02-03-2005, 09:02 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Re: Views on women in the ministry?
Quote:
Early Women Priests
Those opposing the ordination of women deny any historical precedent. However, the presence of women in the priestly ministry of the early church has been ignored or denied. Giorgio Otranto, director of the Institute of Classical and Christian Studies, University of Bari, Italy believes evidence of women priests is found in an epistle of Pope Gelasius I (late 5th c). His epistle was sent to bishops in three regions in southern Italy. One of his decrees in this epistle states,
"Nevertheless we have heard to our annoyance that divine affairs have come to such a low state that women are encouraged to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the male sex, to which they do not belong."
This Pope condemns very harshly the conduct of bishops who went against certain church canons by conferring priestly ordination on some women. He is probably referring to canons from four councils which took place within a 100 year span starting in the second half of the 4th century; the councils of Nicaea, Laodicea, Nimes and the first council of Orange (441). These church councils prohibited women from participating in the liturgical service in any way, or from being members of the clergy.
Professor Otranto thinks these prohibitions prove just the opposite. "If the church councils banned the ordination of women as priests or deacons that must imply that they really were ordained." Otherwise, why ban them? As Otranto says, "A law is only created to prohibit a practice if that practice is actually taking place - if only in a few communities."
He points to the presence of women priests (presbyterae) in the area of Tropea, in Calabria where there is an inscription from a sepulchre referring to Leta presbytera. It is dated 40 years before Gelasius’ letter, a date and location that indicate she probably was one of the women to whom Gelasius was referring. In the term ‘presbytera’ one should see, Otranto believes, "a true and proper female priest, and not the wife of a male priest, as other scholars have held on the impulse of a Catholic historiographic tradition that has never made any concession to the female priesthood."
Another presbytera is recorded in an inscription on a sarcophagus in Dalmatia and bears the date of 425. The inscription reads that a plot in the cemetery of Salona was purchased from the presbytera Flavia Vitalia. Here a presbytera (female priest) has been invested with an official duty, which from a certain period on was appropriate to a presbyter.
So far fifteen archeological inscriptions have been found that indicate ordained women. Rome maintains these women were ordained by heretical groups.
However, it is known that all of the geographical regions where these inscriptions are found were places with only orthodox Christian communities. None of the heretical groups existed in these areas.
Dorothy Irvin, a theology professor with a doctorate in Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern archaeology, believes she also has found evidence that women were priests and bishops in the early Christianity.
One site she refers to is a mosaic in an ancient church, Santa Praxedis, where four women are depicted, two saints, Mary and a fourth woman with the inscription Theodora Episcopa (Bishop [feminine] Theodora). The pastor of the church says the church was built by Pope Pascal I who was honoring his mother, who was named Theodora, with the title Episcopa because she was the mother of a pope. However, Professor Irvin points out that she is clearly wearing a coif, indicating that she is not married.
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http://www.womensordination.org/pages/why.html
(that's just an excerpt, and one of many articles I could have published).
I actually learned about this originally in a Church History class that I took as a sophomore at Bishop McGuinness.
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