Phanar Head: Church is misguidedly deemed as male-centered

Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: orthodoxtimes

On July 7, 2020, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople declared that “the Orthodox Church is unfortunately and misguidedly deemed as male-centered,” the Orthodox Times website reports.

However, according to him, “the central position of the Virgin Mary in the Church life, the plethora of Holy women, the contribution of women to the parish, and the essential role they play in the family, which are some admirable facts, prove these views wrong.”

According to Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon very aptly stresses that women are the pre-eminent expression of the person-centered morality in Orthodox tradition. He writes: “Women, more than anyone else, and perhaps, first and foremost, as Mothers, teach us to live as persons, not as individuals, that is, as beings in a relationship, not as autonomous and independent beings.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that on May 29, 2020, Georg Batzing, Catholic Bishop of the German city of Limburg, declared that the Church itself "calls for female clergy".

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