Recently the OCA issued a statement regarding the liturgical service of girls in the altar.

The text below was originally sent as an email to members. The main response was submitted to the OCA for publication in their newspaper. It was not published. Since there did/does not seem to be any formal mechanism to let the hierarchy know the thoughts and feelings of those in their flock, we have collected a number of responses to this policy that are included. (We had asked for anonymous submissions but some people included their names so they were included in the composite response. In general, they have not been edited.) They represent the thoughts and in some cases, frustrations of many regarding this issue.

Elisabeth Behr-Sigel has been referred to as a "mother of the Church" in and for our time. Born in 1907, she was a living memory of the Church in the 20th century. Baptized into the Protestant Church, Madame Behr-Sigel heard the call to follow Jesus at an early age. She followed this call and was one of the first women students of theology in France, graduating from the University of Strasbourg. After graduation she served as the pastor of a country parish in the Reformed Church for one year.

As Orthodox Christians we believe that human beings—men and women—are created in the image of God and called to grow into God’s likeness. But who is God? We believe that God, as Trinity, is a community of Persons in love. It is because of this love that God created the world out of nothingness and continues to act in history, through the Holy Spirit, recreating our world. We believe that union with God is what real life is. It is participation in this Life that is the goal of our lives as Christians.

As Orthodox Christians we believe that human beings—men and women—are created in the image and likeness of God. Because we also believe in the Trinity, a divine community of Persons, we believe that in order to be truly human, we must be community. As Sister Nonna Harrison states in her article, The Holy Trinity as a Model for Human Community,

…to be made in the image of God is to be made in the image of the Holy Trinity; like the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, human beings are persons. This means that we are free and are able to know and love others, but it also means that our belonging to the community of humankind, our relatedness to other people, is at the very root of who we are.

Nearly two hundred and fifty women gathered this past 17 an 18 November at St. John of Damascus Orthodox Church in Dedham, Mass. to participate in a conference for Orthodox Christian women entitled, "Gifts of the Spirit." Sponsored by the St. Nina Quarterly and the Council of Eastern Orthodox Churches of Central Massachusetts, and with the help of a dedicated local planning committee, this was the first time that Orthodox Christian women in the New England area gathered as one to explore the ministry of women in the Church. The event offered an opportunity to meet other Orthodox Christian women, exchange our experiences and ideas of ministry within the Church, grow in our understanding of ministry, and further explore the various ministries of women in the Church.