Women and the Priesthood   Thomas Hopko, ed.

More than fifteen years have passed since the original publication of Women and the Priesthood. This    new edition presents the essays of the authors who are no longer with us, Fathers Alexander    Schmemann and Nicholas Afanasiev, and Prof. Georges Barrois, together with the editor's reflections    on the debate at that time. The living contributors to the first edition have all written new essays. An    article by Dr. Nonna Verna Harrison is also now included. The authors search for explanations and reason why the Orthodox Church has never in its history    ordained women to serve as bishops and priests. All agree that the Church has women deacons,    and that careful consideration must be given to this office as it existed in the past and as it may once    again exist in the Orthodox Church. No author in the present volume calls for the ordination of women as bishops and priests. All authors    agree, however, that the greatest care much be exercised in dealing with this complicated and    delicate issue. The Orthodox Church has no infallible magisterium. Church leaders and theologians    may be wrong. The Holy Spirit acts within the whole body of believers bringing to remembrance    what Christ teaches and guiding the faithful into all truth. If but one member of the Church is inspired    to argue from the Bible and Church Tradition that certain women may be qualified to serve as bishops    and priests, he or she must be heard with dignity and respect. Those who believe that only certain    believing men are qualified for these ordained ministries must be heard in the same manner and    spirit. Whatever one thinks of the thoughts of the contributors, this new edition of Women and the    Priesthood serves as a model for the debate among the Orthodox. ISBN 0-88141-146-9 6 x 9  260 pp Price: US $15.95

Post Edited (MephEternal) : 1/17/2006 7:34:18 PM (GMT-6)

1. He taught the spiritual equality of men and women and blessed that equality by saying, "for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh."
2. There is, however, no argument from St. Paul about the fact that women have the right to rule in the political and vocational order.
3. There is, however, in the Bible, St. Paul’s teaching that women should not lead in the worship of the church.
4. In the letters to the Ephesians and Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of the ordained man as being a presbyter, which means an older man or elder or ruler. He believes that only men should lead or rule in the Christian family. He believes that equal rulership with men would eventually cause confusion in the human family as well as in the church by preventing singleness of purpose in decision-making.
5. We Orthodox Christians declare that while men and women are equal in the eyes of God and under the secular law, they are very different in their human nature because God has created them for different functions.

Post Edited (MephEternal) : 1/17/2006 8:32:21 PM (GMT-6)

You made promises, D.

Now you shouldn't bail, just because something is more work than you want it to be.

As to "clear" versus "definitive" I think you go fishing for short round answers with no rough edges that prevent their being reused in different ways.

Me, I am content to locate an issue well, and settle for it taking a day before I even understand the issue... and then several more before I maybe, maybe have part of an answer. Then I stick with it until I have some notion of how partial or full, simple or complex an answer I'm looking at.

Then I ask what it means to me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .