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.

The very title of this year's annual meeting—“Invisible No More?”—speaks both to the backseat role which women historically have played within Christianity and, with its interrogative punctuation, to the uncertainty regarding our roles both present and future. The increasing attention being paid to the place of women in the Church is at once both a positive development in its reevaluation of long-held practices and yet a reminder of the limitations placed on women's active participation in the life of the Church. There has never been a similar discussion of the role of men within the Church for the simple reason that men have never been limited in their ecclesial participation.

The past issues of the St. Nina Quarterly have exhibited much creative reflection regarding the need for an authentic restoration of the role of women within the Orthodox Church. Much of this reflection has stemmed from a reexamination of historical and hagiographical data that can forge a path to a more comprehensive understanding and realization of the place of women in ecclesial life.

Quoted from the latest issue of The Word [Sept 1997, p. 33], the publication of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese: The Holy Synod of Antioch (patriarchate) made several liturgical decisions [at their meeting, May 26-7, 1997]: