The Catalog of Good Deeds

Our culture bombards us with images of marriage. Pictures and news of celebrity and royal marriages and breakups crowd the pages of magazines and internet sites and capture the attention of millions of people, influencing everything from the newest trends in bridal gown design to values concerning intimacy and relationships.

Does the Church hold up any paradigms for marriage to provide the framework for a Christ-centered marriage? Indeed it does. The Church offers three icons from which we can learn how to live the married life: Christ the Bridegroom, Sts. Joachim and Anna, and the Wedding at Cana. These icons represent the three dimensions of marriage, the personal, the intimate, and the communal, respectively. Collectively they give us an Orthodox model for marriage.

Living these three dimensions daily is part of the grace and challenge of married life. We have a “personal” life, that is, who we are and who we are becoming in Christ. Yes, we become “one flesh” in marriage, but we do not become “one person.” Husband and wife remain distinct persons in the marriage relationship. Secondly, husband and wife share an exclusive personal and intimate relationship. Finally, the couple lives the married life in relationship with others, not in isolation.

Christ the Bridegroom: The Personal Dimension

First and most important, is the icon of Christ the Bridegroom, who married us, His bride, the Church, supremely through His suffering and death in the ultimate act of love. He offers Himself to us as the perfect model of the perfect spouse.

Our initial response to being challenged to love our spouse as Christ loves us might be, “He was God; I am human.” However, to be fully human, in fact, means to be like Christ, by grace, through faith.

Let us pause and reflect on Jesus’ humanity. During the three years of His public ministry, He regularly took time to be alone or with his Father in prayer. We also know that He had an inner circle of fellow workers/friends, which began with Peter, James and John and extended to the twelve disciples and a larger group of followers. Additionally, Jesus had other dear friends, most notably, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Finally, following the natural rhythm of life in His day, we can deduce that Jesus ate a healthy Mediterranean diet and walked a lot. He lived, what we call in contemporary terms, an active, healthy lifestyle.

This may seem like a stretch, but we can conclude that Jesus exemplified “healthy, holy self care” in His daily life. He was a healthy, holy person. When He ministered to others through miracles, teaching, and preaching, Jesus acted in love from a place of fullness. He was secure in His relationship with His Father and others (even though many opposed Him), and He knew His purpose in life. Then, in His final act of love for His bride, His suffering and death, Jesus was able to give everything He had, Himself.

How can we become a better husband or wife? By living and growing in Christ and allowing His grace to grow in us, so that His love works through us in loving our spouse. None of us is capable of loving our spouse with the perfect love of our Bridegroom. However, by God’s grace and faithfully looking to Jesus as the model spouse, we can intentionally enter into the process of holy, healthy self care through prayer, solitude, worship, learning, healthful eating, physical activity, appropriate rest and leisure, fellowship with others, and attending to any unhealthy habits or addictions we may have. Thus, we will become healthy, holy persons, who, by God’s grace and our cooperation, grow to love our spouses from a place of fullness.

Sts. Joachim and Anna: The Intimate Dimension

The second dimension of marriage, the intimate relationship of husband and wife, is beautifully depicted in the icon of Sts. Joachim and Anna, portrayed as an older couple, tenderly embracing each other. This is the private domain of the couple, which involves how husband and wife communicate with one another, resolve conflict, manage finances, navigate personality differences, parent their children, share responsibilities, make decisions, enjoy leisure, show affection, and share physical intimacy. Sometimes we take these areas for granted and do not seek to grow them. At other times we struggle with them. When these difficulties arise, what do we do? Do we attend to them, avoid dealing with them, or allow them to grow and fester?

The tenderness and love depicted in the icon of Sts. Joachim and Anna can only come through a lifetime of a dynamic, maturing marriage. The seed of love we begin with in marriage has the awesome potential, by God’s grace and our cooperation, to become a most magnificent flower. If not nurtured, it will wither and possibly die.

The Wedding at Cana: The Communal Dimension

Finally, each couple lives in relationship to “community,” pictured in the icon of the Wedding at Cana, with Christ and the Theotokos as the honored guests. The sacrament of marriage and the celebration that follows are always in the context of a community, showing that we do not live our married lives in isolation but as part of a larger body, which includes extended family, koumbari, fellow parishioners, neighbors, colleagues and friends. If and when we are blessed with children, they become part of the community of the home, the fruit of the love of the husband and wife in Christ.

Furthermore, as we live out marriage in the context of “community,” we may be challenged to put other relationships ahead of our marriages. Once we are married, we would do well, however, to remember that after Christ, the most important relationship we have is with our spouse.

Conclusion

Collectively, the icons of Christ the Bridegroom, Sts. Joachim and Anna, and the Wedding at Cana encapsulate the meaning of a wholesome and meaningful marriage. In the icon of Christ the Bridegroom, we are given the image of the perfect spouse who unconditionally and sacrificially loves His beloved from a place of fullness and wholeness, grounded in His relationship with the Father and emulating, in his humanity, personal and relational self-care. This icon holds up for us both who we are and who we are becoming. In the icon of Sts. Joachim and Anna, we are given the image of the tender, loving, affectionate, embrace of the couple, signifying the exclusive intimate relationship of husband and wife. Finally, in the icon of the Wedding at Cana, we see the married couple in the context of all of those who constitute the communities in which they live, reminding us that in marriage we do not live in isolation and that we are responsible to hold up marriage as the primary human relationship in our lives while maintaining and growing loving relationships with others.

By Presvytera Kerry Pappas

Source: https://www.goarch.org/-/sacred-image-sacred-marriage

Cheesefare week, the last full week before Great Lent begins, is an “in between” week liturgically in the Orthodox Church. Each day is “kind of like” Great Lent and “kind of like” outside of Great Lent. This is to provide a transition into Great Lent. Everything we do is better if we are prepared and in the proper state of mind. This week, if we read the readings and attend the services, gets us ready for Great Lent.

How is the week “kind of like” being in Great Lent?

- We fast all week, but in the most unique way of the entire year, fasting from meat only, with all other foods being allowed. We are fasting every day, but only “partially” and we even eat cheese and other milk products on days we normally would not throughout the year, such as Wednesday and Friday.

- We are using the Triodion in Vespers and Matins at all services, and its content definitely is Lenten in tone.

- On Wednesday and Friday, we do not celebrate the Divine Liturgy, just as in Great Lent we do not celebrate it on most weekdays. The readings on Wednesday and Friday are of a Lenten character; we do not read the usual Epistle and Gospel, but instead read from the Old Testament (on Wednesday, all the selections are from Joel, and on Friday, from Zechariah). We follow the Lenten format of having a reading during the Sixth Hour and Vespers.

- Daily Vespers on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday begin in a “non-Lenten” way just as during the rest of the year, but the end of Vespers is ”Lenten” with the usual prayers with bows after the Aposticha, and the prayer of St Ephrem.

- Wednesday and Friday Vespers are Lenten in tone, with an Old Testament Reading, and the prayer of St Ephrem, but the ending is non-Lenten in tone.

- The quintessential prayer of Great Lent, the “Prayer of St Ephrem”, is said at every weekday Vespers beginning on Tuesday evening.

How is the week “kind of like” being outside of Great Lent?

- Sunday and Monday evening Vespers are just like in “regular time”, but there are selections from the Triodion for Vespers and Matins, which definitely point us toward Great Lent.

- All days except Wednesday and Friday we can serve Divine Liturgy, with its usual Epistle and Gospel readings.

- As noted above, we are “kind of” fasting, and “kind of” not fasting.

Another aspect of the week that makes it seem more “Lenten” is the content of the Gospel readings. They are all concerning the day of the Lord’s passion. We will return to these readings during Holy week. I always think of the weeks preceding Great Lent, and especially the last two weeks, as a foreboding of Holy Week and Pascha.

If you want to be ready for Great Lent, follow the fasting rules for this week (cheese pizza is allowed on Wednesday and Friday!) and attend the “kind of” Lenten Vespers on Wednesday night.

Source: http://orthodox.net/redeemingthetime/2009/02/25/cheesefare-week-kind-of-like-being-in-great-lent/

We begin a series of essays about the sisters of mercy and the patients of the Visiting Nurse Service of St Elisabeth Convent. Each of them has their own remarkable biography — their unique path that they would like to share.

The sisters and volunteers of the Visiting Nurse Service do an extremely demanding and often invisible work on a daily basis: they look after severely ill persons who have no one else to turn to.

Sister Joanna has been helping those in need since her early years. She worked in a residential care facility for the elderly, in an intensive care unit of a large hospital, and in a children’s surgery unit. She came to our Convent fifteen years ago. First she worked as a painter and a plasterer. Later, she dealt in church supplies and visited the ill. Finally, she came to serve God in the Visiting Nurse Service. She learned about her own illness — the 2nd stage of cancer — five years ago. Right now, her cancer is progressing again. Having survived an extensive operation followed by chemotherapy, she knows better than most other people what illness is like and how to fight it.

Sister Joanna is an orphan. She does not remember where she was born. She was raised and educated first in a Baby House in Pinsk, then in an orphanage in Kobrin and a boarding school in Dyvin. She was known as Snezhana at that time. She saw her biological mother for the first time at the age of 25. Before that meeting, she had got to know her brother Sergey and her sister Xenia, who had also been brought up in an orphanage. Xenia now works in our Convent.

Sister Joanna told me her life story in an open and calm manner, although I was about to cry during the entire interview. She says that whenever she wants to recall her childhood, she thinks about Ivanovo International Boarding School. It was the first place where she was called by her name.

— No one had ever called my name in the previous orphanages. They would kick me and mock me all the time. Generally, the antagonism among the children was very cruel. Little by little, one would inevitably become cruel, too. Might was right. It took me a while to learn that I could treat people in a different manner, too. However, I have always liked animals and I liked looking after small children.

When some representatives of the Red Cross were visiting our orphanage in Ivanovo, our counsellors advised us to answer the question “What would you like to be?” with “I’d like to become a doctor or a nurse.” That answer could give orphans from Asia or Africa the only chance not to return to their home countries riddled with hunger and poverty. I answered, “I would like to look after the elderly or abandoned children.” Apparently, it didn’t suffice, and I was sent back to Belarus.

No one was waiting for Snezhana in Belarus. She was sent from the boarding school in Russia to the Red Cross branch in Brest. It was in the 1990s. The Soviet Union collapsed. She did not find the Red Cross branch in Brest.

— I spent a week at the railway station in Brest. I was hungry. I did not become desperate, though. I was sitting with a woman, opened my bag, and it was full of worms: all my food was spoiled. People had been thinking that it was me, the homeless girl, who was reeking so badly. When I started cleaning my bag, photos of my classmates and friends from the boarding school fell out of it: black, white, and yellow faces. The woman was curious and asked me who all those children were. She bought me a ticket to Pinsk. That was how I came back to the local boarding school.

The school board took pity on Snezhana because she did not have any rights in Belarus according to the law: as a former student of a boarding school in Ivanovo she now was a Russian national. Anyway, she did not have anywhere to go, anywhere to live, and anyone to ask for help either in Russia or Belarus.

— Now I know how hard it is when you have no parents around: no one cares about you; you don’t have money, you don’t have a home; you cannot go to any college. I am grateful to the boarding school administration for letting me stay in Pinsk. They gave me some food and checked my health. A week later, Zinaida Chaikovskaya, the principal of Pinsk Boarding School, told me, “Do you know that you have a sister? Would you like to get to know her?”

Sister Joanna says that she was completely maladapted to life. She did not even know how to peel potatoes. Her cycling coach in Pinsk suggested her to go to a culinary college.

— Well, I can’t describe to you what I had to go through… I was hit in the face for being an orphan during my first day in the college. I didn’t fight back. I simply stood and looked that person straight in the eye. I did not respond. Still, I was so freaked out because of that bullying that I even wanted to jump under a train.

I graduated from the college. In fact, I was convinced that I would get the 4th Grade. I bought flowers. They gave me the 2nd Grade, the grade of a dishwasher, so to say. I had studied well but I was stupefied during the exams, I couldn’t utter a single word. I just couldn’t. My surname was in the very end of the list. I was so upset that I went to a pond and threw the flowers into it.

Joanna had to leave the Pinsk boarding school after her graduation from the college. She found relatives in Čavusy, MA.

— My relatives helped me at first. Then my uncle lost his temper, “If that bastard comes here again, I’ll kill her with an axe!” I had to run away.

The world is full of kind people. Joanna got to know Taisia Makarova, a police officer, who helped her with Belarusian citizenship. It was her who advised Joanna to go to the local residential care facility for the elderly and ask for employment.

— When I came there, I saw a man peeling beans. I asked him how I could find a job in the facility, “I don’t need money, I will work for food.” The man turned out to be the director of the residential care facility and employed me, first as a cook, and then as a hospital orderly. It was there that I realised how physically robust I was.

It was there that I recalled my mum who had had a mental illness. I started learning about mental disorders. It made me realise that my mum wasn’t really guilty of abandoning us.

Raisa Strukova, the superintendent of the Čavusy Residential Care Facility took Joanna into her family. Joanna helped her look after Vitya, her youngest son. Today he is thirty. He has three children. Joanna was a godmother to one of Vitya’s kids.

Raisa Strukova and I have remained friends even now. Here is a gift I have prepared for her. She keeps calling me “daughter”.

Of course, I saw a lot while working as an orderly. However, if this terrible life is the only life that you know of, when you have no idea that a different life is possible, you won’t break down. Now I know that there can be a different life, and if I had to return, I would certainly break down. I keep thinking about it. Lord, don’t let me forget my past dreadful condition and the basements I had to live in!

I decided to travel to Mahilioŭ. I simply went on the road and hitched an ambulance car. On my way to Mahilioŭ, I was chatting with the doctors. I told them about my life. One of the male doctors asked me:

— What skills do you have?

— I know how to look after people.

— Do you want a job tomorrow? But I’ll get you a job only if you come to the regional hospital by 10 AM.

Sister Joanna came to the hospital on time. She got a job in the intensive care unit. The male doctor in that ambulance turned out to be the surgeon-in-chief of Mahilioŭ Regional Hospital. She says that it was in the hospital that she learned literally everything she now knows.

— The ICU taught me everything I know. It was there that I began thinking of God for the first time. Nurses kept telling me that I was so strong. I thought, “Well, probably, if there is a God, He must have given me this physical strength for a reason.” I could turn and wash a very heavy person, do his or her bed, and do a massage at the same time. Sometimes patients would be indignant: “I feel that it’s not Snezhana’s hands! Take your hands off my body, it hurts.”

Then I was transferred to the children’s surgery unit and spent a year working there. Suddenly, I fell seriously ill with pneumonia. I was unconscious for ten days. When I came round, the world looked so new. I was lying in my bed, looking out of my window, and thinking, “God, if You exist, please make anyone bring me a guitar… I would like to play the guitar…” Guess what? A friend of mine came to visit me on that day and brought me the guitar. Unbelievable! So… is He real? It was my first sincere and childlike prayer.

When Sister Joanna was discharged from the hospital, she decided to go to Minsk. She came to Novinki by sheer accident. Now she knows that the Lord had been leading her to the different life — a life of service — but it looked like a sheer coincidence at that time.

— I visited the Convent for the first time in the winter of 2002. I thought, “Wow! Where am I?” A guard called Nun Eupraxia. I was surprised that it was a place where nuns lived. I knew absolutely nothing about Orthodoxy, Christianity in general, to say nothing of monastics.

Nun Eupraxia introduced herself, and I heard her name as “Europe Crying”. I thought, “It’s impossible! How can I call her Europe Crying?” I asked her to write her name down for me on a sheet of paper. (laughs)

I remember how I inquired, “What do you believe in?” The nun replied, “I believe in the One God the Father, Pantocrator…” And I was thinking, “How do I tell her that I can't understand anything she says?” I was ashamed to admit that I was ignorant of things that only small children could be ignorant of. I didn’t understand any of the words except for “I believe…”

Nun Eupraxia met Sister Joanna with love… She invited her to stay in the Convent for a few days. She took Sister Joanna to a meeting with Father Andrew.

— Father Andrew asked me, “Why do you want to be in the Convent?” I paused to think for a moment and then responded, “I want to become a better person.”

I was baptised in December. Nun Eupraxia was my godmother. I started swallowing books after my baptism. I was amazed that there are after-death temptations, sins, and confession. I learned about the significance of Communion and how crucial it was to treat the Sacrament with extreme attention, how challenging it was to repent and to make peace with others. I was very curious about the life of nuns.

It was Father Andrew who influenced my determination to make peace with my mother. I got to know her. Until that time, I had been writing letters to her. Now Xenia and I visit her at least once a year. She is somewhat childish. She likes my dog very much.

Later, I looked after Father Andrew’s mother and a schema-nun from our Convent. I spent four years driving a long lorry. I transported goods made in our Convent to the Urals. I have been to so many places! Then I began fainting. Chronic fatigue. I thought it was due to overwork.

I learned that I had cancer on November 30, 2012. I complained to my physician about pain and infirmity. She sent me to an oncologist. They did a puncture.

“You have cancer, second stage,” the young oncologist was afraid to announce this news to me. I smiled, thinking, “Oh, finally there is something happening in my life!” I caught myself thinking that smiling wasn’t really the most appropriate thing to do in that situation, so I told her, “You know what? I’ll come back to you in a couple of months.” “What do you mean? Your tumour is metastasising! You have three months left to live. If you come here in a couple of months, we won’t be able to do anything!”

At last, it dawned on me how serious it truly was. They performed an operation. The surgeon who operated on me was a staunch believer, he prayed to Saint Luke of Crimea. He was called Alexander Alexandrovich… I can’t remember his surname.

Regrettably, I could no longer drive long vehicles after the operation and the chemotherapy. I was wondering what I could do, what I was capable of. Looking after people, of course! That was how I began my work in the Visiting Nurse Service.

We spent a lot of time talking with Sister Joanna about troubles and sorrows, and about ways to deal with those who have been diagnosed with something hardly curable (now I know that it isn’t a great idea to say “Keep your chin up!”), as well as about the most essential things that visiting nurses have to keep in mind.

— When you come to your patient, it may seem that you are absolutely unaware of what to do with him or her. Bedsores, excrements, foul smell — it’s unpleasant. However, when you approach your patient, something happens: You somehow regain all your knowledge, find your strength and proper words. Most significantly, your heart empathises with the pain of the other person.

Certainly, knowledge and skills matter, too. Our nurses have finished courses on The Basics of Visiting Nurse Care. They passed exams and received certificates.

Forbearance is even more important than knowledge. Your patients grow accustomed to you. They are so accustomed that they start playing up. This is when your good nature can help you a lot.

People who deal with bedridden patients have a hard time, too. They want to help but they are disoriented by fear: They don’t know what to say… I believe you should listen to your heart. If the patient is ready to talk like we are talking right now, you can even discuss death. You will simply recognise that person’s attitude. If the patient feels detached and is afraid to talk about it, you should sit with him and read a book. You shouldn’t pity your patient, or else they will start feeling dispirited. You need to be able to hear the other and to listen attentively. If he talks about flowers, you should talk about flowers, too. If he starts talking about his illness, you can talk about it, too.

It is critical to talk about repentance and to prepare the patients for their death. My own illness teaches me a lot. Sometimes I feel sad because of my sins. I recall what I used to do or what I haven’t managed to repent of, for any number of reasons — and I feel miserable. At the same time, I feel blessed. If I didn’t come to the Convent, if I went on living as I used to, nothing would ever matter to me. My soul would surely perish. Given that I know the alternative way of life, the better life, I am afraid of the fact that many people live in sin and in darkness, oblivious to the fact that there can be a better way to live this life.

Alas, it is not always true that every person who requires care must be visited by social workers. Even if social workers do visit bedridden patients, they provide only minimal assistance. Severely ill and disabled people need patronage, i.e., regular care, but there is no such service in Belarus officially. That’s why people, who are sometimes unable not just to walk but even eat without assistance, remain isolated in their flats. The problem is not just that some of them do not have relatives. It often happens that people die alone in their flats even if they have relatives because no one ever visits them.

That is why St Elisabeth Convent decided to establish a Visiting Nurse Service in 2014.

This Service is supported solely with donations. Your donations make it possible for us to aid more severely ill and poor people, offer free doctors’ visits, teach the relatives how to look after their bedridden family members, pay for transportation and the work of the sisters. The nurses of the Visiting Nurse Service need your help to be able to look after more people who need their assistance.

Interview by Maria Kotova

January 15, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Is there a role for women in the Church? Is the ordained priesthood “the” role for those seeking to serve Christ? Can one do anything else that is as valuable as leading the faithful in worship? Given the debate and rhetoric in some Christian circles, the responses would be: maybe, yes, no. As one who has grown up in the Orthodox Church, and has an Orthodox theological education, it seems to me that the responses should be: yes, no, yes. Women are called to serve in every area of Church ministry, with the exception of the ordained priesthood. This is limited, for specific reasons, to a small percentage of men.

If we focus on what we cannot have, it’s the “Eve Story” all over again: “You can fulfill everything but this one role.” We can choose to dwell on this one role, as some Christian women do and thereby distort God’s plan, or we can be like the “new Eve,” the Theotokos, and seek to fulfill the role(s) that God offers us.

There is order in the creation. If we have learned nothing else from the Scriptures than this, then we will understand that seeking to live within the order makes for a fulfilled and meaningful life. Seeking to create our own order leads us away from God and all that is good. Given this premise, let us begin with the actions of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Women In The New Testament

In the New Testament Jesus broke the centuries-old barrier that existed between men and women. Although rabbis did not include women in their group of followers, nor offer women spiritual teaching, Jesus visited and taught His friends Mary and Martha, who were also among His disciples. And there were other women among His followers.

St. Paul saw women as loyal coworkers. He depended on them to help spread the gospel. He spoke of consecrated virgins and widows. He wrote that in Christ there is neither Greek [Gentile] nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female; all are one in Christ.

Phoebe was one of the first to be called deaconess. St. Paul wrote that she was “a helper of many and myself as well.” The role of the deaconess in later years was to help clergy with the administration of baptism to adult women, and to reach out to women in institutions where men were not allowed [prisons, hospices for women, etc.] or where some of the faithful could be scandalized by the presence of men [e.g. bedrooms, isolated homes of the sick or elderly women].

Women Throughout Christian History

Deaconesses survived until the eleventh century, and with some rare examples, even into the 20th century. A prayer in the Apostolic Constitutions says: “honor the deacon as the image of Christ and the deaconess as the image of the Holy Spirit.” Like these two persons of the Holy Trinity, the ordinations of deacons and deaconesses were for two different but equal persons. Different and equal, that is to say, each to fulfill a specific role in the Church, yet equal in the eyes of God.

Women have become saints and have mothered saints. St. Theodota (3rd c.) was the mother of SS Cosmas & Damian; St. Nonna (4th c.) of St. Gregory the Theologian; St. Emilia (4th c.) of St. Basil, St. Macrina, St. Peter of Sebaste, and St. Gregory of Nyssa. Some have been influential grandmothers: St. Leonilla (2nd c.) brought her 3 grandsons to Christ. St. Olga was the pious grandmother of Prince Vladimir of Rus, who had his nation baptized in the 10th century.

Many women have been martyred for their faith. Among them were St. Katherine the Great Martyr, St. Irene the Great Martyr, St. Marcella. The list is endless.

Women have been great teachers. St. Melania (4th c.) taught against the heretic Nestorius. St. Theodora the Empress (9th c.) was instrumental in the return of the icons into Orthodox worship. St. Pulcheria (5th c.), along with her husband, the Emperor Marcian, convoked the 3rd and 4th Ecumenical Councils.

St. Nina the Illuminator, “Equal to the Apostles,” was a missionary, converting the country of Georgia in the early 4th century. St. Mary Magdalene and St. Helena are also identified as “Equal to the Apostles.”

Women have entered the monastic life and offered spiritual direction. St. Xenia (4th c.), a deaconess, was not only the spiritual mother to her monastery, but also to people in the neighboring community. Today we have women monastics who do the same thing here in the United States.

Women In Modern Times

During the Communist years in Russia, the lay people were responsible for preserving the Church’s presence. It was the women, the “babas”/grandmothers, who kept the faith alive, who secretly taught the children and grandchildren and had them baptized. The young women of pre-revolutionary Russia, who later became the “babas,” had godly nuns as their examples. Not only the nuns, but the older laywomen as well, provided a living image of holiness for younger women to follow. God thus prepared them for the sacred task that would be given them. I have read that Stalin knew he could not kill the soul of the Orthodox Church in Russia without exterminating every pious old woman in the land, and even Stalin knew he couldn’t get away with that!

Russia is not the only land graced with the presence of saintly and righteous women. There are stories of the women of Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Romania, Serbia, Egypt and other countries where Orthodox Christians have had to suffer for their faith. All these stories together make up the history of Christian women.

Today, in Greece women are devout teachers of religion. Today, in Romania there are nuns, including many who have recently embraced the Orthodox faith, who are learned and now influence the Church. They offer ministry by serving the people who come for holy days to spend time with the nuns and seek a spiritual life.

Today, in the United States women graduates of seminaries are involved in ecumenical dialogues, teaching in colleges and seminaries, writing, Christian education, music, as theological librarians, in healing ministries, monastic life, iconography, missions, charitable work, and more. There are opportunities for women in nearly every area of ministry: missions, education, healing, administration, evangelism, social services, supporting other women—especially young mothers, monasticism, liturgically as readers, chanters, choir directors and choir members, and finally as wives, mothers, and godmothers. All are seeking to live out their faith as best they can!

An Orthodox Understanding Of The Roles Of Men And Women

Orthodox Christianity affirms that men and women are created equally in the image and likeness of the trinitarian God. Both Adam and Eve participated in “the Fall of mankind.” Both have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, the “new Adam,” and the Theotokos, the “new Eve.” Both are called to theosis, to deification, that is, to become united with God. And yet total and unequivocal equality does not imply absolute sameness. Femaleness and maleness are part of the varying “charismata” or gifts given by the Holy Spirit to every person.

For Orthodox Christians the ordained priest is the “icon of Christ” or “in persona Christi.” We believe that there is something in the very nature of the male ordained priest which allows him “to be the sacramental presence of the Lord, the mystical embodiment of the Church’s husband and Lord.” Metropolitan Maximos, my former professor and mentor, taught that the priest is the “iconic representation of Christ, the Groom of the Bride, [which is] the Church. The priest is the living icon of the bridegroom.” Ordaining women to the priesthood alters that imagery to that of Bride of the Bride, which we cannot have.

We, as Orthodox, affirm that manhood and womanhood are not interchangeable. Each member of the Body is equally called to live the Christian life as fully as possible. Each has his/her role. It’s all right to have different roles; it does not alter our value in God’s eyes, for no one is unimportant.

Throughout history the Orthodox Church suffered under various persecutors, most notably, the Ottoman Empire and the communists. As a result of these historic situations, the involvement of the laity was minimized. Only in this century has the situation begun to turn around. There is ministry to be done by all since we are all part of the “royal priesthood” [1 Pet 2:9]. The ordained ministry is but one area, and is not a “right,” but a specific calling to certain men, not all men.

My Calling From Christ

Because I am a theologically educated woman, my vision of the Church is a bit different than most. It comes with the territory, as the saying goes. Thus I believe that in addition to encouraging others, women and men alike, to grow in Christ, to serve His Church, my role includes helping others find their place, their niche, where they can minister, given their respective gifts. If we are truly to be the “Body of Christ,” where each part is necessary, then it is also necessary to have each part functioning. It’s no wonder that church workers feel overburdened! Only a portion of the Body is carrying the total weight!

It seems to me that the education of the Faithful of God is the key to many of our concerns and problems, and it is for this reason that I focus more time now to adult education, including the education and formation of Orthodox parents. There are many Orthodox parents wanting, desiring help in developing the parenting skills and insights they need in order to be Orthodox Christian parents.

Women Encouraging Other Women

One very important role that each woman can fulfill is to encourage other women to live out an Orthodox lifestyle in their homes because it requires the help of others in the parish. After all, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and our village is the Church. In many cases there are no grandparents to assist as they once did. Families are separated from their family mentors by distance, and perhaps even faith, since our churches are experiencing an increase of members who have embraced Orthodoxy as adults.

My spiritual father talks about the need for a new generation of “yiayias and babas”/grandmothers who are not afraid to teach the Faith, because the Faith is the most important aspect of their lives. No one else can give this treasure to their children and grandchildren! I agree wholeheartedly.

Finally, Orthodox women rejoice in the fact that the most perfect expression of Christian life and the very image of the Church is a woman, the Theotokos. She was devoted to the service of God. She said “yes” to God on behalf of each of us. She continued to say “yes” as she lived out her life, serving as “mother” to the newly founded Christian Church. Now we, too, are called to be devoted to Christ and His Church. With so many areas of ministry in the Church that are available to women, our only shortage should be the number of women!

Our devotion requires self-sacrifice, faithfulness to the Gospel and the Tradition of the Church, prayerfulness, and the desire to be all that God calls us to be. If this sounds like too big a task, remember Jesus’ words: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matt 11:29-30. Just start slowly and build on the firm foundation that the Church offers us. Allow yourself to be encouraged by another. Encourage others whose gifts are not being used.

Can you envision each member or most members of your parish involved in some ministry of the Church? I can! And what a parish it would be… a piece of the Kingdom that we have yet to see!

By Phyllis Meshel Onest, M. Div.

Source: https://oca.org/parish-ministry/theology/womens-role-in-the-church-the-perspective-of-a-seminary-graduate-a-mother-a

Cheesefare Sunday received it's name because the previous week we did not eat meat, but only dairy products, such as milk, cheese, etc., as well as eggs and fish.

Many find this rule of the Church to be "unreasonable", saying: "How is milk of a lamb allowed but not the meat of the lamb, since milk is produced by the lamb? How are eggs allowed and not chicken, since the first are produced by the second?"

Of course these people would have a point, if we maintained that the meat of the lamb or fowl was tainted and for this reason we do not eat it. Then we should not eat what is produced by them, since these also would be tainted. But through our Church no food is tainted. This is what is taught by the apostle Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy (4:3-5). Rather the Church simply divides food into greater or lesser consumption towards self-restraint and, at certain times, allows the one and forbids the other.

An accurate response towards those who say the above has been answered by Athanasios of Parios, a wise and important teacher of the Church, when he writes to a certain doctor:

"You criticize your friend because during Cheesefare he eats eggs, yet does not eat the chicken which gives birth to the egg...? But what similarity can be made between an egg, which is not alive, and a chicken, which is alive? The egg is much lower than the fowl. And as proof I appeal to your own opinion, that is, the opinion of a doctor. To whomever is sick and begins to approach the stages of recovery you prescribe as food small and delicate chicks and not tough fowl. For what reason do you do this? Because, you say, the fat and greasy foods will harm him who now begins to recover from his sickness, since his stomach does not have the strength to endure and digest heavy foods. If therefore there is a difference between a small chick and a big chicken and the chick is, as a food, much lower in strength than the chicken, and no doctor has ever said that the egg of a chick or chicken is the same food or equally suitable for the sick, is it not clear that unreasonable are those who criticize us for eating eggs and not fowl?... They criticize us also that we eat olives, but not olive oil, even though inside the olives is the olive oil. But within grapes is wine also. Yet however many grapes we eat we will not get drunk; at most we will become stuffed in our stomachs...."

Besides this, it is well-known that with olive oil we are able to cook innumerable and delicious foods, though olives are considered xerophagy (dry foods). Xerophagy is to not eat cooked foods, but unprepared ones, such as bread with olives or dry fruit, etc.

By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/03/why-only-no-meat-during-cheesefare-week.html

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