Would you be more likely to join…

Love365 said:

Did Jesus talk about virgins and oil lamps?

Click to expand...

‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

This is not about the functions of clergy, but about the whole Church.

Love365 said:

Would you be more likely to join the Catholic Church,
if they had women priests, bishops, and cardinals?

Click to expand...

Absolutely not!

Or not.

Aaron112 said:

Or not.

Click to expand...

Definitely not.

RileyG said:

That’s not a priestly function and it’s not related to gender.

Click to expand...

In the Orthodox Church the altar is lit using oil lamps rather than candles, unless they are paraffin candles, but only the Oriental Orthodox use them; the Eastern Orthodox prefer to only use beeswax candles, and these are not allowed past the Iconostasis, since the interior of the altar is not supposed to have any animal products. Where possible, clergy should avoid using leather belts and wear liturgical slippers or shoes which are not made of leather, and liturgical service books are not leather-bound if there is any possibility they might be needed in the altar area.

Likewise, the vigil lamps used to continually illuminate icons in many churches and in the icon corners of Orthodox who are able to keep them are ideally oil. I myself due to arthritis use electric vigil lamps for my home chapel.

Of course, lighting these does not require a priest. Lights in the nave outside the iconostasis can be lit by anyone (and mostly consist of candles, but there are the oil lamps, which require managing the wicks, which can be fiddly, so usually it will be one of the ladies of the parish or a reader who deals with them), and the lights on the altar can be lit by anyone ordained to the rank of subdeacon or higher.

In the consecration of Holy Oil on the last Sunday in Lent or when someone is ill, which is done if possible with seven presbyters, seven oil lamps are lit in the Coptic Orthodox and Byzantine Rite / Eastern Orthodox liturgies (five in the Syriac Orthodox liturgy), arranged in a cruciform pattern (a Greek cross in the Syriac church and a Latin cross in the Coptic and Greek church), or else, in both the Coptic and the Byzantine rite, but primarily in the Byzantine rite, seven wicks into a bowl of oil are lit. With each lighting, there is a cycle of scripture readings and prayers. The service is extremely beautiful and in the Byzantine rite is prefaced with the type of hymn known as a Canon (which consists of hymns grouped into Odes which are themed based on the liturgical occasion and one of nine numbered Scriptural canticles; the Coptic Orthodox liturgy likewise has four Odes which are used in the same way during their Psalmody in the evening and at midnight and in the early morning, and the Syriac Orthodox translated several Greek canons and also wrote their own distinctive canons.

In Anglicanism, there are numbered Canticles in the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer, which I particularly like - its done in such a way so that all the canticles ordinarily used during the Divine Office are numbered, and an additional set of alternative canticles are provided, which are also numbered but grouped separately, with some notes about which canticles might be appropriate for wherever else. This is something that I wish the 1928 BCP had, which prompted the LiturgyWorks project which has completed a modularized BCP intended as a public domain alternative to the 1928 BCP and the 1979 BCP for Continuing Anglican parishes - it is basically the 1928 BCP with the ability to optionally include additional public domain material from a wide range of other Anglican liturgical materials depending on the specific needs of the parish. This will be widely available soon, and was actually completed two years ago but not distributed because I was until recently too ill to set up the website and distribution infrastructure for LiturgyWorks projects.

throughfiierytrial said:

Absolutely not!

Click to expand...

Agreed, run the other way!!!

Love365 said:

Jewish women are allowed to light candles for 8 days.

Click to expand...

What does that have to do with priests? A person doesn't need to be a priest to light a lamp.