Christina Shaheen Reimann, M. A.

Christina Shaheen Reimann

Christina, the daughter of a priest, was nurtured in several parishes of the Antiochian Archdiocese of America. She taught and helped to run Sunday schools, held several offices in SOYO (Syrian Orthodox Youth Organization), sang in choirs, and served as a chanter. Her successful participation in oratorical festivals and Bible bowls inspired her love of preaching. She has since given numerous sermons in various parishes.

The issue of women's ministry and witness in the Church’s next millennium can only be properly addressed within the context of our fundamental identity as members of the body of Christ, as Church.

In September, 1996, the World Council of Churches, which had designated the years from 1988-1998 as Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, invited me to serve as a resource and spokesperson at the meeting of Orthodox Christian women to be held in Damascus in October, 1996. The theme of the meeting was “Discerning the Signs of the Time,” which focused on the life of women within the life of the Orthodox Church.

The mission statement for the Antiochian Orthodox Women of North America (AOCWNA) reads:

“To develop a spirit of Christian leadership, awareness and commitment in the Holy Orthodox Church...to foster a genuine expression of love and service through works of charity and to instill a sense of fellowship and a deeper understanding of the heritage and traditions of the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church.”

Though officially formed as an organization in the early 1970s, the women of this Church have been doing the work of discipleship and diakonia (service) for as long as there have been women and a people gathered as “Church.”

I always thought my parents named me after my grandmothers. Being especially fond of them both, I told everyone with no small amount of joy and pride that I was named after both my father’s and my mother’s mother: Christina Marie. Yet my family rarely called me Christina when I was growing up. They all thought it was “too big a name for such a tiny person” and nicknamed me Tina. This was fine by me; I never liked my name until I got to college and learned that Christina means “one who is of or follows Christ.” It was at this time that I took my name seriously and strove to live up to it. I felt very blessed to have such a special name. It brought back happy memories from my childhood name day celebrations. How could I have ever thought that Christina was not a suitable name for my parents to give me? The life of this great martyr is one of courage, beauty, and love.