Nicholas Denysenko – « Orthodox Ideology and Masculinity »

The official structures of the Orthodox Church present expressions of masculinity, primarily through the holy orders, or ordained ministries. Only men can be candidates for ordination to these ministerial offices. Historically, women also exercised ministry in the major order of the deaconess. The deaconess’s ministry differed from the deacons and was oriented towards women, and the order eventually fell into decline in the medieval period when infant baptism became predominant.^[3]

The ritual differentiation of men and women is not limited to candidacy for ordination, however. The Byzantine Orthodox rite of baptism includes a rite of churching, typically concluding the process of baptism. The churching consists of the presbyter escorting the neophyte to the sanctuary. Boys and men are brought into the sanctuary area, circumambulating the altar while the presbyter recites the Canticle of Simeon. Girls and women are brought to the threshold of the sanctuary, without crossing it. The customary explanation for this gender differentiation is that the churching of men goes into the sanctuary to introduce males to the possibility that God may call them to presbyteral ministry. This explanation is theologically fatuous, as the rite of baptism and anointing is one of becoming a laic, a member of Christ’s high priesthood, joining the assembly that exercises that priesthood in the altars of the Church and the world.^[4] Despite the rare regional accommodation for churching girls in the sanctuary as well, the reservation of this practice for males only remains prevalent in Orthodoxy, punctuating the exclusivity of males as leaders in the structures of the Church.

From the perspective of the ordinary laic, then, all of the leadership functions of the Church are exercised by men. Ordained men preside at all services, proclaim the Gospel, preach, hear confessions, and impart Holy Communion. Orthodox culture also promotes reverence for the ordained clergy. Throughout the Church, it is traditional to ask a priest or bishop for a blessing, and to kiss his hand upon receiving it. Laics are expected to perform a prostration before a bishop before receiving his blessing and kissing his hand. Priests impart these blessings at the end of liturgical offices, holding the cross in the Slavic rite, and distributing antidoron (blessed bread) in the Greek rite at the end of the Divine Liturgy, with the laics kissing the hand.

One exception to this rule is in lay participation in the administration of the parish. In the Russian parish tradition, a lay leader known as a starosta (elder) assists the pastor in administering the community. The Moscow Council of 1917–18 permitted women to function as parish starostas as part of its platform for renewal and reinvigorating the laity’s participation in Church life.^[5] The Council also permitted women to serve as diocesan representatives and become psaltists.^[6] This groundbreaking council, however, was interrupted and stifled by the fierce persecution of the Church by the Bolsheviks. The reformed principles of the Moscow Council did not take root in the Russian Church of the Soviet era, so patriarchal constructions of masculinity remained ensconced in the Church’s structures and values. These patriarchal structures and values became prominent in Russia’s post-Soviet identity.