Spiritually Speaking (weekly adult education series)
The Big Question (and Third Rail): “Why can’t women go into the altar?”
The short answer; “they can”. The longer answer; “it’s complicated”.
Introduction: what is going on in the altar and what is it for?
- Look at our ritual and how we treat sacred space (and especially the altar).
- Look at scripture (Old Testament connections to the Divine Liturgy and church architecture)
- Look at what happens when it is violated! (both Old Testament and New)
- The altar is holy. We are called to be holy. It is the Holy of Holies. Our hearts are the Holy of Holies.
So Why Can’t Women Go into the Altar?
Council of Laodicea (4th Century)
Canon 44. Women may not go to the altar.
Seems pretty cut and dry. But it’s not. As with scripture, we need to know more than the words: we need to know the context. Unlike many canons, this one has no commentary to guide us. But we know some things about the situation. One of the most important pieces of data (and one that shows that the words can’t mean what they seem, at first glance, to men) there was an active and legitimate office of deaconess that continued at least into the 8th century (see Trullo 14, below). Deaconess were allowed in the altar. In addition, St. Gregory praises the fact that his mother died holding on to the altar table. We also know that nuns regularly serve in the altar. Clearly this isn’t going the way the usual “misogyny explains everything”. Perhaps our outrage is misplaced. Perhaps there was something other than patriarchy etc. at work here. Perhaps it is better to look more at the context rather than mirror-imaging.
The Quinsext Council (or the Council in Trullo; 692)
Canon 14. Let the canon of our holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter be not ordained before he is thirty years of age, even if he be a very worthy man, but let him be kept back. For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began to teach when he was thirty. In like manner let no deacon be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty.
Canon 15. A subdeacon is not to be ordained under twenty years of age. And if any one in any grade of the priesthood shall have been ordained contrary to the prescribed time let him be deposed.
Canon 69. It is not permitted to a layman to enter the sanctuary, though, in accordance with a certain ancient tradition, the imperial power and authority is by no means prohibited from this when he wishes to offer his gifts to the Creator.
Ah. Now this is more like it. Come to find out, there was a problem with people being in the altar that did not belong there (and of people making a mess of things and using their access to the altar to show off). What is being asserted (i.e. the spirit of the canon) in both cases is that entrance into the altar is prohibited to those who have no business being in there!
What about menstruation?
While there are those who disagree, the concept of “ritual purity” is no longer valid (it was never a “sin” for the Jews; it was a separate classification in their culture that has no resonance in ours, so people conflate the two). The use of menstruation is usually ad hoc theology, and it is never good theology.
- https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/commentaries/women_in_the_altar (a short podcast on the subject)
- http://www.pravmir.com/article_660.html (an academic article on the subject)
- https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2012/12/purify-her-uncleanness (a popular article on the subject).
So can they go in the altar? The answer is the same as it is for a man: not without the blessing of the priest or bishop (now as for altar service and ordination…. that is a topic for another day!).
Questions?
[In the actual class, the question of girl altar service came up. I gave two practical reasons: the need to civilize boys/men and the need to see if any evidence a calling towards ordination.]
