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Dear Brethren in Christ,

I'm doing a study on the question of women serving on the Holy Altar and needed a little help. Does anyone know, from the Eastern (or Orthodox) perspective, why it is that women are not allowed to serve on the Altar? Any help would be appreciated including studies or esssays on this question. I'm especially looking for this from an Eastern Christian perspective. I'm also looking for the answer of "how do we know they are not allowed (canonically)" as well as "what is the historic reason they have not been allowed for nearly two millenia of Christian history.

Thank you,
Wm. Ghazar

Service at the altar is primarily the function of the ordained, subdeacon, deacon, presbyter and bishop. Acolytes (ordained servers) often function at the altar. Since most parishes do not have ordained acolytes, most servers are lay men and boys. Ordained ministry has traditionally been reserved to men. So, having men and boys as servers reflects a consistent practice. (In some monastaries, I understand, there were diakonessas, but, throughout most of history this was not the case in most places and 'parish' churches.)

I've heard it proposed also that there is a theological underpinning to an all-male ordained liturgical ministry: sacramental-liturgical ministry is an extension of the service that Christ, the Bride-Groom and Priest, gives to His Bride, the Church. The ordained Bishop, Priest, and deacon, together with the subdeacon, and other "minor orders" are part of Christ's ministry to His Bride, the Church.

The whole Church, male and female, clergy and laity, are the One Bride of Christ. Therefore, although are involved in the Liturgical action, only some are called through ordination to be living icons of Christ-Bridegroom-Priest. Liturgical ministry is proper to the ordained, but some non-ordained may be asked to perform liturgical functions as extensions of ordained ministry. These include especially the roles of lay acolyte, lay reader, and even lay cantor. The nearly universal tradition of the Church, East and West, has also been to have liturgical non-ordained service performed by males (yet less consistent with singers).

It is commonplace today to have women cantors and singers. Even to have women readers (although this is not universal). Having female acolytes or altar servers is more problematic as this form of service seems to reflect a closer link to the ministry of the altar.

The particular law of the Ruthenian Metropolia of Pittsburgh clearly affirms that the tradition of male servers is the only norm to be followed.

I think you mean women "at" the Holy Alter not "on" the Holy Alter.

Start with St. Nina's Quarterly:
http://www.stnina.org/home.htm

From this web site you will be able to read articles published in the journal and from the website get the information about the Pan-Orthodox conferences on women and ministry in the Eastern Orthodo Church and also the official published proceedings.

Also visit this web site:
http://www.orthodoxwomensnetwork.org/index.cfm

Gopod Luck.

Altar is the name also for the holy place behind the iconstasis.

As mentioned the other day the Melchites in London have female servers. You de-Latinise in one place and they go and introduce new ones somewhere else.

I heard recently of lay people giving Holy communion in Byz. Catholic Churches in north America and the fuss over which door to bring the Eucharist out through. The end result was the Eucharist in the hand of a lay person went out through the deacons doors while the priest took the Eucharist through the Royal doors. The importance was not to the Eucharist but to who was holding the vessels. Madness!

That 70's tune...I am woman, hear me roar...the migration has begun...

I'll be migrating to the big "O" soon enough...hear me roar...

james

In Orthodoxy women are not permitted to serve in any liturgical capacity behind the Iconotasis. Neither are they permitted to read the epistle or assist in any way during the Liturgy.

The only exception to the above being in a women's monastery. In monasteries, women may out of necessity, perform certain liturgical functions outside of the Iconostasis, such as that of reader.

Mark what does "permitted" mean, such that this sentence is actually true - even within your own jurisdiction?

Lazareno,

You have given me something valuable here when you write:

If you know of anything available on the web or books which develope this idea, please let me know.

Miller:

Thanks for your reply. Actually I did intentionally use the word "on." I meant this in the sense of "serving on the Altar" as we in our Church commonly refer to serving liturgically on a given Sunday. This is what I meant by "women on the Altar." Thanks for allowing me to clarify. Thanks also for the links. I'll check them out.

Brethren in Christ,

Actually I have already read defenses of a restored female diaconate. The problem I see is that many of these assume this translates into female altar service during the Divine Liturgy. I'm having a hard time seeing how this logically follows. In reality where there have been historic examples of women in monasteries serving liturgically, from what I've seen, this was never the norm where there were men available. So if the women deacons didn't serve liturgically then, what is it that requires them to do so now? On the other hand, why shouldn't they do so now? Force of historic Tradition? What was the reason behind this tradition? These are questions I'm grappling with.

Part of the reason this is pertinent to me is the following:

Our bishop, has determined that he will allow girls to do in our diocese just what women have done in our convents: serve as acolytes. Whereas they were allowed to serve in the past b/c there were no men in these convents, now it is being allowed for a different reason. To be honest, I don't know what the reason is. But apparently he has his reasons. The question is, as I study this issue, how do I view this decision? Is the bishop within his bounds and authority to decide such a thing. Is there no canon forbiding such a thing and just a matter of praxis? I am soon to be ordained a subdeacon and one of my tasks will be to train new acolytes (which now include girls). So I kind of want to get this straight in my head. Christian -and even ecclesiastical- obedience tells me that I should just obey and do what's asked of me. But at least I would like to come to a point in my own understanding where I know if what I'm doing is an abberation or something which is really no big deal. Any other thoughts anyone has would be appreciated.

Ghazar,

A book that may be of interest to you on the topic is The Place of the Woman in the Orthodox Church and the Question of the Ordination of Women edited by Gennadios Limouris and published by TERTIOS Publications, Katerini Greece. It is collection of papers presented on the subject in Rhodes Greece, 30 October - 7 November 1988. It is in English.

I hope this helps.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Orthodox Nuns do go behind the iconostasis during the liturgy and I think it is in the Russian tradition that the Abbess may go behind the iconstas. I saw a Romanian liturgy on the TV from a village in Moldavia and there was a nun in the altar who opened doors and directed the servers without being seen by the congregation. This is not widespread but happens here and there.

This is patently untrue--all the Orthodox churches in my area have women readers and cantors/choir directors who function as cantors. I'm speaking of OCA only since these are in my realm of experience. I have not been to any GOA parishes around me since most serve in Greek. Seems like more than a few are breaking the rules then.

There are women choir members and while I lived in the North East I did see one women choir director.

In my jurisdiction, the OCA Diocese of the South, the general rule is that only men read. The OCA does have minor orders and generally even younger acolytes recive the tonsure and minor order of acolyte. There are classes for readers and the office is only open to men. I have though seen women read in one or two instances. One of these was during the Liturgy on Great and Holy Saturday morning when there was a paucity of male readers. I do know that in other jurisdictions women do read but they most certainly are not readers since the minor order is reserved for men.

While I have not seen the above, I have had similar accounts related to me regarding women's monasteries and I accept as credible Pavel's testimny.

This having been said, as Pavel points out, it is not widespread, the privilege or blessing for an abbess to go behind the iconostas or for a nun in a monstic setting to go behind the iconostas in a case of necessity, is wholly distict from that of permtting girls or women to serve as acolytes in a parish setting. The aforesaid is an innovation with no foundation in Orthodox custom.

I have a book called The Female Diaconate: An Historical Perspective by Matushka Ellen Gvosdev, Ph.D., published by Light & Life in 1991. From that book:

From the concord to Canon XIX from Rudder (Pendalion), the book of Canons for the Orthodox Church (Nicolaides/Cummings, 1957, 192-96):

The Matushka also quotes the Orthodox Metropolitan Emilianos (Timiadis) of Calavrias, Greece:

She also discusses the issue of "uncleanliness" of women and states that the Fathers of the church were split on this issue, believing that that issue

Interesting???

Sophia