|
As
all of you know, it is not possible to watch ten minutes of news on T.V.
these days (or for that matter anything on TV.), without being reminded
of how the role and status of women is being questioned throughout our
nation. Every segment of society seems to be asking questions about women
as mothers, wives, and as employees. This is true in government, education,
industry, and even in religion. There is no part of society that is not
touched by these very serious questions. We have seen recent appointments
to very high public office being scrutinized because the nominees to these
positions were women. There is no question that the role of women is changing
in our society. I believe that we as Orthodox Christian women must ask
ourselves how we should respond to all that we see and hear about ourselves
as women in this ever changing world.
It
is my conviction that how we respond to this new situation will
depend upon how we understand our nature as women. We have
to ask “what does it mean to be a woman? What is our special nature? It
is my further belief that our nature as women has been determined by God.
And however we live out our roles in society, they must be in accord with
who and what God had ordained us to be.
I was
born and raised in Austria. I also served as a missionary in Southern
Africa from 1972-1979. I came to the States in 1980.
And,
having lived in Europe, Africa, and North America over the past 25 years,
I have seen women in many different situations and many different roles.
In Europe, Africa and even in the United States, women seem to share one
thing in common — their value is often based upon their function.
This may be their biological function, or their economic function,
or their social function.
How many
babies they could produce, how many fields they could till, or how big
was their paycheck. If women did not have an important function in society,
they did not have value. Even educated women in our society often seek
their dignity and status in terms of the function they perform.
1
think that it was in Africa, where human life is often lived in its most
fundamental form, that I realized that it was only the church that did
not measure women by these utilitarian standards. It was in the Church
that the humblest African woman realized her true worth and true dignity.
In the part of Africa that I lived in, women had the permanent legal
status of a minor. She could not legally own anything. Even her children
could be lost if she lost her husband through divorce or death. They
belonged to his family rather than to her. The Church gave women a new
view of themselves.
It is
in the Church and especially in Her Sacred Scriptures that we discover
what I believe to be our true nature.
In The
Book of Genesis we read of our creation ... “so God created
man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female
he created them,” (Gen. 1:27). Men and women are both creatures of
God. We share the very same origin. But being female is not simply one
“way of being human,” being female is an act of creation. “Male
and female he created. . . here is no androgynous human being. We are
created either male or female. It was the eternal will of God that we
exist precisely as females. Our nature was to be women. And we will live
out our lives in all that we do as women. Neither men nor women
were created in isolation from one another. This is a joint venture. With
men we are part of creation, but we must not forget that we also share
the same Fall, and with men we share the need for redemption. But being
born female is an absolute. It is part of the will of God. There is nothing
negative in any way to being female. And whatever we do, we should not
try to alter or change our fundamental nature. We bring something into
this world precisely by being female. Being male or female is to compliment
one another.
One of
my favorite Icons is that of Easter. Christ is depicted as coming forth
from the realms of death. In one hand he has man, and in the other hand
he has woman. Christ came to redeem both men and women.
The fundamental
equality of women is revealed in the New Testament, not only by the choice
of the Theotokos who would be the bearer of God the Word, but also by
the total earthly ministry of Jesus.
Professor
Veselin Kesich writes of this in his book The Gospel Image of Christ.
“Jesus’
... attitude toward women is without Rabbinic parallel — he conversed
with them, he healed them on the Sabbath day. They traveled with him and
he came to those who did not travel with him to teach them
and to make them His disciples. This attitude towards women is a sign
of the new age inaugurated with Jesus’ coming.”
This
was truly revolutionary and it is only with Jesus Christ that how we look
at women was now radically different.
St. Paul
affirms in the Letter to the Galatians, “all of you who have been baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with him. There does not exist among
you Jew or Greek, slave or freeman, male or female. All are one in Christ
Jesus. Furthermore if you belong to Christ you are descendants of Abraham,
which means you inherit all that was promised,” (Gal. 3:27-29).
In the
Church, women are seen as children of God, redeemed and recreated by Christ.
In the sacraments of Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist, we have received
the Same Lord. Women are not given less than men. The Father created all
of us, men and women alike. Christ died for all of us, men and women alike.
The Holy Spirit dwells in all of us, men and women alike. Our dignity
as human beings has little to do with our function in the world,
but everything to do with our sharing the life of God. Not only do we
exist uniquely as an act of God’s creation, we as women also share in
the New Creation wrought by Christ Jesus.
In
many churches today (especially non-Orthodox churches) the question of
the role of women arises. But sadly these questions are raised in the
context of Function. If a woman does not do this or that, then they
believe that they are of less value.
Our dignity
as persons does not arise from our function in the Church, but from the
fact that we actually share the life of God and are new creatures. Men
and women alike, we all have the same call and that is to serve. No two
persons, men or women, will serve in quite the same way. In the final
analysis, we will be judged, not by the function we performed in the world,
but by the life we have lived.
No office
in the Church, no honor bestowed, can compare to the fundamental dignity
that every one of us received on the day of our baptism. We put on Christ.
He is our Robe of Glory. Let each of us serve him with the gifts that
he has given to us, men and women alike.
Now —
Where do we go from here? If we recognize that we have been created by
God uniquely as women, if we recognize that we have been redeemed by Christ
uniquely as women, what does that mean for us as we live out our lives
in our families, in our churches and in society?
The theme
for our Parish Life Conference this past year was “See that you fulfill
the ministry that you have received from the Lord,” (Col. 4:17).
Whatever we do within the context of the Church is a Ministry.
Part
of the ministry that we exercise is ours by virtue of being women. Another
part depends upon the special gifts that God has given us as individuals,
There are many ministries and many gifts. Far too many for me to speak
about here! But I would like to mention two ministries that
all women seem to be called to exercise. These are the ministry of
Presence and the ministry of community building.
Our
first ministry is simply the ministry of presence. Simply put,
we must be there. Most of us are wives, mothers, and churchwomen. Many
women are employed outside of their homes.
I think
that we must recognize the priorities of our various responsibilities.
Many of us over extend ourselves. We want to do everything at once. Obviously
we can’t. Can we “have it all”? Can we “do it all”? I was gratified to
hear the newly appointed Supreme Court Nominee state something that I
have long believed. “You can do it all (so to speak), but you certainly
cannot do it all at the same time.”
Our presence
is needed by our children, by our husbands, by our churches. Our absence
can be catastrophic especially to our young children, and to our families.
Newborn babies and young children need our presence more than a twelve
year old does. It is not always a matter of what we say or what we may
do at a given moment. Love’s first duty is often simply to listen. To
be there. (In the July Readers Digest there is an article on
children from divorced families which tells us what we all already knew.
These children pay a severe price when they do not have the presence of
their parents.)
There
is a second role or ministry that women have had and probably have always
had since creation itself. This is the role or ministry of
“community builder.” Whether we like it or not, we are the community
builders within our families, within our neighborhoods, within the Church
itself, and within society as a whole. We don’t have to ask why we don’t
have neighborhoods anymore. There are no neighborhoods because we as women
are not building neighborhoods We are not there.
Let me
tell you a short parable:
A man
goes out and buys a loom. He brings it home to his wife. She weaves the
tapestry. She decides the color. She creates the shape and pattern as
she decides what she creates is the life that they live as a family. The
woman decides the spirit, the atmosphere, the music of the family. We
are the greatest influence on our husbands. No one sits at our table,
no one is treated with hospitality unless we decide that it will be so.
It is we who create the family. It is the women who create or fail to
create a neighborhood. It is we the women who in so many ways set the
tone of the total society. And the Church is no exception. Close your
eyes for a moment and think of your parish church without any women. Yes
even the community of the Church is in large measure a product of the
women. We seem to have the special ministry of community builders.
Watching
women interact with women and men with men is very interesting. Women
have it much easier. We can strike up a conversation with each other very
easily. We know more about each other in one hour than when men talk to
each other in one week. Whatever the special nature of men is, it seems
to be far more difficult for them to come out of themselves and to make
friends. Women seem to have far more friends. Is this not something inherent
in us? Is this not part of our special ministry to our families, our communities,
and our churches? In exercising this ministry of community building every
woman in our Church can exercise the special gifts that God has given
to her. These are the individual charisms. Here I would like to say that
no talent is useless or insignificant. Each talent can be put to the overall
service of building the community.
And what
is it that we are building? Nothing less than the Body of Christ. “There
are indeed many different members, but one body. The eye cannot say to
the hand ‘I do not need you’, any more than the head can say to the feet
‘I do not need you’. Even those members of the body which seem less important
are in fact indispensable,” (I Cor, 12:20-22).
May I
repeat, no office in the Church, no honor bestowed, can compare to the
fundamental dignity that every one of us received on the day of our baptism.
We put on Christ. He is our Robe of Glory. Let each of us serve him with
the gifts that he has given to us, men and women alike.
As women
we have been created by God as female. We will continue to be mothers
and wives, as our mothers were before us, Many will have professions in
the world, But whatever we do and however we serve, we cannot do so as
men. We are different. God has made us so. He has given us our own nature
and our own gifts.
In closing,
I would like us to look at Mary our Mother and sister. God chose a woman
to send his Son into the world. Whatever Jesus was as a human, don’t think
for a moment that Mary had nothing to do with it. He learned through her
how to be a human being. St. Luke tells us that “Jesus grew in wisdom
and age and grace before God and man,” Let us say with Mary the humble
words, “let it be done unto me according to your Word.”
Khoureeye
Elfriede Daly is from St Anthony church
Bergenfield, NJ. She delivered this paper at a luncheon for Antiochian
Women during the Eastern Region Parish Life Conference in Wilkes-Barre,
PA, July, 1993
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
March 1994
pp. 6-8
|
