Not the "Unknown" above)
David,
ReplyDeleteYour no doubt right. I was having a bit of fun with Unknown as we were talking past each other... ;)
David,
ReplyDeleteBishops are shutting down Churches. They will answer to God for that. There should be more services during a crisis. And what do you do when people yearn for the holy Liturgy. You call them stone throwers and fire eaters. Pathetic little insults.
David,
ReplyDeleteThese are tough times. Sometimes it is the responsibility of the people to admonished their Bishops when they fall into apostasy. Have you ever heard of St. Mark of Ephesus?