Kvinnor i Ortodoxa kyrkan
Läste en väldigt intressant artikel skriven av Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, Ortodox teolog.
Den tar bl.a. upp frågan om vigning av kvinnor.
Skulle nästan kunna slå vad om att det kommer att återinföras där snabbare än i Katolska kyrkan... Och utan några problem heller. Eftersom ingen patriark (väl?) har uttalat sig emot detta.
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"An important step was taken when, during the second half of the twentieth century, women were first admitted as students to the schools of theology in different local Orthodox Churches, notably in Greece and in the diaspora in France and the United States. Now they are beginning to teach in these schools of theology. Women as Orthodox theologians participate in ecumenical dialogue at all levels, notably in the heart of the ecumenical World Council of Churches. This has led to an enlightening paradox: an Orthodox Christian woman who has the training and the competence could teach the New Testament in a prestigious theology department like that of the University of Thessalonika, but she would not be able to read the Gospel in the assembly of people of God. An Orthodox theological conference unanimously proclaimed that, "all acts denying the dignity of the human person, all discrimination between men and women based on gender, is a sin," but access to the altar remains forbidden to women.
Today the question concerning the access of women to the sacramental ministry is addressed to the Orthodox Church more from the outside, in the context of ecumenical dialogues. But it has also become an internal problem for serious theologians - men and women - in light of the contradictions posed by the changing roles of women in the Church. From the first international conferences of Orthodox women at the monastery of Agapia in Romania (1976), and later at the Orthodox Academy of Crete (1989), the issue of the ordination of women has been examined seriously and calmly. At the inter-Orthodox consultation of Rhodes (1988) on the ordination of women and the place of women in the Church, a consultation convoked and organized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the decision to restore the diaconate for women was unanimously adopted. More recently, this same wish was energetically revisited by the Orthodox Christian women who met at Damascus (October 1996) and in Istanbul (May 1997) for conferences organized around the Gospel saying "interpret the signs of the times" (Matthew 16:3).
"One of the essential problems facing theologians today is to know how to distinguish between the Holy Tradition of the Church, the adequate expression of Revelation, and the human traditions which express themselves only imperfectly and very often are in opposition to Holy Tradition and obscure it," wrote Father John Meyendorff of blessed memory, in a book published thirty-five years ago but still current and recently reedited. We are growing in numbers, men and women Orthodox theologians who call for an end to certain "traditional" practices of our historical churches regarding women: practices marked, as stated in the conclusions of the Consultation of Rhodes, "owing to human weakness and sinfulness, Christian communities have not always and in all places been able to express effectively ideas, manners, and customs, historical developments and social conditions which have resulted in practical discrimination against women.
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Elisabeth själv verkar ha varit en alldeles fantastisk kvinna - önskar att jag hade fått träffa henne - hon känns som en tvillingsjäl på många sätt - inte minst i fråga om kvinnor och ekumenik, och så har vi samma sinne för humor, och inte minst så kan man ju undra varför hon firade sin 95-årsdag just i Karmel... :-)
"After retiring, Elisabeth devoted much time and energy to the promotion of women in the Orthodox Church — respectfully, almost humbly, but with firm conviction and solid theological arguments. She helped create an awareness that women had been relegated to an inferior status that was not according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had to change.
Though challenging Orthodoxy on many fronts, she was always a faithful and loving daughter of her church — without stridency or bitterness or animosity and often with a mischievous sense of humor which kept her opponents off guard.
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Elisabeth’s ecumenism was not simply theoretical. She moved with ease among the different Christian traditions, always seeing the positive, always curious and ready to learn. Her 95th birthday was celebrated in the Carmelite convent of St. Elie in Central France with the presence of two Orthodox bishops, a Greek Catholic Bishop, the vicar generals of three Catholic dioceses and several eminent Protestant pastors. This, in itself, was a magnificent testimony of their esteem for this diminutive grandmother whose love embraced them all and brought them together. It was a way of recognizing that, in her, the Christian unity so desired and prayed for had been realized — hopefully, prophetically."
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