www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Orthodox Church of Greece to Allow Deaconesses

Athens News Agency reports the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church voted to allow bishops to ordain nuns as deaconess...

Deaconess [ana.gr]

Umm - curious Latin wants elucidation whenever did the granting of Last Rites become SOCIAL function ??

GREEKS !!!!! as a friend would say

Anhelyna

What's saddening is that only 15 out of the 62 Metropolitans supported Archbishop Christodoulos'
visit to the Vatican.

Dear Brad,

Yes, the Greeks and other Orthodox Churches generally don't trust the Vatican.

There are EC's who don't either!

Alex

I understand that the Orthodox Church or Greece is by far the most likely to hold onto what they've got and maintain the faith and traditions, and so they should.
This is what I meant in my other thread about achieving unity only on EO terms, Greek Orthodox terms in particular.

Brad

Hey man, at least we know that 15 are cool dudes. The rest are square.
Lauro

The begining of the end! The downfall of Orthodoxy.
Stephanos I

It seems to me that this article is allowing the holiness of nuns to enter society and to minister to society, as nuns of the West have done for centuries. Nothing else.

The term 'social' is simply a bad translation. In Greek, it is akin to our 'community'.

This change does not worry me one bit, as it is proper as it is being done in Greece. In this country...well--that would certainly be a different story!

The Church of Greece is VERY conservative.

As for the unfortunate vote of the majority synod, they are of the generation and mindset of the previous Archbishop who was very anti-ecumenical...and it will simply take newer men with different mindsets to replace them, and to affect majority change on the spirit of East/West Ecumenism.

As long as Archbishop Christodoulos, who is VERY charismatic, loved by the people, and 'with it' is around, I believe that the spirit of younger clerics (some of who will eventually be the new guard of the Holy Synod) will slowly change.

In Christ,
Alice

Dear Stephanos,
We need not be so pesemistic. Straighten up, walk tall, chins up, not all is lost.
Lauro

Lauro,
Pessimism and Realism are two different animals.
I am a realist, I know that the true faith will triumph, we have Christ's words of assurance.
"the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church."
Stephanos I

If Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker could make a deaconess in the early 20th century, darn it, the Church of Greece definately can do the same in the early 21st.

I recall reading in "Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church" (from Holy Cross Seminary) that Archbishop Christodulos (before he was Archbishop of Athens) ordained a deaconess for a remote monastery in Greece sometime in the 1980's or there about. I don't have the book with me, so I can't quote it or give a specific reference.

Dave

Things to consider:

1) St Nektarios ordained a deaconess.
2) The Church of Greece already has deaconnesses in monasteries; this is just a stamp of approval.
3) The ordination may just be a blessing to serve in the altar, or it may be the use of a reconstructed rite from ancient times that mirrored the ordination of male deacons. Let's get ahold of the text and see what it says.

Anastasios

Dear Stephanos,

You are really wasted on these internet chat forums.

Why aren't you front and centre on a RC-Orthodox theological commission?

Why isn't the Vatican sending you as their foremost diplomat to Constantinople and Moscow?

What injustice there is in the world!

Alex

Holy Mother of God protect us!

Over 200 posts on altar girls and now talk of deaconess?
I am not in the mood for that chat.

I would, however, like to be the Pope's man at the MP.

Paul

Dear Paul,

If you would like a reference letter to Cardinal Sodano for yourself for that position, you know you only need ask!

I know the good Cardinal personally and also have his cell number!

Alex