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.

A handsome, charming twenty-eight year old, “Michael” had spent recent years making money, dating successful women, wining and dining and feeling fulfilled. I met Michael in an isolated, stark white room, in the locked psychiatric unit of the hospital where I served as chaplain. Michael had attempted to take his own life the night before, by swallowing extreme amounts of painkillers.

The first time I was scheduled to serve overnight as the on-call chaplain, I was paged at five a.m.  I groggily called the Intensive Care Unit, and spoke to a nurse who requested that I visit an anxious, weeping patient who would be undergoing surgery later that morning. I was told that the patient, "Andrew," was Orthodox Jewish. The nurse said that Andrew had a tracheotomy, and therefore could not speak.

On the first day of my chaplain residency, a nurse called me to provide spiritual care for a grieving couple on the hospital's birthing unit. This was my first crisis referral, and the couple was Greek Orthodox. I entered the room quietly, and met "Ana" and "George." When I told them I was the chaplain, and that I was Orthodox, they embraced me, kissing me on both cheeks." There was an immediate closeness among us.

Born in Cappadocia in the late third century, St. Nina (or Nino, the Georgian form) was the only daughter of a Roman general, Zabulon, and his wife, Susanna. On her father’s side, she was related to St. George, and on her mother’s, to the Patriarch of Jerusalem.