Coming from Australia, Czechoslovakia, England, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Lebanon, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, the USA and USSR, 23 Eastern and Oriental Orthodox women met at the Orthodox Academy of Crete in January 1990 for the second International Orthodox Women's Consultation entitled " Church and Culture".

Sponsored by the World Council of Churches' Sub-Unit on Women in Church and Society, this consultation built on the work of the first International Orthodox Women's Consultation in Agapia Romania, in 1976 and on the Decisions of the Inter-Orthodox Consultation on the Place of Woman in the Church and the Ordination of women held in Rhodes, Greece, in 1988.

The consultation focused on the ministry of women, human sexuality, and participation and decision making. Dr Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, France addressed the first topic with her paper " Women and Ministry - Current Developments." Fr Thomas Hopko of St Vladimir's Seminary in Crestwood, New York, delivered a paper on "God and Gender - Human Sexuality from an Orthodox Perspective." Professor Mary Thomas of India presented "Visions for Participation and Decision Making by Women in the Orthodox Church ." These papers formed the background for discussion in three study groups and were the basis for the group reports.

In its report on Ministry the consultation recommended the rejuvenation of the order of deaconess, as well as a renewal of the diaconate for men, as a response to the vital needs of the Church today. In this regard the report delineated possible functions for the male and female diaconate within catechetical work, liturgical services, pastoral care, monastic communities, social work, youth and college ministries, missionary work, and lay ministry. The report underscored the urgency for re-establishing the ministry of deaconesses to meet new challenges in the Church as well as in today's changing societies, and concluded that the " female diaconate would offer to the Church an opportunity for the faithful to experience much more widely a feminine form of ministry for which both men and women feel the need."

Furthermore, the consultation participants expressed their conviction that a
"creative restoration of the diaconate for women, which we hope will lead in turn to a renewal in the diaconate for men, will encourage and enhance the ministry of the royal priesthood, strengthening the faithful to engage in lay ministry, and will provide an essential link between the bishop who sends the deacon or deaconess and the local parish."

This report also urged that women " be given a specific blessing, as men are given, to enter other orders, such as reader and singer, in order that women might serve more fully in the life of the Church." It also expressed the need for continuing groups of men and women theologians to engage in ongoing study and reflection on the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood " in order to define more coherently the theology of the sacramental ministry of the Orthodox Church for our own faithful and for our friends in the ecumenical dialogue as well."

The report on Human Sexuality focused on issues of "uncleanness" including menstruation, the rite of churching, and miscarriage. It urged that " the Church reassure women that they are welcomed to receive Holy Communion at any liturgy when they are spiritually and sacramentally prepared, regardless of what time of the month it is." The report also called upon the theologians and educators of the Church to prepare " simple and appropriate explanations of the churching service and adapt the language of the rite itself to reflect the theology of the Church, " to study, take to heart, and teach the true position of Orthodox regarding ritual uncleanness," and to " study and consider rewording the prayer said for a woman after she has miscarried." This report also addressed the issue of the double standard which sometimes exists in marriage, sexual behaviour, the rearing of children, the dowry system prevalent in some societies, wife abuse, and divorce and offered a proper Christian response to these matters.

In a third area, this report called for a comprehensive teaching in the Church together with a share responsibility between husband and wife regarding family planning and contraception. It also reiterated the Church's teaching against abortion while pleading for a sensitive, pastoral approach to women who have had an abortion.

The report on Participation and Decision Making urged the Church to encourage women to assume "those positions and tasks in the Church which are the responsibility of the laity, including positions of authority and decision making in the community." It entreated the Church to make " a general theological education and basic teaching about the Church ... more widely available to the laity, with particular encouragement for women to attend their church theological schools" and to utilize " the skills and abilities of highly educated and trained women" in the Church.

The report highlighted the need to integrate the traditional women's concerns for the spiritual and practical well-being of the family and wider community with an enhanced role of women in the areas of parish renewal, mission work, pastoral care, community outreach, and participation in pan-Orthodox and ecumenical work. It also recommended " exploring ways in which girls in particular can participate more fully in liturgical life." It also urged the Church to minister to the special needs of the priest's family and to recognize the role,and particular charisms of the wife of the priest in the community.

The report further stated, " There are women trained in research and scholarship, writing, music, and many other disciplines. The Church needs to seek out and recognize these skills and encourage and bless their use for the whole community." This report pressed the need for new scholarship in order to discover anew the place of women in the Church as expressed in the lives of the saints.

The Crete Consultation gave Orthodox women the rare opportunity to see their lives in the light of each other's varied experiences. They expressed the hope that those deliberations and recommendations would enrich, strengthen and make ever more God-pleasing the life and work of the Orthodox Church.

This article was originally published in Orthodox Observer, March 1990