About deaconesses supposedly being ordained just like a deacon, on the Paradosis, Love+B.T(OCA) said the following:
What the Reader describes here was done at some time and in some places,
but it was never part of the Holy Tradition or What is passed on to us. At
best we could say that it is a dead tradition, as opposed to Living Tradition.
There have always been those who wish to do something or teach something
outside the Living Tradition, and they dig and delve into ancient
manuscripts, travel diaries, historical anecdotes, back shelves of
libraries etc., and Lo! and Behold! Voila! Eureka1 They find it and when
someone firmly adhering to the Living Tradition questions it, they say,
"Well, this is a Tradition of.....century" or "This is a tradition of the
Church of Carthage (or the like). Only that Tradition Which lives and is
passed on to us, is Tradition. For how can there be such a thing as "that
which was passed on which was not passed on?"Recently Elaine Pagels (sp?) has mined the rich lode of Gnostic literature
and found there all kinds of "forgotten" or "lost" traditions, or even
"suppressed" traditions on which to base the destruction of the Living, the
True Tradition, so that it even effected Roman Catholic nuns, once the
epitome of service, now much attenuated, and competing with quasi-monastic
women who have built up a Woman Church out of such excavated dead
traditions! This is impossible. Tradition is alive, not dead, not suppressed.Women may indeed be blessed to read in the Church, especially when there
are no literate men, in an ad hoc way. However women may not be made
Readers. What we call Readers are, in fact, Taper-bearers, that is Altar
Servitors of the first degree. Taper-bearers go in and out of the Holy
Altar and ascend and descend from the Ambo (Amvon), but, according to the
Canons, those not tonsured may not do so. That is why until the 20th
century women did not sing in the Orthodox choirs, because the Choirs, in a
canonically erected Church, were on the Cleros (Kliros). When women began
to sing in the choirs, then they at first sang only in those temples that
had the western style "choir loft" in the west end of the Temple. That
explains the otherwise almost unconscionable popularity of such choir lofts
in Russian Churches of modern times and in America, where, especially in
the Grecian churches, you find not only a robed mixed choir, but also an
electrified harmonium of some kind. And from there it is only a short jump
to having a woman in an exorasso actually at the Readers' stand on the
Cleros (Kliros), as happens in at least one Grecian church I know of.Those that sing and serve should be aware of the canons that pertain to
their service.For instance, by the time any Servitor advanced to the rank of Hypodeacon,
he would know that there is a canon against "disorderly howling"
(Bezchinnyj Vopl'). (Some think this rules out the Ison, recently
instituted at Valaam VBG) There is an Hypodeacon on these very lists who
gives us several posts a day of such disorderly cries. I always assume it
is because he is very careful not to do it in Church and by the time he
emerges, he's just a balled up wad of suppressed outcries, and he releases
them onto this list! This causes him to titter nervously and say "Thank
you" and then some foolish words.Love,
+B.T.
