You have a point about the married priesthood in the Eastern rite. However, if a priest wants to be considered for a bishop, doesn't he have to remain celebate? Why have married priests then?
"However, if a priest wants to be considered for a bishop, doesn't he have to remain celebate? Why have married priests then?"
For many centuries now all Orthodox bishops have come from the ranks of the celibate priest monks. If you want to be a bishop, you don't get married before you get ordained. It is that simple. I guess I don't quite get your point. But as usual, I'm willing to be enlightened.
Believe it or not, not every priest harbors dreams of the episcopacy. Some, in fact, don't even want to be pastors. We have a 32 year old associate in our parish who pastored a rural church for a year, and told the bishop he never wants to be a pastor, ever again.
Instead, he's working on a doctorate in Scripture studies, and wants to spend the bulk of his time teaching scripture.