- Jun 18, 2007
- 3,263
- 771
- Faith
- Eastern Orthodox
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
Hello all,
So I normally post in reply to others, but there are a few areas I don't quite understand within Orthodoxy, being relatively new to it myself (only a convert of 4 years). I'd like to post these questions and have an open dialogue about them, and I want that to be open to any contributor (Orthodox or not), hence posting it here in St. Justin Martyr's corner.
1) The ancient Church, and the Byzantine Church, both had a woman's deaconate. In St. Ignatius of Antioch and in the Divine Liturgy the Deacon represents the angels around God's throne. Angels are genderless, being purely spiritual beings, so unlike with the priesthood there's no issue of "iconography" (where the priest must be male to be an icon of Christ, who is male).
Why don't we re-institute this since we have, in recent years, moved beyond some of the sexism of our cultures? We respect women's mind, ability, and spirituality, there's no issue of iconography (conceivably they wouldn't be serving Eucharist from the chalice), and it's IN the tradition of the Church.
If reinstituted, can anyone think of a reason they couldn't serve around the altar just like a male deacon, with the exception of not being allowed to spoon the Eucharist into the mouths of the faithful (for iconographic reasons)?
If deacon means "servent" I know a LOT of women who are just as much deaconesses as their male counterparts. Shouldn't the Church be blessing this service with the vocation of servanthood, the deaconate?
2) I know we don't want to promote the heretical variety of ecumenism with its fluffy "I'm ok, you're ok" relativism, but here's something I've been thinking of, and I'd like to be corrected (or affirmed, I suppose):
What if we began a functional international synod of Catholic and Orthodox bishops who met, NOT to try and resolve past differences, but to ensure that, as much as possible, NEW controversies are answered jointly by the Catholic and Orthodox churches? We make decisions about worship practices, doctrine, etc all the time. Over the last millenia, we've grown quite a bit apart, and if that's going to change, we should stop making decisions separately (so far as we are able - obviously the Orthodox Church would need to remain consistent with Holy Tradition and as such there are lines we cannot cross).
Something similar would be nice between the Orthodox Churches. We NEED an international synod since we are an international Church with international issues.
3) Protestants and Catholics do a much better job than us at evangelizing non-Christians. We do ok - but if we're honest we could learn a thing or two from them.
What are some evangelistic methods we could borrow from them without comrpomising the integrity of our Church's unique character?
In Christ,
Macarius
So I normally post in reply to others, but there are a few areas I don't quite understand within Orthodoxy, being relatively new to it myself (only a convert of 4 years). I'd like to post these questions and have an open dialogue about them, and I want that to be open to any contributor (Orthodox or not), hence posting it here in St. Justin Martyr's corner.
1) The ancient Church, and the Byzantine Church, both had a woman's deaconate. In St. Ignatius of Antioch and in the Divine Liturgy the Deacon represents the angels around God's throne. Angels are genderless, being purely spiritual beings, so unlike with the priesthood there's no issue of "iconography" (where the priest must be male to be an icon of Christ, who is male).
Why don't we re-institute this since we have, in recent years, moved beyond some of the sexism of our cultures? We respect women's mind, ability, and spirituality, there's no issue of iconography (conceivably they wouldn't be serving Eucharist from the chalice), and it's IN the tradition of the Church.
If reinstituted, can anyone think of a reason they couldn't serve around the altar just like a male deacon, with the exception of not being allowed to spoon the Eucharist into the mouths of the faithful (for iconographic reasons)?
If deacon means "servent" I know a LOT of women who are just as much deaconesses as their male counterparts. Shouldn't the Church be blessing this service with the vocation of servanthood, the deaconate?
2) I know we don't want to promote the heretical variety of ecumenism with its fluffy "I'm ok, you're ok" relativism, but here's something I've been thinking of, and I'd like to be corrected (or affirmed, I suppose):
What if we began a functional international synod of Catholic and Orthodox bishops who met, NOT to try and resolve past differences, but to ensure that, as much as possible, NEW controversies are answered jointly by the Catholic and Orthodox churches? We make decisions about worship practices, doctrine, etc all the time. Over the last millenia, we've grown quite a bit apart, and if that's going to change, we should stop making decisions separately (so far as we are able - obviously the Orthodox Church would need to remain consistent with Holy Tradition and as such there are lines we cannot cross).
Something similar would be nice between the Orthodox Churches. We NEED an international synod since we are an international Church with international issues.
3) Protestants and Catholics do a much better job than us at evangelizing non-Christians. We do ok - but if we're honest we could learn a thing or two from them.
What are some evangelistic methods we could borrow from them without comrpomising the integrity of our Church's unique character?
In Christ,
Macarius