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...
That is what we have been doing in our Byzantine Catholic church with the approval of Bishop Kurt - everyone has their own spoon to receive. My son holds the tray with clean spoons and I hold the tray with used spoons.
ReplyDeleteSo to be clear, being in church with full attendance, too dangerous, not worth the risk, using a single spoon, too dangerous.
ReplyDeleteMarching with thousands of strangers for a nice photo op, acceptable and worth the risk? It’s no wonder my Greek friends are peeved about the mixed signals.
Don't let it confuse you--for each course, always use the spoon on the right.
ReplyDelete:)
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5e0TVUC_ko
ReplyDeleteIf "essentiality " is the condensed symbol of the Body, then the spoon is the substance in this world of the bread... ;)
ReplyDeleteThey are lovely ice tea spoons. Cheap too.
ReplyDelete