It is said that an old lady once complained, "I don't know what I think until I hear what I say." Be this story apocryphal or true, I am not like that old lady. Before you and I hear what I am about to say, I already know what I think about Orthodox Eve and her church. Plainly put - it is that the church has erred in its traditional theology and practices regarding women and that the time has come for a turn-around or conversion, what in Greek is called "metanoia".

For the past several years I have been studying, speaking and writing about the history and status of women in the Orthodox Church. (1) In the course of research in the original sources I have literally immersed myself in Greek texts. I am forever reading the Bible in Greek; sermons and commentaries by Greek church fathers and theologians; the Greek lives of saints; and the vast multi-volume treasure of Byzantine hymns. Hymns to the Theotokos and women saints number in the thousands.

In fact, my interest in Orthodox Eve and her church has its genesis in Greek hymnography. To this birthright Greek Orthodox woman the hymns were a revelation. In them I discovered the spiritual core that distinguishes the Orthodox faith from that of the other branches of Christianity. This illuminating core consists first, of the belief in God "philanthropos", a compassionate parent, physician, teacher and friend who loves people indiscriminately; and second, the belief in the deification "theosis" of every person, female and male alike. Orthodoxy teaches that the divine image and likeness exists equally in both sexes; that women and men can become God. Here in Orthodoxy's charter beliefs no gender discrimination exists.

Yet in the same hymns I discovered a full-blown ideology which consistently demeans and denigrates women. (2) Even the holiest women saints are not exempted from the stigma of being female. These holy mothers of our church are routinely praised for having transcended the generic handicaps of the female sex and for having achieved manhood. (3) This startling contradiction between Orthodoxy's fundamental teachings and its view of women piqued my interest, personal as well as scholarly.

I know of no subject more fascinating and challenging than Orthodox Eve and her church. Furthermore, it poses a problem critical for the present and future spiritual welfare of our church. The re-definition of woman and the expansion of her role and participation in the rich liturgical and sacramental life of the church and its ministry "diakonia" demand our serious attention. The existence and urgency of this problem can no longer be either flatly denied, evaded by double-speak obfuscations or explained away by novel doctrines unknown to the church fathers.

Orthodox women do not constitute a " minority" or "special interest group" From the beginning women were and still are more than half of the "ekklesia". When next in church, look around you. Although you will see only males at the altar, you will quickly see that females outnumber males in the congregation. Yet almost always the congregation is addressed as "brethren," although women are obviously not "brothers" (4)

The women of our church experience in their lives the contradictions evidenced in the hymns. One simple illustration. Recently a notice, repeated four times in my parish bulletin, began with this sentence: "All young men between the ages 10-18 are invited to serve in the HolyAltar. (5) Four times it painfully reminded all young women between the ages 10-18 that they will never receive such an invitation. For no reason other than that they are females, they are denied the joy and privilege of serving God at the altar. For older women it is just one more reminder of the discrimination we, our mothers and foremothers have experienced for almost 2000 years.

All Orthodox women know that gender discrimination lasts a life-time. Exclusion from the Holy Altar begins very early, when we are just 40 days old. At the traditional 40 day blessing the priest carries the male infant inside the Royal Gates and around the altar. At 40 days the male gains permanent access to holy space. On the other hand, the female infant is carried only as far as the iconostasis. She is thus denied entry into sacred space. The denial is permanent. Her exclusion lasts forever. (6)

The relevant canons notwithstanding, no one would argue that the 40 day-old female infant is less holy, less pure, less innocent than the 40 day-old male infant. Would anyone argue seriously that she is created less in the image and likeness of God? Why, then, are the two equally precious babies treated differently? Unpleasant and painful though it may be, the plain truth of the matter is that the discrimination against tiny 40 day-old Orthodox Eve is based on sex.

Although at 40 days we are unaware of sexist bias, we unhappily experience it soon enough, at critical points of physical and emotional development and fulfilment. During menstrual periods and for 40 days after giving birth Orthodox Eve is considered "unclean" and is denied communion and participation in the sacraments.(7) Based on fear and ignorance of the life-giving processes operative in the female body, this primitive taboo is still defended and generally enforced. Despite the repeated proclamations by church spokesmen (and some spokeswomen) that motherhood is woman's supreme vocation, (8) to give birth is still considered "physically unclean" and "ritually impure."

Equally ironic is the fact that Christ himself rejected the traditional blood taboo when he healed the haemorrhaging woman. The three Synoptic Gospels all tell this wonderful story. (9) Yet our church continues to ignore its teaching of liberation and the practice of its founder.

Given life-long experience of inequality in the church, Orthodox women are now just beginning to question our restricted. "place" within the "ekklesia" On this important matter, our Jewish, Catholic and Protestant sisters have moved far ahead of us. Already there are ordained women rabbis. The title of a book New Catholic Women, (10) needs no explanation. It will, alas, be a long time before a book titled New Orthodox Women can be written. The Anglican Communion has ordained women priests and recently elected its first woman bishop. (11).

Whenever Orthodox Eve dares to ask why she does not share the status and privileges of Orthodox Adam, the standard answer is "tradition." Furthermore, she is sternly told that the "tradition" concerning women is spelled with a capital "T." Hence, discussion is ruled out of order. As for change, that is unthinkable. The authority of the Greek church fathers is also invoked. Of course, no proper pious Orthodox woman should think of challenging them. Thus far, these stonewalling tactics have seldom failed to intimidate and prevent discussion.

Consequently, Orthodox Eve remains in the dark about the origins of the tradition spelled with a capital "T" and about the premises on which the church fathers created it. For example, she does not know that this untouchable "tradition" categorically mandates second-class status for women in both society and church. One of Orthodoxy's most prestigious theologians, St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, expressed patristic consensus when he wrote 1500yearsago, "the male must always be in command and the female in second class "en thevtera taxei" everywhere." (12) A more honest declaration of universal male supremacy and female subservience is hard to imagine. Unlike contemporary hierarchs and theologians who beat around the bush, Cyril, to his credit, tells it "like it is." This patriarch, it should be noted, combined profound devotion to the Theotokos with deep contempt for all other women. (13)

Were St. Cyril to descend from heaven today for a pastoral visit, the sight of women at the seminary, in archdiocesan offices and in parish councils would cause him severe cultural shock. Once, however, he realised that they were mostly token women, none of whom hold positions of authority, he would quickly recover. Cyril could then return to his celestial mansion, happy that despite enormous scientific advances and socio-economic changes, the patriarchal structures of his day survive intact in his church; and satisfied that power still rests in the hands of the all-male ordained clergy and that women are still "en thevtera taxei", exactly where he had long ago consigned them.

Likewise, stonewalling tactics prevent Orthodox Eve from learning about the two basic assumptions by which Cyril and the other Greek fathers justified and mandated women's secondary status, our permanent subordination to men.

First, the founding fathers of Christianity, East and West, assumed that inferiority of the female sex was designed by God and forever set in eternal concrete. Genesis 2 (14) provided them with biblical authority for this dubious premise. God created Eve, the first woman, from a rib which Adam luckily could spare. Thus, women are derivative creatures, secondary to and dependent on men. Theologians and hymnographers sometimes refer to Eve and her daughters simply as "the rib." This term clearly dehumanises women, and denies our personhood. Adam is the human being, while Eve is somehow less than a whole person.

Inevitably, inferiority signifies weakness. Clement of Alexandria, the second-century erudite Christian philosopher and teacher, explains that when God removed a rib from Adam to create Eve, God "purged the male of all softness and weakness." (15) Weakness was transferred in toto to the first woman and then exclusively to her female descendents ever after.

In both sermons and hymns I have encountered more times than I can possibly count the phrase "the weakness of women" "to asthene" or ei asthenia" The more colourful stronger descriptions of "emptiness" - "to chav'non" and "rottenness" ­ "to sathron" sometimes replace the word "weakness." (16)

In I Peter 3:7, the fathers found a second text to their liking. Women are here designated "the weaker vessel" ­ "to asthenesteron skev'o". The author of this influential text cannot be credited with originality. The idea of female inferiority and weakness had been current in the Mediterranean world many centuries before Plato and Aristotle gave it philosophical and "scientific" respectability. To be specific, Aristotle taught that women are basically "deformed males."(17) Eight centuries later, a Christian presbyter in Asia Minor, the author of I Peter 3: 7, elevated an ancient pagan sexist view of women into the eternal word of God.

By the fifth century the Greek church fathers had fleshed out in precise and occasionally picturesque detail a durable icon of the "weaker vessel." According to these men, the innate "asthenia" of women is more than physical. We are alleged to be emotionally, morally and intellectually "weaker" than men. A few examples will illustrate the fathers' views on women. St. Epiphanios of Cyprus attributed to women instability, frenzy, weak-mindedness and vanity. (18) St. Gregory the Theologian ascribed to women ostentation and self-indulgence. (19) St. Cyril believed that women's powers of understanding were defective. (20)

St. John Chrysostom eloquently described women as "naturally" servile, superficial, fickle, garrulous and lacking the capacity to reason. (21) invoking the unimpeachable authority of the Apostle Paul, he summarises "female nature" in one familiar word ­ "vlakeia"(stupidity). (22) Hence, Chrysostom concludes, women should be confined to unimportant undemanding domestic roles. (23) He applauds this gender-role arrangement because it frees men to conduct the important affairs of church and state.

Although the repetition of these ideas in the Greek sources soon grows tiresome, they should not be lightly dismissed, or laughed at. Their influence on the lives of generations of Orthodox women can never be measured. Nor, unfortunately, have these ideas become a relic of remote times. (24) As the novelist William Faulkner observed, it is true that "The past is never over. It isn't even past."

The sinfulness of women is the second and equally important assumption of the fathers concerning the nature of women. First in the order of sin, and second in the order of nature, Eve bequeathed a crippling legacy to all her daughters, the one exception being the woman chosen to carry God in her womb.

Mary's unique destiny separates her from all other women. Significantly, Mary is described as "the descendent of Adam" rather than the daughter of Eve. Theologians and church poets delighted in contrasting Eve and Mary, setting the notorious imperfections of the "first mother" against the ineffable perfection of God's All-Holy mother. The chasm separating the Theotokos from the rest of her sex is emphasised repeatedly in Byzantine hymns and manifested architecturally as well. In Orthodox churches a large imposing image of the Virgin Mother, located in the apse, dominates the holy space around the altar. Since the space in front of her is strictly for men only, she stands alone in majestic isolation from her sisters. Statements to the contrary notwithstanding, the high honour accorded to Mary by our church has yet to trickle down to Orthodox Eve. (25)

Biblical authority for the unique sinfulness of women comes from Genesis 3. Gullible, weak-minded Eve disobeyed God and became the first sinner in human history. Adam's part in the catastrophic event in Eden is on the whole conveniently overlooked. (26) Moreover, as woman's first victim, he becomes the object of sympathy. One Byzantine hymn writer wistfully regrets that the first sample of the "stronger" sex "obeyed his rib."

Responsibility for the loss of paradise is thus pinned solely on Eve, with dire and lasting consequences for women. "Sin" ­ "amatia" has ever since been tied to the first woman and her sex. (27) During Great Lent, the season for repentance and conversion, women are primary paradigms of sinners. Eve, the "sinful woman" of Luke 7:36-50, and St. Mary of Egypt, a reformed harlot, (28) dominate Lenten sermons and hymns. The most beloved of these hymns is Kassiane's troparion, "TheWoman Fallen into Many Sins." (29) Reading these Lenten texts, one would never guess that men just as often as women, also fall into many sins, and that most of the time they sin together. The harsh accent of "sin", however, falls conspicuously on women.

By the time of Saints Cyril and Chrysostom the powerful tradition spelled with a capital "T" was in place. Built to outlast time, it rests on selected scriptural texts, andro-centric exegesis and patriarchal structures in church and society. It rests also on the awesome authority of its creators, the church fathers of the first five Christian centuries.

Designed by men, this tradition defines women as inferior, weaker and more sinful than men and relegates them to permanent second-class status. To our own day it has succeeded in limiting women's roles in the "royal priesthood" (30) to which all Orthodox Christians are called.

For the reasons alleged by this negative tradition, Orthodox Eve is less "royal" than Orthodox Adam. Her sex disqualifies her for the ordained ministry. No ambiguity exists on this point. In his treatise On the Priesthood St. John Chrysostom describes the moral, intellectual and pastoral imperatives of the ordained ministry. Quite simply, without mincing words, he twice excludes all women (31) from the priesthood. All of them are inferior and have a "propensity to sin." In contrast to all women, all men are not subject to these fatal flaws. Therefore, some men can become priests. In the same treatise Chrysostom advises priests and bishops that women require greater pastoral care and supervision because of their "propensity to sin" (32)

If there were no alternative to this anti-woman tradition, the future for Orthodox Eve would be as repressive as the past. Fortunately for her and her church, an alternate tradition exists, one which affirms women's humanity, our creation in the divine image and likeness. Although it has been neglected and even suppressed, this affirming tradition nevertheless has deep roots both in scriptures and in the historical experience of the "ekklesia".

Its biblical roots, moreover, were not unknown to the fathers. They were well acquainted with Genesis 2:27, which provides theological basis for the equality of the sexes: "So God created man in his image ... male and female he created them." The fathers sometimes quoted this text. It apparently troubled them. However, when it came to formulating the church's view of women, they either ignored it, or postponed its application until the next world. Brilliant and creative thinkers to whom Christianity owes much, the church fathers were nevertheless men of their time, unable to transcend the entrenched patriarchal patterns and anti-woman prejudices of their culture. As a result, they shut and bolted the door to the new creation, in which Christ intended women and men to be equally and fully human.(33)

As depicted in the four Gospels, Jesus offers a new and affirming vision of women. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record not a single instance in which Jesus demeaned a woman, or prescribed a special "feminine" role for her. On the contrary, the Gospels dramatically record many striking instances of the liberating and empowering grace with which he treated all women. One has already been mentioned. When Jesus; restored the bleeding woman to health and society, he rejected the blood taboo that reduced women to nonbeings. It was certainly his intention to abolish it! (34)

When he welcomed Mary of Bethany into his intimate circle of disciples to study and learn (35) Christ violated the ancient custom forbidding rabbis to teach women. By sitting "at the Lords feet and listening "to his teaching," Mary had assumed a traditional "male" role. But her teacher and friend did not shoo her back to pots and pans in the kitchen, a typical "female" task in patriarchal societies, then and now. Instead, stating that choices also existed for women, Jesus declared that Mary had the right to choose for herself - a revolutionary notion, which in 1988 has yet to be universally accepted. "Mary has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her." With these plain words (Luke 10:42) God Incarnate not only recognizes but also blesses the autonomy and freedom of women.

In contrast to the fathers, Christ did not believe that women are "weak" in mind and understanding. Indeed, women proved to be more perceptive and responsive than men to his divinity and to his mission of liberation. Why else would Christ have many times revealed his true identity first to women?

One hot noonday, he sat by a well and discussed theology with a Samaritan woman (36) "God is spirit and whoever worships God must worship in the spirit and truth," he told her (John 4:24). To this self-confessed adulteress, social outcast, and member of a religious sect despised by Jews, Jesus revealed for the first time that he was the Messiah foretold by the prophets. When the male disciples returned and saw their teacher talking with a woman in public, something no respectable Jewish rabbi ever did, they were "surprised." Had they known what he had just revealed to her, they would have been stunned.

He comforted Martha of Bethany, weeping for her dead brother Lazarus, by revealing to her, "I am the resurrection and the life ... whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). A revelation that was destined to change the world, it was first made to a woman (37)

Finally, the Risen Lord appeared first to women. Recorded in the Gospels, Christianity's most ancient traditions unanimously agree that St. Mary Magdalene and the Myrrhbearing Women are the first witnesses of the Resurrection (38) In Byzantine hymns and sermons again and again these disciples are appropriately named the "first" witnesses and "evangelists." Commissioned by the Risen Lord himself to announce his "anastas" resurrection) to the frightened male disciples, St. Mary Magdalene, the most faithful of all the disciples, is honoured as the "apostle to the apostles.' (39)

Described in the Gospels as the only true disciples of Christ, these women constitute a holy icon of superhuman faith, loyalty and courage. As for the sacrosanct all-male "Twelve" (spelled with a capital "T"), theirs is a spectacle of sorry weakness. One of them, Judas, betrayed Jesus for a few pieces of silver. Another, Peter, frightened by a slave girl, denied him three times. And all the male disciples fled and abandoned their teacher at the time of his arrest (40). Only the women remained with him all the way, from the crucifixion to the tomb and beyond. Once again, the "weaker vessel" had turned out after all to be the stronger.

Extraordinary as it is to contemplate, the fundamental Christian "kyrigma" the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, rests ultimately on the word and witness of women. From their lips fell the first joyful words, "Christ is Risen" -Christos anesti (41) Without the witness of these women there would be no Easter story to proclaim. To understand how radical is this acceptance of their word, we need only note that in the days of St. Mary Magdalene women were not allowed to testify in Jewish courts. A woman's word was automatically not worth hearing.

This equal discipleship of women and men which existed in the community gathered around Jesus continued in the primitive church. According to the New Testament, women apostles, prophets, teachers and deacons, along with men, exercised leadership in the apostolic church. Within the body of Christ discrimination based on race, sex, or social class seems not to have existed then. The more reason it should not exist today. In the ringing words of St. Paul, "All of you who have been baptized in Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.' (42) Proclaimed as a basic principle in this ancient baptismal formula, the promise of ecclesial equality for women still remains unfulfilled in our church.

The names of women church leaders preserved in Acts and the Epistles testify to equal discipleship in the early Christian communities. The pen of the Apostle Paul inscribed many of them on the pages of ecclesiastical history. In the remarkable sixteenth chapter of Romans( 43) Paul salutes no less than ten prominent churchwomen: Phoebe, Prisca, Mariam, Jounia, Tryphaina, Tryphosa, Persis, the mother of Rufus, Julia and the sister of Nereus. This catalogue not only confirms the numerically significant presence of women in the early church. It also confirms that women held offices, positions of leadership, and were in no way subordinate to their brothers in Christ. They were definitely not " en thevtera taxei".

Phoebe, the deacon of the large church in the port city of Corinth, heads this list. Paul praises her as a "leader over many, indeed over me. (44) )He names Jounia, who with her husband is "distinguished among the apostles. Mentioned six times in the New Testament, Prisca (better known as Priscilla) is the most prominent woman apostle, a brilliant teacher, and one of Paul's most valued and successful collaborators (46) EIsewhere, he mentions two other women apostles, Apphia (Philemon 1-2) and Nympha (Colossians 4:15). It is of major significance that the greatest of all apostles (himself not one of the "Twelve") never once suggests that the women apostles are his subordinates. From this we may conclude that their apostolates did not differ from his and that St. Paul actively promoted women's full participation in all forms of ministry.

The Orthodox Church recognizes all these four women as apostles, along with Saints Xanthippe Polyxene (47) Photeine the Samaritan Woman (48) Mary Magdalene (49),Thekla (50), and Mariamne, sister of the Apostle Philip (51). Going back to the very beginnings of the church, this authentic Orthodox tradition preserves the history of women apostles. leaving behind them the security of conventional domesticity and privacy, these women publicly risked their lives as they traveled from city to city to preach, convert and establish churches in a hostile pagan world. They deserve their haloes and recognition at last of the fact that Christianity has founding mothers as well as founding fathers.

The New Testament also attests that in the primitive church women exercised authority as prophets. When the Holy Spirit touched them with fire and vision, God spoke through women. Acts 21:9 refers to the four prophesying daughters of Philip the Evangelist. Hermione, one of this famous quartet, is honoured by the Orthodox church as a saint( 52) along with other female prophets from the Old and New Testaments.

In seeking guidance for conversion (metanoia) from the traditional negative view of women and from their traditional gender circumscribed "place" in the church, where better to find models than in the transforming grace, attitudes and practices of Christ and in the egalitarian first Christian communities (53)

In addition to the positive tradition documented in the New Testament there exists another, one created over many centuries in many lands by many women, young and old, rich and poor, empress and slave, married and single. Proof of this powerful affirming tradition is to be found in Orthodoxy's bright galaxy of women saints (54) Ten thousand times over, these heroines refute the patriarchal monolithic image of woman as hyper-sinful and as a "weak vessel, a cracked pot. (55) At the same time, they subvert the conventional image of the female saint as meek and mute, submissive and longsuffering.

Holiness knows no gender. The church acknowledges this by admitting women to sainthood. Women travel the exact same routes to heaven and sanctity as do men. Saints in skirts convened and directed ecumenical councils; sought and found God in desert wildernesses; slew dragons and walked on water; discovered relics and founded churches; built and governed convents; performed miracles. Until the twelfth century saints in skirts served God at the altar as ordained deacons. From the earliest days to the present, women endured persecutions and paid blood tribute to our church. Many hundreds of saints in skirts wear the martyr's crown and carry the palm of victory.

A few favourite illustrations from this sacred galaxy. St. Elizabeth the Miracle-Worker (56), a famous abbess in fifth-century Constantinople, out -Georged St. George. She killed a ferocious dragon by stepping on him with her bare feet. (She never wore shoes, winter or summer.) After making the sign of the cross, she spat on him. And that was the end of the dragon who had long terrorized the imperial capital. Our Holy Mother Elizabeth had no need of a horse or any lethal military weapons. Non-violence, faith and holiness served her better.

St.Theodosia of Constantinople (57) an eighth century nun, led a public demonstration against the emperor's policy outlawing the veneration of icons. She and the women with her caused the death of an imperial officer when they tried to prevent the desecration of a famous icon of Christ. Theodosia, the ringleader was arrested. After enduring brutal tortures, she was martyred for her fidelity to Orthodox tradition.

The Holy Martyr Philothea of Athen (58) an aristocratic sixteenth-century abbess, dedicated talents, fortune and life to the preservation of Hellenism and Orthodoxy in Turkish-ruled Greece. Her philanthropic institutions included a school for girls, a hospital, a shelter for the homeless and a home for the aged. The fearless protector of Greek women in a city ruled by foreigners, Philothea herself became a marked woman. Severely beaten by Turks, the sixty-seven year old abbess died on February 19, 1589, a "holy and blessed mother" of Orthodoxy.

Two spectacular saints belong to the month of November. All-Wise, All -Glorious Great-Martyr St. Katherine of Alexandria (59) offers Orthodox women a unique symbol of intellectual superiority. She commanded classical and Christian learning, had exceptional oratorical skills and knew all the known languages and dialects of that day. At age eighteen, beautiful and scholarly Katherine publicly debated and defeated the 150 most skilled and wisest pagan philosophers of Alexandria. Enraged by her triumph, the Roman ruler of the city ordered her death. Converted by the learned Christian maiden, the ruler's wife shared Katherine's martyrdom.

Our Holy Mother Matrona of Perga (60) first encountered in a hymn which enthusiastically praises her for wearing men's clothing and "acquiring the mind of a man." Abandoning husband and child, she became an exemplary monk in a Constantinopolitan male monastery. After the discovery of Matrona's true identity, she spent a number of years as an ascetic in Syria, where she gained fame as a charismatic healer and holy woman. On her return to the imperial city, Matrona attracted a following of wealthy women, and founded a convent. Its prestigious abbess for seventy years, she was a spiritual powerhouse in Constantinople, even though she and her nuns always dressed like monks.

No man or woman who reads the engrossing lives of Orthodoxy's women saints finds it possible to accept the patriarchal definition of women as the more sinful and "weaker vessel." Our haloed heroines subvert this ideology. Far beyond any reasonable doubt, they prove that much-maligned Eve and her daughters are indeed persons created in the divine image and likeness, no less than Adam and his sons.

By now it should be clear that this alternate tradition which affirms women is neither foreign nor extraneous to Orthodoxy. On the contrary, this authentic tradition accords completely with Orthodoxy's profound belief in the goodness of the Creator and of all God's human creatures.

Likewise, it should be clear that the positive tradition just described has tremendous significance and implications for Orthodox Eve in 1988. It supports her quest for full dignity and equality in the church. It empowers her for the inevitable long struggle ahead. It informs Orthodox Eve that despite the limitations placed on her by patriarchal prejudice and pride, hers is a proud and illustrious history in her church.

Most importantly, this tradition emphasizes Christ's vision of equal discipleship and equal"diakonia", service to God and humankind. It presents a genuinely Christian vision of the new order in which the concept of "thevtera taxei" is obsolete; in which there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, and in which Orthodoxy's God of life and love is worshiped in truth and spirit.

Again, I know what I think before I hear what I say. This I know for sure. In the struggle for equal discipleship and "diakonia", strength, grace and blessings will come to us abundantly from Saints Mary Magdalene, Photeine, Martha and Mary of Bethany, Jounia, Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary of Egypt, Elizabeth, Theodosia, Philothea, Katherine, Matrona and from all our Holy Mothers. Communion with them is part of our heritage as Orthodox women.

Orthodox Eve belongs to a venerable, powerful and sacred sisterhood. Our Orthodox saints, our own mothers and foremothers were strong women. Without their sacrifices, love and loyalty there would be no Orthodox Church today, here or anywhere else.

It remains now for Orthodox Eve to claim equality for herself and at last to take her rightful place in the church to which she has been more than faithful for two thousand long years.

1. See the collection of essays in my book Holy Mothers of Orthodoxy. Women and the Church (Minneapolis, 1987). Henceforth to be cited as Holy Mothers.
2. Discussed in Eva C. Topping, "Patriarchal Prejudice and Pride in Greek Christianity: Some Notes on Origins. "Journal of Modern Greek Studies 1 (1983), pp. 7-17, reprinted in Holy Mothers, pp. 45-55.
3. For example, St. Eudokia (March 1) is eulogized for "preaching like a man;" St. Eugenia (December 24) for turning to "male activities" like "explaining to everyone the truth of the Scriptures;" St. Katherine the Great Martyr for "changing the weakness of female nature to masculinity."
4. The ecclesial invisibility of Orthodox women could be easily lessened by the use of inclusive language.
5. The priest sadly reported later that only three young men responded to the four appeals. It is, of course, unknown how many young women would have accepted the invitation. My guess is the number would have been higher than three.
6. See Holy Mothers, pp. 126-128. It was heartening to read in The Orthodox Church (November 1988) that in India the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has changed certain liturgical practices in order to enhance the role of women. Now girls as well as boys are taken around the altar and women are reading the lessons from the Bible in the liturgy.
7. In June 1986 a prominent Greek Orthodox theologian wrote these shocking words to describe a new mother: "Uncleanliness is a description of her biological condition." By the fortieth day, he continued, she has "normalized" and can return to "normal social and church life." One is forced to ask whether it is his view or that of the church that it is "abnormal" for a woman to give birth to another image of God.
8. It is worth noting that I have yet to find a paean to motherhood in the writings of the Greek church fathers. Glowing encomia to motherhood are a fairly recent phenomenon.
9. Mark 5:25-34; Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48. The unnamed woman of the Gospels is venerated by the Orthodox Church as St. Veronike (July 12).
10. Written by Dr. Mary Jo Weaver, associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University, this informative work was published in San Francisco,1987.
11. The first woman Anglican priest was ordained in 1944 in China. Since 1974 about a thousand women priests have been ordained by the Episcopal Church in the United States. The first woman bishop was elected in the Episcopal Diocese of Boston in the fall of 1988 and will be enthroned February 1989. The Methodist Church has already elevated women to the episcopacy.
12 Migne, Patrologia Graeca 68. 1068C. Henceforth to be cited as Migne.
13, Mary's most fervent champion, Cyril dominated the Council of Ephesus (431), which declared her Theotokos. Despite the fact that he was the contemporary and fellow townsman of Hypatia, the renowned Alexandrian philosopher and mathematician, Cyril believed women were intellectually inferior to men. Contemporary historians implicated him in the murder of Hypatia by monks in March 415, during Lent.
14. This aetiological folk-tale is the older of the two creation accounts in Genesis.
15 Migne 8:581A-B. Clement also claimed that man's beard proved his superiority. Although he admitted women to the famous catechetical school which he directed, Clement nevertheless considered spinning and weaving more compatible with women's limited intellectual capacities, See George H Tavard, Women in Christian Tradition (Notre Dame and London, 1973), pp. 62-66, for a useful discussion of Clement's views.
16. For example, a Byzantine hymnographer hails St. Marina the Great Martyr (July 17) as "marvellous" because she "strengthened female rottenness." Such backhanded compliments appear regularly in hymns to the most honoured female saints.
17. De Generatione Animalium 782A. 17ff. For an analysis of Aristotle's widespread influence see Vern Bullough. "Medieval Medical and Scientific Views of Women," Viator 4 (1973), pp. 485-501. See also Vern L Bullough, Brenda Shelton and Sarah Slavian, The Subordinated Sex. A History of Attitudes Toward Women, revised edition (Athens GA and London, 1988), pp. 53-55.
18. Migne, 42. 740D, 745B. This fourth-century episcopal misogynist and hunter of heresies credited Eve with the first heresy (Ibid. 750D-753A).
19. Migne, 35. 800.
20. According to Cyril "the whole species of females is somewhat slow of understanding" (Migne, 74. 689B, 691C-692-D).
21. Migne, 47. 510-511; 59. 346; 61.316; 62.548.
22. A. Wenger, a.a.,Jean Chrysostome. Huit catecheses baptismales intdites (Paris, 1957), p. 126. This word resonates with contempt for women.
23. Migne, 62. 500. For fuller discussion and references consult Elizabeth A. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostorn and Friends (New York and Toronto, 1979), pp. 1-34. The "friends" referred to in the title were all aristocratic women.
24. In our own century a Russian Orthodox theologian declared that woman is a "vessel of infirmity" characterized by "inadequate self-control, passion, irresponsibility, blind judgements. "Quoted from A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, ed. G. P. Fedotov (New York, 1965), p. 430.
25. The deeply felt veneration of the Theotokos, evidenced in liturgy, hymnography, iconography and in the piety of the faithful, has given Orthodoxy a "feminine face." The same is true of Roman Catholicism. See Rosemary Radford Ruether, The Feminine Face of the Church (Philadelphia, 1977).
26 The exoneration of Adam begins in I Timothy 2:14.
27 Seen through androcentric lenses, sin has no "father," only a well-publicized "mother." The Greek Church fathers consistently branded Eve as the "mother' or "author" of sin. See, for example, Theophilos of Antioch (Migne, 6.1096A); St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Migne, 27. 240D).
28. The most celebrated of all our harlot-saints, Mary of Egypt is commemorated three times each year, Aprit 1, the Fifth Thursday and Sunday of Lent. Other haloed harlots include Taisia. and Pelagia ofAntioch (October8); Maria the Niece of Abraham (October 29); Akylina and Kallinike (May 9).
29. SeeEva C. Topping, "Kassiane the Nun and the Sinful Woman, "GreekOrthodox7heologicaI Review 16 (1981), pp. 201-209, reprinted in Holy Mothers, pp. 30-38, "The Psalmist St Luke and Kassia the Nun, "Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines 9 (1982), pp. 199-210.
30. 1 Peter 2:9. See my essay "Orthodox Eve and the Royal Priesthood" in Holy Mothers, pp. 102-121.
31 W. A Jurgens, The Priesthood A Translation of the Peri Hierosynes of St John Chrysostom (New York, 1950), pp. 17,38. He calls the exclusion a "divine law" However, after reading the disparaging remarks made repeatedly by Chrysostom in this treatise (and elsewhere), one concludes that it is rather a law made and perpetuated by men who assert superiority and claim domination over women.
32. lbid, p.101: "thea to tas amartias evolisthov"
33 See Leonard Swidler, 'Jesus Was a Feminist," Catholic World, January 1971, pp.177-183. On the first page the author defines a feminist as "a person who is in favour of, and who promotes the equality of women with men, a person who advocates and practices treating women primarily as human persons ... and willingly contravenes social customs in so acting."
34 See above, note 9.
35. This story is told in Luke 10: 38-42. See the interpretation by Elisabeth Moltmann Wendell, The Women Around Jesus (New York, 1982), pp. 51-58.
36. As recorded in John 4:1-30. Christ's dialogue with the Samaritan Woman is his longest conversation. For a discussion of this extraordinary encounter see Holy Mothers, pp. 56-58. Known as St. Photeine, the Samaritan Woman is celebrated on February 26 and the Fourth Sunday after Easter. Theologians grant her the title ."apostle" and "evangelist;" hymnwriters exalt her as "god-bearing" "theophoros".
37. Jesus' disclosure and Martha's confession are related in John 11:17-27. See Leonard Swidler, Biblical Affirmations of Woman (Philadelphia, 1979), pp. 216-218. Henceforth this useful work will be cited as Biblical Affirmations.
38. Mark 16: 1-11; Matthew 28: 1- 10; Luke 24: 1-11: John 20:1-18. The Myrrh-bearing Women are celebrated on the Second Sunday after Easter and in many hundreds of paschal hymns.
39. Mentioned twelve times in the Gospels, Mary Magdalene is clearly a major figure in the group that gathered around Jesus and shared in his ministry. See Holy Mothers, p.70.; Biblical Affirmations, pp. 204-214; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston,1983), pp. 8-11. The memory of this extraordinary woman is celebrated in the Orthodox Church on July 22. Byzantine hymns honouring St. Mary Magdalene preserve the tradition of her prominence among the disciples and in the apostolic church. I have under way a study of these important and revealing hymns.
40. In a brief stark statement, Mark 14:50 describes the abandonment of Jesus by his male disciples: "kai aphentes avton ephiyov pandes".
41 See Holy Mothers, pp. 68-69.
42 Galatians 3:27-28. See Biblical Affirmations, pp. 322-323.
43 See Holy Mothers, pp. 142-144.
44. In Romans 16:1-2 Paul calls Phoebe a deacon "diakonos., not a diakonissa a word which appeared first in the fourth century. For a discussion of women deacons consult BiblicalAffirmations, pp. 309-314 and Roger Gryson, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church (Collegeville MN, 1980), passim.
45. Romans 16:7. Recognized as"apostolos", St. Jounia is celebrated on May 17. Unable to accept the historical fact that women are also called to be apostles, some theologians have arbitrarily changed her name to Jounias, an unattested masculine form! See Bernadette Brooten, " Junia ... Outstanding among the Apostles! (Romans: 16: )" in Women Priests. A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration, ed. Leonard Swidler and Arlene Swidler (New York, Ramsey and Toronto, 1977), pp. 141-144. In this important work, Catholic theologians reject Rome's arguments against the ordination of women.
46. Romans 16:3; Acts 18:2, 18:26; 1 Corinthians 16:19; H Timothy 4:18. With one exception, Prisca's name precedes that of her husband. The reversal of the patriarchal order of naming husband and wife indicates that she was the more prominent of the two. On February 13 the Orthodox Church honours St. Priscilla"apostolos" .
47 September 23.
48. See above note 36.
49. See above note 39,
50 September 24. Also honoured as the first woman martyr, St. Thekla enjoyed immense popularity in the Byzantine world.
51. February 17. See Eva C. Topping, "St. Joseph the Hymnographer and St. Mariamne Isapostolos," Byzantina 13 (1986), pp. 1035-1052.
52. On September 4 she is celebrated as a prophet, teacher, healer and preacher.
53. As the Christian communities became progressively institutionalized, womerfs freedom began to be restricted. In the churcifs efforts to achieve respectability, patriarchal restrictions were adopted and women' s equality disappeared.
54. A few examples are given in Holy Mothers, pp. 71-80.
55. From Les Homelies festales d'Hesychius de Jerusalem L ed. M.Aubineau (Brussels, 1978), p. 26.
56 Her feast day falls on April 24. For an account of her life see F. Halkin, "Sainte Elisabeth d'Heracift, Abbesse à Constantinople," Analecta Bollandiana 9 (1973), pp. 248-264.
57 The first martyr in the iconoclastic struggle, Theodosia was soon recognized as a saint and quickly became a role model for activist Orthodox women. She is commemorated on May 29. See Holy Mothers, pp. 136-137. Despite the blood tribute and sacrifices of many women in the defense of the veneration of icons, each year on the Sunday of Orthodoxy the procession of icon-bearers is all male. Such processions distort the historical record and ignore women's contributions to the victory of 843.
58. Philothea is the best known of the women who are honored as neo-martyrs. See Holy Mothers, pp. 134-135. 1989 will mark the four hundredth anniversary of her martyrdom.
59. November 25. See Holy Mothers, pp. 95-96.
60. November 9. 1 discuss her remarkable career in "St. Matrona and her Friends: Sisterhood in Byzantium," in KATHIGITRIA' Essays Presented to Joan Hussey, ed. J. Chrysostomides (London, 1988), pp. 211-224.