Open Letter to the Hierarchy from Women excluded from SOBOR

[michigan]

Has anyone read the letter from the nuns of Lesna convent? I think they made a better case than this letter. I don't have the letter with me, but basically, their point was that women's monastic representation would have been especially important. There are far more women monastics than men, and it was mostly women monastics (M. Agapia, etc.) at the center of the conflict w/ the MP in the Holy Land. The letter was read at the sobor, and many people agreed (according to my priest, who was there).

Also, this was not a council of Bishops or clergy. It was supposed to be representatives of all the church! (There were representatives of every possible Russian Orthodox organization that could get in there.)

I don't like it when people act as though men are more rational than women. Who starts most wars? Were Hitler and Stalin men?

Edit: The bottom line is that this was not a decision-making body. The point was to hear the opinions of representatives from all parts of the church, but the decision is ultimately up to the Bishops.

[The Apostate]

What is the purpose of listing their job titles? I mean, why not list the kind of car they drive or how many friends they have? I guess they are trying to show how “powerful” and “important” they have convinced themselves they are in the world, and they think this actually equates to something for the church?

With respect to you, ioannis, I think that this is a little uncharitable. I really do think that it was decided somewhere along the line that all signitories would qualify themselves somehow for the sake of uniformity and expressing the part they play in Orthodoxy, perhaps this was the idea of somebody of a cultural background where the practice I described above is prevalent.

Your suggestion that they wished to state their importance in the world seems unfounded, as, while I agree with you that all of those qualifications are unnecessary, not all of them are about social importance. You will notice that some people simply listed which parish they were from, some mentioned their roles in church (Matushka, choir member, Sunday School teacher), and one said simply, "wife and mother".

That doesn't sound to me like claiming worldly importance.