The word ‘filioque' (‘and the Son' in English) to describe the procession of the Holy Spirit, was added by the Latin Church to the Creed centuries after its composition to counter Arianism but the Eastern Church has always protested this insertion.

In a Common Statement of the Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue between the LWF and the Orthodox Church, both partners "suggest that the translation of the Greek original (without the Filioque) be used in the hope that this will contribute to the healing of age-old divisions between our communities and enable us to confess together the faith of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicæa (325) and Constantinople (381)."

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The Western media has gone a bit mad, calling it "breaking with tradition" and a radical new step forward.

Ordaining women deacons

The usual suspects have trotted out the usual creaky arguments about female diaconal ordination being just a matter of days away in the Catholic church.

But some of our Orthodox brothers and sisters would beg to differ.

I've been reading conflicting news accounts from different Orthodox news services about how the process was approved, what for, and how it was done.

It's made me heave a sigh of relief that the Catholic church is moving in geological time on this issue.

The Orthodox churches have a range of views on deaconesses, and when and how they should be deployed, and what they can and can't do. So far, they can't agree with each other.

There's also a group of Orthodox women - the St Phoebe Centre for the Deaconess, based in the United States - with a familiar feminist twist.

They want women deacons to be fully involved in the Orthodox liturgy and equivalent to male deacons.

But this isn't how most Orthodox churches see it.

Orthodox differences

It seems that the Catholic church isn't the only one with a wealthy, educated and privileged minority who think the church should be re-made in their own image.

What I've now learned is that many—but not all—Orthodox communities have accepted that deaconesses were part of the early church.

This doesn't include a group called "The Church of Greece", who are part of the Greek Orthodox church. They say they've never had deaconesses and aren't about to start now.

But for the others, if it's a matter of reviving something ancient for modern times, what might that look like? Even the Patriarchate in Africa admits that this is still a work in progress.

There's a nice distinction in the Orthodox church between chirotony (what we'd call ordination) and chirothesy (‘the laying on of hands').

Deaconesses were traditionally appointed through chirothesy.

The Orthodox liturgy is also different from the Western rite of Mass.

There's already been a row because Deaconess Angelic assisted with the distribution of holy communion at her ordination ceremony, which wasn't meant to be part of her role.

But in the West, we've already introduced women readers at Mass, and women as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion.

Women as readers are still quite rare in the Orthodox churches, so we're streets ahead.

Baptism in Orthodox churches is full immersion. It's usually for children aged about three, and they also make their first communion and are confirmed at the same time.

In Africa there's a lot of adult converts to Christianity, including Orthodoxy.

Deaconesses could well assist there with adult female baptisms in a way that's consistent with their role in the early church.

Deaconesses in Africa could also go into women's homes and visit them pastorally without causing trouble in male-dominated communities.

So maybe this old practice could work in this specific pastoral situation.

Changing need

The Orthodox authorities are very aware that the role of women deacons became obsolete as things changed.

Like the Catholic church, they moved to mostly child baptisms, and women gradually gained more freedom of movement.

Most of us would recognise that in the Western Catholic church, there's no urgent pastoral call for women deacons.

We don't do full immersion baptisms, there's no stampede of adult female converts, and women have full social equality with men.

We're already a female-dominated church in the pews—around two-thirds of all regular Mass-goers in Australia are women.

Most of these are feisty souls who come and go as they please and aren't trapped at home by a patriarchal husband.

We've got plenty of priests to manage our very small Mass-going population, even if we do need to spread them out a bit more.

We have extraordinary ministers of holy Communion to help with Sunday Masses and sick calls.

And if you absolutely must preach, get yourself a YouTube channel or a TikTok account. Or a Catholic newspaper column.

Vatican II gave us back the lay vocation and the personal call to holiness.

Thousands of lay people in Australia have already embraced it willingly, and their work in their parishes and communities is bearing fruit.

Reviving women deacons in the Catholic church in the West is pointless—they're already obsolete. What on earth could they do that isn't already done competently by lay men and women?

• First published at The Catholic Weekly
• Philippa Martyr is a Perth-based historian, university lecturer and academic researcher.

Archbishop Serafim of Zimbabwe ordained Angelic Molen (pictured right) as a deaconess on Maundy Thursday (2 May) in Harare.

Molen "will do what the deacon does in the liturgy and in all sacraments in our Orthodox services" Serafim says.

In the Orthodox Church, deacons' primary task is to assist in the liturgy.

Molen's long-term involvement at the missionary parish of St Nektarios in Harare has seen her set up a pastoral centre.

She is involved in youth work, catechesis and working with mothers.

Currently studying geography and environmental sciences, the new deacon will be responsible for ecological initiatives in the parishes of Zimbabwe.

Women admitted to the diaconate

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and the whole of Africa decided in 2016 to admit women to the diaconate. This was not a new initiative however as ordained women were customary in the early church.

The "Holy and Great Synod" of the entire Orthodox Church on Crete made the same decision that same year.

In 2017, the first women in the Democratic Republic of Congo were ordained subdeacons.

Unlike the subdiaconate, the diaconate belongs to the higher orders according to Orthodox understanding, and is sacramental.

Never formally abolished

The office of deaconess has a long tradition in Orthodoxy.

Although it was never formally abolished, it has rarely been practised since the middle ages.

From time to time various Orthodox churches have sought to revive the diaconate for women. In 1906, the Russian Orthodox Church considered its revival.

In the middle of the 20th century, the Greek Orthodox Church founded a school for deaconesses in Athens. It closed about 20 years later.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and the whole of Africa is in the tradition of the third patriarchate of the early church.

With some 250,000 followers, it represents a minority and is led by Patriarch Theodoros II.

Catholic female diaconate

The Catholic Church has for several years been discussing the pros and cons of reintroducing the diaconate for women.

At present Pope Francis has a working group discussing the subject.

In Germany, the "Day of the Deaconess" is celebrated on 28 April, the feast day of Catherine of Sienna, Doctor of the Church.

Source

• English.katholisch.de
• AI - Translated International Content - Story content originally in German.

That may have changed during an in-flight press conference on Sunday as Pope Francis returned to Rome after visiting Romania.

Asked what advice he could offer Romanians about the relationship between the Catholic Church and Orthodox, Francis began by saying the first thing was to develop "relationship in general ... the relationship of the outstretched hand when there are conflicts."

Then, after noting his sense of brotherhood with the Orthodox Patriarch Daniel, he continued:

"I always have this idea: Ecumenism is not reaching the end of the game, of the discussion.

"Ecumenism is walking together, walking together, praying together... The ecumenism of prayer.

"In history, we have the ecumenism of blood. When they killed Christians they did not ask: Are you Catholic? Are you Orthodox? Are you Lutheran? No, [they asked] are you Christian! And the blood mixed together. It is the ecumensim of witness. Another ecumenism, of prayer, of blood.

"... and then the ecumenism of the poor, those that work together. That we must work to help the sick, the infirm, for example, the people that are a little at the margin, below the poverty line, to help," Francis said.

He then went on to say "Matthew: 25 is a beautiful ecumenical programme, it comes from Jesus.

"To walk together: this is already Christian unity, but do not wait for theologians to agree to arrive at communion.

"Communion happens every day with prayer, with the memory of our martyrs, with works of charity and even of loving one another.

"Ecumenism is not getting to the end of discussions, it's done walking together," Francis said.

In his view, the journey is more important than the destination.

"There is already Christian unity" he pointed out.

"Let's not wait for the theologians to come to agreement on the Eucharist."

Source

• Religion News Service
• Catholic News Agency
• Image:Catholic News Agency
  

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church plays a huge role in the country's culture and until now services could only be held when a priest from Christchurch and Auckland could visit.

To celebrate their new priest arriving from Ethiopia, the community held a 10-hour-long service on Sunday starting from 3 am. Continue reading

The Vatican secretary of state's diplomatic visit aims to formalise Pope Francis's peacemaking efforts to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Read more

The offer by Archbishop Chrysostomos II came after the country's Parliament rejected a bill that would have allowed the government to seize up to 10 per cent of people's bank deposits to secure the bailout.

At the same time, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades called on Archbishop Chrysostomos to appeal to the Patriarch of Moscow and All the Russias, Kirill I of Moscow, to intercede with the Russian government for help.

The Cypriot government hopes that Russia will extend a line of credit that Moscow gave in 2011 and is due in 2016.

"The wealth of the church is at the disposal of the country," Archbishop Chrysostomos said after he met Anastasiades.

The Orthodox Church is the largest landowner on the island and has stakes in businesses including the country's Hellenic Bank, with total assets estimated to run into tens of millions of euros. It also has shares in a brewery.

Cyprus needs $NZ24.7 billion to bail out its banks and shore up government finances to avoid default and a potential exit from the European joint currency.

It wasn't immediately clear what the total value of the Orthodox Church's assets would be, or how much of that value the church was actually willing to lend the government.

Sources:

CBC News

AsiaNews

Image: LGR