The formulation of the theme on which I have been asked to introduce a reflection left me, at first, in a little perplexity: are prophecy and sacramentality opposed in the minds of those who have posed this question? Do they define two different sorts of Church, implying different relationships between men and women? or is it a question of aspects, of different poles that are, in the tensions they create, complimentary in the heart of the same Church? A Church called to be both prophetic and sacramental, a Church that is at one and the same time the Church of Christ and the Church of the Holy Spirit.

The first view, that of a more or less radical opposition between prophecy and sacramentality, seems to me to be fairly widespread in ecumenical circles. It reflects the tension and incomprehension that are experienced in dialogue between representatives of different Churches. There would be, on the one hand, Churches centred on the proclamation of the Word of God: a prophetic Word concerned with both history and the present, seeking to decipher the "signs of the times". Such would be, to varying extents, the Churches that grew out of the 16th Century Reformation. On the other hand, there would be those, particularly the Orthodox churches, which exist as though outside time, having no part in history, centred on the celebration of unchanging sacramental rites as the iconographic realisation of God's eternal plan.

But is not such a dichotomy, in reality far-removed from the authentic Tradition of the Orthodox Church, the result of historical distortions? In contradiction to the inspiring testimony of the Scriptures concerning the Church that was born at Pentecost, does it not express an impoverishment in the meaning of the Church, a profound misunderstanding of the significance in the Church, of both prophetic word and Sacrament? Together, prophetic word and sacrament address the believer's existential consciousness, here and now, of God's benevolent plan, that already exists although its realisation is not yet clear in its fullness; a realisation that the Church must be ready to anticipate in launching itself, by means of prophecy and sacrament, into the Kingdom of Him who is to come, and comes increasingly - Christ, in whom all realities in heaven and earth and, with them, all men and women, are already reconciled, in hope and power ( all separation being overcome by the victorious Cross) (cf. Ephesians 1: 10).

Semantic study shows that, in the Bible, in the Old Testament as much as in the New, the terms "prophet" and "prophecy" have several meanings. Furthermore, in common parlance today, a "prophet" is often taken to mean a man or woman who has the gift of foretelling future events. The word may come from the root phaino, meaning .. revelation".

However, in Israel, the prophet is essentially one who speaks in the name of God, to pass on His promises to, and demands of, the Chosen People. The word "prophecy" is said to come from the root phemi, meaning "to speak". Inspired by the Spirit of God- the ruah - the prophet or prophetess delivers a divine message in human terms.

The essential object or prophecy in the Old Testament is God's plan for His people. It is less a case of fortelling particular events than of pointing Israel positively towards the carrying out of the divine plan where it comes to its full realisation, but, when Israel gives in to the temptation to stand against God's plan, it hastens to its destruction. The prophetic word places a question of life or death before Israel. Closely linked with the great messianic hope of the Jewish people, the prophetic word is directed towards Him who should come, towards the coming Kingdom. In the Creed of NicaeaConstantinople, we confess" "I believe in the Holy Spirit... who spake by the prophets". Does the use of the past tense "Who spake" mean that, with the coming of the Messiah - or the one anointed of the Holy Spirit, who is Christ Jesus - the time of prophecy is over? The New Testament bears witness that this is not so.

Both in the continuity and the superseding of Old Testament prophecy, the new Church born at Pentecost proclaims itself prophetic in essence. It is so because it proclaims the fulfilment of the promises, the coming of the messianic Kingdom of him whom the world "rejected" : the Lord Jesus crucified, dead and risen, and ascended into the divine sphere. It is also so because in it, by the sending of the Holy Spirit, the prophecy of Joel : "Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy... and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophecy (Acts 2:17-18) will be fulfilled. It is so, lastly, because, like the prophets of the Old Testament, it expresses the demands implied by the fulfiIment, for each one individually and for all in community, of God's plan, to those who "pricked to the heart", ask the Apostle Peter what they must do to possess new life, he replies: "Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". (Acts 2:38).

It must be evident that there is here a coming together, from the moment of the Church's birth for all time, of the prophetic word that teaches, exhorts and reveals the meaning, the significance and direction, of God's myterious plan on one hand, and on the other, the sacramental sign of baptism, that confirms and actualises the gift of new life to all.

The same close connection between word and sacrament- here the Word and the Breaking of Bread (the Eucharist)- is equally clear in the account by the writer of the Acts of the Apostles of the life of the young Church after Pentecost: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42).

The prophetic word and the Eucharist (the latter being a prophetic sign as St Paul proclaims in I Corinthians 11:23-29) together give structure to the life of the Chrlstian community: the sacrament ever making present, to the end of time, the original event; the prophecy looking to the existential; appropriation of the mystery in all its dimensions, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (cf. I Corinthians 14:1-14).

At times imperfectly assimilated and imperfectly manifested in its historical and empirical social aspect, this perspective remains that of the Orthodox Church. The sacraments, according to Orthodox sacramental theology, are not some sort of "holy magic". They are a way of speaking by signs, being made effectual by the invocation of the Spirit on them and on the faithful: signs that the ecclesial community, throughout the Church's existence- between the "already here"and the "not yet come" - is called to decipher, and to make its own in the Spirit, the full meaning according to the Lord's promise: "the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you... Ye have heard how I said unto you: 'I go away, and come again unto you'... I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it, when He, the spirit of truth, is come, He will guide into truth (John 14:26-28; 16:12,13).

After this preamble, that may seem too long but that I think necessary, I come to the heart of our reflection: the community of women and men that is to be built up in the Church in the light of the mystery proclaimed and unveiled jointly by the sacraments and the prophetic word.

The first Christians saw Christianity as a way, or, more exactly, as the way par excellence that "leads to true life. This way is Christ Himself, who refers to Himself as "the way, the truth and the life". (John 14:6). According to Orthodox tradition, this way of "a life in Christ" is marked by the the three sacraments of Christian initiation. Given together at the outset of the Christian Life, baptism, chrismation (or confirmation) and sacramental communion constitute both the programme and the seed of life in Christ: a seed of grace that must sprout up and bring forth fruit to the end of time, going from fullness to fullness. These three together- the sacraments of baptism, chrismation and communion- provided the common foundation for all other sacramental acts and signs in the Church: the sacraments of confession, anointing of the sick, marriage and orders, for through them the first original grace is applied to various situation and vocations. This perspective is that of the Euchologian, of the order of public prayer in the Orthodox Church, it is in this context that I propose to examine with you- necessarily briefly - the significance of these basic sacraments for the community of men and women at the heart of this communion- koinonia- comprising the whole of humanity that constitutes the Church of Christ and of the Holy Spirit- the Church both sacramental and prophetic, called to witness within history to the eternal mystery.

In this attempt at elucidation, I have been greatly inspired by the great little book "Orthodox Spirituality", by 'A Monk of the Eastern Church' (the pen-name of Archimandrite Lev Gillet'). (1) In the creative continuity of the Church Fathers and the great theologians and Byzantine spiritual writers, the 'Monk of the Eastern church' is seen as a modern Orthodox commentator on the sacraments of Christian initiation. I have also found inspiration in the paper entitled "Communion et alterite" (Communion and Otherness) given by Metropolitan John Zizioulas at the Congress of Orthodox Brotherhood in Western Europe held in Belgium last November (2)

(a) A preliminary comment: by definition, the sacraments of Christian initiation are universal sacraments, conferred on all who, through them, become visibly members of the Church, of the Body of Christ that is given life by His Spirit. They are the expression of a gift offered to all without distinction, and of the common vocation of all. Transcending all natural, historical and social differences, they leave no room. As Metropolitan John strongly underlines- for any discrimination based on race, ethnicity or social status, or on gender, women and men, in the light of these sacraments are seen as equal before God, called to the same salvation, to the same deification. At the same time, these sacraments are given to women and men as persons, to each in his or her absolute uniqueness and mysterious "otherness". Each one, when receiving them, is called by his or her name. Each one is the intimate "thou", this name being given by the absolute transcendent "I". The Church, insofar as the marks of Christian initiation reveal its essence, is not simply a juxtaposition of individuals but a communion of persons: persons of whom each one is unique while at the same time existing in relation to the Other and the others.

(b) Let us now examine the specific significance of each of the three sacraments :

According to Orthodox sacramental theology, baptism essentially signifies birth, the surging forth in the baptised of the new person. Plunged, according to the symbolism of baptismal immersion, into Christ's death and Resurrection, the man or woman is born to new life: the life of Christ who took the whole of humanity on Himself in order to sanctify or, as the Fathers say, "divinize" it. Baptism, according to the mystical realism of the Orthodox Church, signifies the "re-clothing" of each and all by Christ. Repeating the first verse of the baptismal hymn in the epistle to the Galatians (3:27), the priest, speaking at the end of the baptismal rite to the newly baptised and the community surrounding him or her, proclaims : "All ye who have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ", and the choir, as though to imprint it on the consciousness of all present, repeats the same proclamation to a solemn chant, what does this signify? It must be interpreted in the light of the continuation of the hymn in the epistle to the Galatians :"there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus". (3:28).

This common unity brought about by baptism, by the birth of a new humanity in each one baptised, is of concern, to men and women. It does not abolish the constitutive otherness of the person, of which sex is an element, but this "otherness" ceases to mean the exclusion of the other- separation and hostility. Differences exist, but they are transfigured- as Basil of Caesarea, the great Cappadocian Doctor of the Church expresses it- in the radiance that emanates from the image of God, the image of Christ implanted from the very beginning in every human person, and restored in its splendour by Christ's redeeming act. (3)

Chrismation (confirmation) in the Orthodox rite, completes the Christian initiation given by baptism. It consists, in its external form, in the anointing of various parts of the body of the newly baptised, in particular those by which the human person enters into relationship with others and with the world- forehead (seat of the mind), eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, breast (seat of the affections), hands and feet - with chrism oil consecrated by the invocation of the Spirit. This anointing is accompanied by the words- the prophetic word- -"the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit". Chrismation, as the Monk of the Eastern Church says, "christifies". It signifies the Christian's participation in the anointing by the Spirit- of- the- Son of Christ- that is, in the Saviour's anointing. The Greek word Christos evokes the idea of chrism or anointing. Anointing unites us with the Spirit and the Son. The Father anoints us with the spirit as members of His Son, that we should also become His sons and daughters. As such, we are called to participate in His Kingship and His priesthood becoming together a people of kings and priests (Revelation 1:6, 5: 10; I Peter 2,5 & 9). By the placing of the seal of the Holy Spirit on their limbs, on their bodies, women and men are set apart, individually and collectively, for the service of God- of Him- who is the supreme Servant.

Baptised and chrismated, Christians are admitted to the Eucharist, "the Lord's meal", the "Lamb's feast". The breaking of bread remains, for Orthodox Christians as for the first Christians, the Mystery of Mysteries, the act which reveals through participation in the universal offering of Jesus Christ, the essence of the Church; that essence that Is communion. "In all and for all- we offer Thee what is Thine from that which is thine" prays the priest in the name of all present before the Epiclesis (the invocation of the Spirit) both on those present and on the bread and wine in which the body, broken and the blood . shed for all by God-made-man are made present. "Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here set forth" is the prayer made in the name of all, by the officiant.

Men and women, we are- according to the word of the Liturgy -united with Christ, who is both the priest and the Paschal Lamb. "He who offers and is offered". The Orthodox church insists on the fact that, according to these very words of the Liturgy, Christ Himself is, in the Eucharist, the one Priest, invisibly present. All the faithful women and men in saying the threefold "Amen" at the end of Epiclesis give expression to their participation in His offering. to their common priesthood in communion by grace with His. Their participation is also marked by the prosphora that they bring- tiny loaves from which the officiant takes a piece, which after the consecration of the 'Lamb" are placed in the chalice. They symbolise the communion of all the faithful in Christ's sacrifice and offering : a participation by which they are also in communion with one another as the Apostle Paul says: "For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread (I Corinthians 10: 17). The Christ of History, as the Monk of the Eastern Church puts it, was the sacramentum, the sign of the mystical Body and total Christ, who constitutes the full and ultimate reality of the Eucharist.(5) It is in its totality, of which femininity and masculinity, are- in their tension- complimentary poles, that humanity, in the authentically Orthodox vision, is called participate in the sacrifice and the triumph of the Lamb.

I have attempted to de-code the prophetic message for the community of women and men in the sacramentality of the Church, and in particular in the three essential rites that constitutes its basis and greatest expression.

Prophets in their day- in the scriptual and ecclesial meaning of the word- such Fathers of the Church as Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzen (the theologian) and Maximos the Confessor, the founders of Christian anthropology, forcefully proclaimed the equal dignity and common vocation to deification of women and men, their communion in Christ by the Spirit in the catholic Church- kat'hoion- that is to say: looking to the fullness of the human in God" - "The same Creator for men and women; for both the same clay, the same image, the same law, the same death and the same resurrection" as Gregory the Nazianzan exclaims.

And Maximos the Confessor states: "Men, women, children; profoundly different as to race, nation, language, occupation, knowledge, class, fortune- the Church regenerates them all by the Spirit. They all receive from it a unique and indestructable nature... we are all thus united in a truly catholic way". Such is the celestial vision conveyed by the sacramentality of the Orthodox Church that of a community of persons- men and women- equal in dignity, called to build together, by means of the multiplicity of human relations transfigured by agape, to the stature of mature men and women, "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13)

May this vision not be as the talent hidden in the earth of the Gospel parable, hidden under the dross of arcaic taboos and customs inherited from patriarchal society. May it be the lamp that placed on a lampstand, gives light to the whole house, the whole Oikournene.

Notes

1. Orthodox Spirituality, by a Monk of the Eastern Church, SPCK: London, 1945. New edition by St Vladimir's Seminary, New York.

2. The text of this paper is published in S.O.P. (service orthodoxe de presse, January 1994 and in Contacts, 1994/2, both in French
3. Basil of Caesarea, 'On Baptism' , quoted by Verna Harrison on "Orthodox arguments against women as priests', in Sobornost 14: 1, p. 18.

4. John Zizoulas, "I:Etre Ecclesial", Geneva 1981.
5. A Monk of the Eastern Church, op.cit, p.87.