Category: Activism

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Rome Sends Mixed Signals as Eastern Orthodox Begin Ordaining Deaconesses

— Experts on female deacons urge Catholic Church to revive the female diaconate in the West

The newly ordained deaconess Angelic Molen administering the chalice at the St. Nektarios Mission Parish near Harare.

By Jules Gomes

The Roman Catholic Church is postponing its debate on deaconesses even as the Eastern Orthodox Church ordained its first female deacon to serve in the liturgy, in anticipation of more women to be ordained to the diaconate.

In a historic event, Metropolitan Serafim Kykotis, archbishop of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all of Africa, ordained Angelic Molen at the St. Nektarios Mission Parish near Harare, Zimbabwe, on Holy Thursday during the Orthodox Holy Week on May 2.

Eastern Orthodox Pope Authorizes Ordination

Molen’s ordination, authorized by His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, has triggered reactions ranging from hostile to affirming in the Eastern Orthodox churches — especially as her role, according to Serafim, “will include assisting priests in the liturgy and sacraments.”

“The Alexandrian Patriarchate in Africa felt the need to revive this order to serve the daily pastoral needs of Orthodox Christians in Africa,” states a press release from the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess, revealing that “this historic event would not be possible without the approval and support of the Alexandrian Synod and His Beatitude Theodoros.”

After unanimously voting to revive the female diaconate at its synod in Alexandria in 2016, the patriarchate ordained five sub-deaconesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017.

“The ordination of Deaconess Angelic was the culmination of efforts around the world to renew the ancient order of deaconesses in the Orthodox Church, and specifically for the unique needs of parishes in Africa,” the statement added, explaining that Molen was ordained in the Byzantine rite.

Catalyst for Deaconesses in the Catholic Church?

Sources in Rome told The Stream that Molen’s ordination could spark debate on ordaining deaconesses in the Roman Catholic Church during the second phase of the October Synod of Bishops.

However, at a press conference on Tuesday the Vatican announced that the discussion on deaconesses “will not be the subject of the work of the Second Session” of the Synod.

The Instrumentum laboris (working document) released to the media stated that “the fruits of Study Group 5” (which dealt specifically with deaconesses), will “take into consideration the results of the two Commissions that have dealt with the question in the past.”

“While some local Churches call for women to be admitted to the diaconal ministry, others reiterate their opposition,” the document explained.

“The restoration of the tradition of ordaining women to the diaconate in the Greek Orthodox Church in Zimbabwe gives great support to those Roman Catholics who wish the tradition to continue in the West, where it has been largely abandoned for some 800 years,” Prof. Phyllis Zagano told The Stream.

Zagano holds a research position at Hofstra University, is regarded as a world authority on female deacons, and is author most recently of Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women. In 2016, Pope Francis appointed her to serve on the Vatican commission to study female deacons.

“The question of restoring women to the ordained diaconate is before the Synod on Synodality, and one can only hope the process within Catholicism, and the Orthodox return to Tradition, will be respected,” she confirmed to the National Catholic Reporter.

“There is no Catholic doctrine against ordaining women as deacons,” Zagano told The Stream.

Orthodox Christians React with Support and Hostility

Molen’s ordination has triggered a heated debate within the Eastern Orthodox Churches between those who oppose women’s diaconate as a rupture with tradition and those who support it as a revival of an ancient practice that existed in the early days of the Church.

“The event caused many reactions, and gave rise to the free expression of various opinions and approaches,” Metropolitan Serafim wrote in a May 11 statement.

“The mission in Africa needs deaconesses, mainly for pastoral work and for the baptisms of adult women, as well as in special cases, such as widowhood, in stricter male-dominated environments, where for a long time the widowed woman is cut off from social and church life,” he explained.

Archdeacon Job Serebrov, an expert on the liturgies in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, told The Stream that it’s hard to predict whether other Greek Orthodox Churches will follow suit,

There appears to be stiff resistance on the part of the Slavic Orthodox Churches to do so,” he said. “The main concern that has been raised is that ordaining deaconesses will lead to female priests. This fear has arisen from the misplaced notion that the diaconate is only a stepping stone to the priesthood, which has only been reinforced in Eastern Orthodox seminaries and by current practice.

“Within the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches only the Armenian Orthodox Church has also ordained liturgically serving deaconesses. However, until 2017, when a lay woman was ordained, that office was reserved for nuns,” he added. “With proper education about the diaconate, ordination of deaconesses can be a great benefit to the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, especially when viewed in its correct perspective as filling a church need instead of correcting an imbalance in gender equality.”

Pope Francis Sends Mixed Signals on Female Deacons

In April 2020, Pope Francis appointed a new commission tasked with investigating the possibility of ordaining female deacons. Among the 10 theologians on the commission are two permanent deacons, three priests, and five lay women — all holding professorships at theological faculties.

Seven of the commission members hold the Church’s traditional position on reserving sacramental ordination to the diaconate and priesthood exclusively for men.

One of the most prominent scholars on the commission who has categorically concluded that women cannot be ordained deacons is Fr. Manfred Hauke, professor of patristics and dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland.

“Allowing women to be deacons would create great confusion for the faithful,” Fr. Hauke maintains. “You would have to explain to people the difference between male and female deacons.”

Moreover, calling women “deacons” would be “ambiguous” since they would not receive the sacrament of Holy Orders, he said.

Dr. Rosalba Manes, professor of biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, argues in favor of Phoebe as “deacon of the church of Cenchrea,” explaining that the term diákonos suggests Phoebe’s ministry is not limited only to “the sphere of charity, but that it also includes preaching and evangelization.”

However, in a May 2024 CBS interview, Pope Francis ruled out ordaining female deacons. “But women have always had, I would say, the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right?” he said. “Women are of great service as women, not as ministers […] within the Holy Orders.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Prominent ‘queer affirming’ theologian facing trial by Church of the Nazarene

— The Rev. Thomas Jay Oord is accused of teaching doctrines contrary to the Church of the Nazarene.

The Rev. Thomas Jay Oord

By Yonat Shimron

A prominent and prolific theologian in the Church of the Nazarene will face a church trial later this month for advocating for LGBTQ affirmation at a time when the denomination is doubling down on its opposition to same-sex relations.

The Rev. Thomas Jay Oord, an ordained elder and a lifelong member of the denomination, is accused of teaching doctrines contrary to the Church of the Nazarene. He is also being charged with conduct unbecoming of a minister for his efforts to move the denomination to affirm LGBTQ people. The church holds that “the practice of same-sex sexual intimacy is contrary to God’s will.”

If found guilty, Oord could lose his preaching credentials or possibly even his church membership. His trial will take place in Boise, Idaho, on July 25.

The trial follows last year’s guilty verdict against a San Diego Nazarene minister who published an essay in a book co-edited by Oord, titled “Why the Church of the Nazarene Should Be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming” arguing that the church should have more dialogue on LGBTQ issues.

That minister, the Rev. Selden Kelley, who pastored San Diego’s First Church of the Nazarene, was stripped of his credentials and can no longer pastor a church or hold any position of leadership within the Church of the Nazarene.

Oord, who in 2015 was pushed out of his job at Northwest Nazarene University for his progressive views more generally, said the church tried to gag him into keeping silent about his upcoming trial. He has decided to speak publicly about it anyway. Two weeks ago he published a book called “My Defense: Responding to Charges that I Fully Affirm LGBTQ+ People.”

Church of the Nazarene headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas. (Photo courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
Church of the Nazarene headquarters in Lenexa, Kan.

“I’m convinced that I won’t get fair treatment going through the trial process,” Oord said. “And I want most of all to make a defense based on theology, not based on the legal nuances of the denomination’s manual.”

Oord has written widely that love is the center of what it means to follow Jesus and that love lies at the heart of holiness. Holiness is a critical doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, which was formed out of the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement.

The 2.5 million-member global denomination is theologically conservative and has seen more growth overseas. It is declining in the U.S., where it has about 500,000 members in 4,600 churches.

The Rev. Scott Shaw, the district superintendent of the Intermountain District Church of the Nazarene who brought the charges against Oord, declined to comment on trial.

The church, which is governed by six elected general superintendents, last year put out a statement that the church’s positions on human sexuality, along with other positions on Christian character and conduct found in its manual or rulebook, were essentially doctrine.

This tightening of a church’s social policies and elevating them to the status of doctrine has also characterized recent moves in the Christian Reformed Church. The United Methodist Church, to which the Church of the Nazarene is more theologically akin (both trace their origin to John Wesley), underwent a major split over LGBTQ inclusion, losing 25% of its U.S. churches and more recently all its churches in the Ivory Coast of Africa. At its most recent conference, the church voted to repeal the denomination’s condemnation of homosexuality from its rulebook and allow LGBTQ people to be ordained and ministers in the denomination to marry same-sex couples.

An entrance to Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. (Image courtesy Google Maps)
An entrance to Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.

Oord said he became “queer affirming” in the early 1990s and spent the next few decades helping queer students at Eastern Nazarene College and later at Northwest Nazarene University feel embraced and loved. He now directs doctor of ministry students at Northwind Theological Seminary, an online-only school. His daughter, Alexa, with whom he co-edited “Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming,” is bisexual.

Oord said he believes the majority of scholars in the Nazarene affiliated universities and seminaries are LGBTQ affirming but won’t say so publicly because they fear for their jobs. One of them, K. Steve McCormick, a professor emeritus at Nazarene Theological Seminary, is expected to testify on Oord’s behalf at the trial.

Last year, a dean at Point Loma Nazarene University, Mark Maddix, was fired for siding with a colleague who lost her job, also for siding with LGBTQ rights.

Church trials are a recent phenomenon in the denomination, said Ron Benefiel, an academic and a minister in the denomination. He said he anticipated that if Oord is found guilty there will be an appeal.

Oord said he is speaking out, against the guidance of the church, because he wants to encourage queer people and their allies and because he wants to make a theological case for LGBTQ inclusion.

“I really want to see the denomination live up to the calling of love that it claims that we’re trying to pursue,” Oord said. “It’s my belief that love requires people who are trying to be followers of Jesus to be fully affirming of queer people.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Women should receive ‘fuller recognition’ in the Catholic Church, Vatican says

Pope Francis responded with a flat “no” when asked if he was open to women deacons.

By Aoife Hilton

In short:

  • The Vatican has released a document calling for “fuller recognition” of women in the Catholic Church.
  • While the document does not open the door for women to serve as deacons, it does argue for baptised women to “enjoy full equality” among baptised men.

What’s next?

The document will inform bishops at their October summit, where the role of women in the Church is on the agenda.

The global Catholic Church is split on whether to allow women to serve as deacons, a Vatican document showed on Tuesday.

Catholic women do the lion’s share of the church’s work in schools and hospitals and tend to take the lead in passing down the faith to future generations.

But they have long complained of a second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men.

Deacons, like priests, are ordained ministers. As in the priesthood, they must be men in today’s Catholic Church.

Women deacons existed in early Christianity, but it is unclear what role they had.

Current-day deacons may not celebrate Mass — but they may preach, run a parish, teach in the name of the church, baptise, and conduct weddings, wakes and funeral services.

“While some local churches call for women to be admitted to the diaconal ministry, others reiterate their opposition,” the Vatican document said.

Known as “Instrumentum laboris”, the document was written by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith and presented after consultations with national bishops’ conferences and Catholic institutions and associations from around the world.

The Vatican announced the details of the doctrinal document shortly after its news conference — led by four men — on the preparatory work for their October summit known as the synod.

Church reform underway

Four men in black suits stand in font of a blue wall.
The Vatican announced the details of the doctrinal document shortly after its news conference — led by four men — on the preparatory work for their October summit known as the synod.

The working document will inform discussions at the synod, which represents the second phase of a church reform process that began three years ago.

Pope Francis initially called the first synod as part of his overall efforts to make the church a more welcoming place for marginalised groups, and one where ordinary people would have a greater say.

The process, and the two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics that preceded it, sparked both hopes and fears that real change was afoot.

The first synod was held in 2023, using a working document that specifically noted the calls for a greater welcome for “LGBTQ+ Catholics” and others who have long felt excluded by the church.

However, synod delegates made no mention of homosexuality in their final summarising text.

They merely said people who felt marginalised because of their marital situation, “identity and sexuality, ask to be listened to and accompanied, and their dignity defended”.

A few weeks after the synod ended, the pope unilaterally approved letting priests offer blessings to same-sex couples.

He also named several women to high-ranking jobs in the Vatican and encouraged debate on other ways women’s voices can be heard.

That has included the synod process in which women have had the right to vote on specific proposals — a right previously given only to men.

Vatican offers ‘fuller recognition’ of women, but not as deacons

Two men in black suits speak into black-coloured microphones.
Cardinal Mario Grech (left) defended the pope’s decision on women.

The October summit will be the second synod and is expected to be the last.

While appointing women deacons will not be on the synod’s agenda, the attending bishops will discuss the possibility of giving women a greater role in the male-dominated Church.

The Vatican document stressed the need to “give fuller recognition” to women in the church, saying that “by virtue of baptism, they enjoy full equality”.

The document recommended “theological reflection” on the possibility of appointing women deacons, “on an appropriate timescale and in the appropriate ways”.

During his 11-year pontificate, the pope has appointed two commissions to study whether women could be ordained deacons.

In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes programme recorded in April and aired in May, he responded with a flat “no” when asked if he was open to women deacons.

But he added that women were often playing deacon-like roles, without formally having that title.

“Women are of great service as women, not as ministers,” he said at the time.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, was asked about the pope’s remarks on women deacons during a press conference.

“As of now, it is a ‘no’, but at the same time the Holy Father has said that the theological reflection and study must continue,” he said.

“For me this is not a contradiction.”

Move criticised as ‘crumbs’ for Catholic women

A group pressing for women’s ordination told Associated Press the Vatican document represented “crumbs” for women, noting that ordained men would once again be making decisions about women’s roles in the church.

Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for ordaining women priests, said the relegation of the issue of women deacons to the doctrine office was hardly the mark of a church looking to involve women more.

“The urgency to affirm women’s full and equal place in the church cannot be swept away, relegated to a shadowy commission, or entrusted into the hands of ordained men at the Vatican,” the group said in a statement.

‘Study groups’ suggesting more inclusivity

The document released on Tuesday also called for more inclusivity in the church, while acknowledging calls for greater transparency and accountability of church leaders and greater involvement of lay Catholics in church affairs — including in response to sex abuse, financial scandals and pastoral matters.

It was announced in a list of the members of 10 “study groups” looking into some of the thorniest and legally complicated issues that have arisen in the reform process to date, including the role of women and LGBTQ+ Catholics in the life of the church.

One study group is looking at particularly controversial issues, including the welcome of LGBTQ+ people in the church.

“A need emerges in all continents concerning people who, for different reasons, are or feel excluded or on the margins of the ecclesial community or who struggle to find full recognition of their dignity and gifts within it,” Tuesday’s document said.

Priestly celibacy — another contentious area for potential reform — was not mentioned, while the document said African bishops are studying “the theological and pastoral implications of polygamy for the church in Africa”.

Cardinal Grech said the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) would report on these issues at the October meeting.

The study groups are working with Vatican offices and will continue their analyses beyond the October meeting, suggesting outcomes this year won’t necessarily be complete.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Louisiana Supreme Court reopens window for lawsuits by adult victims of childhood sex abuse

by Kevin McGill

Officially reversing a controversial March ruling, Louisiana’s highest court Wednesday gave childhood victims of sexual abuse a renewed opportunity to file damage lawsuits.

The state Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling Wednesday upholds a so-called look-back law that was passed in 2021 and amended in 2022. The law gave victims of past abuse, whose deadlines for filing civil lawsuits had expired, renewed opportunities to file lawsuits. The original legislation set a deadline of June 14 of this year. That deadline was later extended until June 2027.

Wednesday’s move had been expected. The court had ruled 4-3 in March that the law couldn’t stand because it conflicted with due process rights in the state constitution. But the court agreed last month to reconsider the case.

Justices Scott Crichton and Piper Griffin, part of the majority in March, joined justices joined Chief Justice John Weimer and justices Jay McCallum and William Crain to revive the law.

“For many victims of child sexual abuse, the revival provision represents their first and only opportunity to bring suit,” Weimer wrote in the new ruling. “Providing that opportunity to those victims is a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Justices James Genovese and Jefferson Hughes dissented. Genovese wrote that the new ruling “obliterates” decades of precedent and “elevates a legislative act over a constitutional right.”

The ruling comes as the Catholic Church continues to deal with the ramifications of a decades-old sex scandal. The ruling arose from a case filed against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette by plaintiffs who said they were molested by a priest in the 1970s while they ranged in age from 8 to 14, according to the Supreme Court record.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill hailed the court’s reversal, as did advocates for abuse victims.

“We are elated that victims of sexual abuse who have been time barred from justice will have their day in court,” Mike McDonnell, of the advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an emailed statement.

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I am retired clergy.

— I post on Facebook in support during pride month and all year long

Where would this world be without the gifted and talented members of the LGBTQ community who bring such beautiful gifts to our lives?

By Rev. Richard Ryan, Sellersburg, Indiana.

I frequently get comments asking me how and why I support PRIDE as a retired clergy and person of deep faith.

I share for my children, some whom identify as LGBTQ-plus, and I love them deeply. I post my support on social media for my LGBTQ niece, multiple cousins and my close personal friends. I post for the child in the pew who is horrified and filled with terror the first time they hear the pastor say they’re going to burn hell for something they can’t change. I share for the many talented church musicians I’ve known whose God given gifts were tossed aside when it was found that they loved someone of the same sex. I share for my friend’s son who was told after years of serving, that could no longer work with with the youth at church because he was gay. For the youth (and adults) of the church I served in Corydon, Indiana who were gay and two who were transgender, who suffered in silence.

I post for the woman who left my sales team because of my LGBTQ support, who shared that reason with the company president, not knowing the company president had a gay son. I post for my LGBTQ team leaders at work who are without a doubt the kindest and best of the best. I post for my LGBTQ church family who worship God along side me each Sunday at Highland Baptist. And I post for my dear friend and talented singer who died way to early because he couldn’t tell his church family that he was gay for fear of their rejection.

I post hoping to make a difference. I post hoping that the love of GOD breaks through hardened hearts and we realize that we are all God’s children, diverse and proud of who God created us to be. Where would this world be without the gifted and talented members of the LGBTQ community who bring such beautiful gifts to our lives?

Many have a deep faith in the same God as you do. We all want to be loved just as we are, without having to hide who we are and who God made us to be.

And, I post for the parents of LGBTQ-plus who fear their children will be abused in this world.

Yes, I post proudly for PRIDE and will throughout the year for all these children of God.

I believe God is big enough and generous enough to share the rainbow and celebrate the diversity of his children.

Yes, I post. Proudly.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!