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To: Kolokotronis

My understanding was that none of the Orthodox Churches were ordaining women, was I incorrect?


24 posted on 12/06/2007 6:40:36 PM PST by StAthanasiustheGreat (Vocatus Atque Non Vocatus Deus Aderit)
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To: StAthanasiustheGreat

“My understanding was that none of the Orthodox Churches were ordaining women, was I incorrect?”

The Synod of the Church of Greece has approved the reinstitution of the female diaconate after its disuse for well over 1000 years but I don’t know if any women have actually been ordained to it yet.

One has to understand that this diaconate is fundamentally different from anything the West has ever seen. It is limited as to who is eligible and most especially what they can do and where. It never did and never will lead to the priesthood or even the sort of male diaconate one sees in Orthodoxy or the Latin Church. Frankly, the reinstitution of the female diaconate in the East will hinder the development of this sort of Western lesbian “priestesshood” since it demonstrates quite graphically the limited role women played in an ordained capacity in the early Church. They of course played a major role in other capacities.


25 posted on 12/06/2007 6:58:31 PM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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