Ordination

Submitted March 9, 2005

Regarding Ordination of Women to the Diaconate

I wish to respond to the letter of Mr. Gregory Orloff regarding the ordination of women to the diaconate, particularly by Saint Nektarios in the early twentieth century. Mr. Orloff accurately quoted a letter of Saint Nektarios to Theoklitos, Archbishop of Athens, in which Nektarios described the nuns he had ordained as “subdeaconesses … [who] are primarily sextons at the sanctuary” caring for the altar vessels and cloths. Furthermore, the saint described the nuns’ vestments as “made according to the holy vestments that the readers of the city churches wear”.

However, Saint Nektarios’ description to Archbishop Theoklitos did not correspond to the reality of the ordination he performed. Professor Evangelos Theodorou of the University of Athens, who has been the leading expert on the female diaconate since his doctoral work in the 1950’s, described the actual ordination of the first nun (who later became abbess) by Saint Nektarios, on Pentecost Sunday in 1911, as follows:

The ordination took place during the Divine Liturgy with the laying on of hands, following the same order of prayers as the ordination of the deacon, including the prayer of the bishop saying aloud, “the Divine Grace …” [he theia charis]. The woman who was ordained wore a sticharion (alb) to about the waist, but not reaching the feet, with the diaconal orarion (stole) and diaconal epimanikia (cuffs). … Because certain people were scandalized with her ‘ordination,’ St. Nektarios gave an explanation to the then Archbishop of Athens, Theoklitos, emphasizing that this particular appointment perhaps had more characteristics similar to that of the subdeacon and that this ministry was needed by the monastery, especially during the absence of ordained clergymen. [emphasis added] (Evangelos Theodorou, He “cheirotonia” e “cheirothesia” ton diakonisson (Athens, 1954), 96; English translation in Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald, Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church: Called to Holiness and Ministry (Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1998), 151-2.)

There are several important points to note relative to Theodorou’s description of the actual rite of ordination celebrated by Saint Nektarios:

1) Only ordinations to the major orders of clergy (deacon, presbyter, bishop) occur during the Divine Liturgy; ordinations to minor orders of clergy, including subdeacon and reader, occur outside the context of the liturgy (subdeacons are usually ordained just prior to the liturgy, readers today in the Greek rite are often ordained following vespers or the liturgy). Had Saint Nektarios truly been ordaining the nun as a subdeaconess, he would not have done the ordination during the Divine Liturgy.

2) Saint Nektarios followed the ordination rite of the male deacon, including the use of the prayer beginning “The divine grace,” which is another typical feature of ordination to major orders. In fact, it is likely that he used the ordination rite found in Byzantine-era euchologia, which follows the order for the ordination of a male deacon, with only a couple of minor differences in rubrics and with prayers that are tailored to the female diaconate (e.g., a reference to Phoebe, the female deacon mentioned in Romans 16:1, in the second consecration prayer for the female deacon).

3) Saint Nektarios vested the deaconess with diaconal clothing (most notably the orarion, or diaconal stole), not the exorason traditionally worn by readers (chanters) in the modern Church of Greece, as he stated in his letter. Readers do not wear the orarion; only deacons and subdeacons do.

It should also be noted that Saint Nektarios’ rationale for ordaining the nun is not terribly convincing since nuns have cared for their monastic churches, including the altar area, since Byzantine times, usually without ordination. One need only read the typika (monastic rules) of several Byzantine women’s monasteries to see implicit confirmation of this. Men, except for a priest to celebrate liturgy, were traditionally excluded from women’s monasteries. In fact, the only references to any men involved in Byzantine women’s monastic churches are negative, that is, they are prohibitions against such monasteries’ bringing professional male chanters in for the services, with the exception of an imperial visit. (See, e.g., section 39 of the late thirteenth-century typikon for the monastery of Lips in John Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero, eds., Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2000), p. 1277; compare to the liturgical sections of the monasteries of Bebaia Elpis and Kecharitome.)

In sum, then, Professor Theodorou has undoubtedly surmised correctly that Saint Nektarios deliberately downplayed the significance of the ordination he celebrated in order to avoid scandal for those unfamiliar with the historical female diaconate. It is clear from the description of the ordination itself that it was an ordination to the diaconate, not the subdiaconate.

With respect to Mother Seraphima’s plea for accurate information on female deacons, she and others interested in learning more are urged to consult Dr. Kyriaki FitzGerald’s book, cited above (which provides both historical background and reflection on the possibility of a modern restoration) as well as my academic but thorough article on the historical female diaconate, “Female Deacons in the Byzantine Church,” Church History 73:2 (Summer 2004): 272-316.



Volume 7 Number 11 - Tuesday, March 15th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY