| Please consider our Serving The Parish link if you are already serving in parish ministries. The Synergia Parish Ministries Model described here could provide new ideas for your parish community and your own service in the Church. Since you have some experience in ministry, perhaps you would also look at the Mentoring Program, and consider offering yourself as a companion and guide for one of your Orthodox sisters by becoming a Mentor.
Restoring The Diaconate offers news and articles on the current progress toward restoring the permanent diaconate for women and men in the Church. With their wealth of experience in social service and philanthropic ministries, laypersons ordained to a Permanent Order of Deaconess or Deacon could bring ecclesially-guided, much needed assistance for our overworked priests.
In Exploring Our Future, we will compile articles and press releases on current and emerging contemporary concerns for the future of our Church - issues, in bioethics such as cloning, or medical ethics such as life support, and opportunities for increasing grass roots Orthodox unity in American cities.
Finally, in Sharing Our Resources, we point you toward ways to bring the many gifts of ministry already present in the Orthodox Church more actively into your own life and the life of your parish and community. We will describe ways to study Orthodox Theology, Spiritual Life, and Ministry more formally through listing the various Orthodox seminaries and other educational opportunities available. We will gradually develop an annotated Book List for personal reading and the enhancement of your own personal library. We plan to scan each issue of The St. Nina Quarterly here so you can read it online, and will offer links to websites related to lay ministries. We will also include a listing of Orthodox women speakers for retreats and conferences. We hope to provide the full proceedings from the historical World Council of Churches Conferences on Orthodox women in the Church, held over the last 25 years. Current articles of interest to women and to those in lay ministries, notices of upcoming events and other news, will be found here. Finally, the opportunity to automatically receive by E-Mail updated news and articles is offered if you register for our WOMEN E-Mail Subscriber Service.
You are heartily encouraged to contribute information to this webpage as often as possible. There are many stories of women, stories of compassion in social service, stories of pastoral caring, outreach and mission which are happening each day. You may be the only one who can tell a particular story. And somewhere out there is a woman who is counting on the Holy Spirit to bring into her life the inspiration and uplift of hearing that story, or even personally getting in touch with the people involved. There are books, resources, and events, that others would love to know about. When you come across a good one, we hope you will think of sharing it with your Orthodox sisters through your WOMEN's network. We need your participation to create a website that is not just information, but a fruit of the Spirit.
If you will, we ask you to include the participants in the WOMEN's network in your prayers, that we may be strengthened in faith to reach out humbly to serve others as our Lord would have us do. If you are able to offer any financial contribution to WOMEN, it will go toward the costs of servicing the website, and to producing the St. Nina Quarterly Journal. Both depend entirely on voluntary, free will donations. WOMEN is a 501C3 Not For Profit Corporation incorporated in 1993 in the State of Colorado, and any donations you make are tax exempt in the USA.
We hope and pray this website offering may assist you on your Christian journey, and we invite your suggestions and contributions at all times. We encourage you to remember the words of a contemporary Romanian nun: "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do, and by the grace of God, I shall do it!"
RECOMMENDED READING
Book List rev. 4 06
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. The Ministry of Women in the Church. Redondo Beach, CA: Oakwood Publications, 1991, 0961854561 (pbk). Republished by St. Vladimir’s Press.
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel and Kallistos Ware. The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church. Risk Book Series; No. 92. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2000, 2825413364 (pbk)
Deborah Belonick, Feminism in Christianity: An Orthodox Christian Response. Syosset, NY: Dept of Religious Education, Orthodox Church in America, 1983, 0866420452 (pbk)
Christina Breaban, Sophie Deicha, Eleni Kasselouri-Hatzivassiliadi (eds), Women’s Voices and Visions of the Church: Reflections of Orthodox Women. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC, 2006, (pbk)
Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. The Trnasformation of the Classical Heritage; 13. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987, 0520057058 (alk. paper)
Sarah Elizabeth Cowie. More Spirited Than Lions: An Orthodox Response to Feminism and a Practical Guide to the Spiritual Life of Women. Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press, 2001, 1928653049 (pbk)
Gillian Crow. Grains of Salt and Rays of Light: Reflections on St. Matthew’s Gospel. Middlegreen, Slough, UK: St. Pauls, 1994, 0854394796 (pbk)
Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald. Orthodox Women Speak: Discerning the ‘Signs of the Times’. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1999, 2825413178 (pbk)
Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald. Persons in Communion: A Theology of Authentic Relationships. Berkeley, California: InterOrthodox Press, 2006, 1932401083 (hard)
Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald. Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church: Called to Holiness and Ministry. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1998, 1885652224 (pbk)
Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald, ed. Encountering Women of Faith. Berkeley, California: InterOrthodox Press, 2005, 1932401075 (pbk)
Ellen Gvosdev. The Female Diaconate: An Historical Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publishing, 1991, 0937032808 (pbk)
Susan Ashbrook Harvey and Sebastian P. Brock. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 19878, 0520213661 (pbk).
Nonna Verna Harrison. On the Human Condition: St. Basil the Great. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press “Popular Patristics” Series. Crestwood, NY, 2005, 0881412945 (pbk)
Holy Apostles Convent, ed. The Lives of the Holy Women Martyrs. Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent, 1991 (hard).
Holy Apostles Convent, ed. The Lives of the Spiritual Mothers. Buena Vista, COL: Holy Apostles Convent, 1991, 0944359051 (hard).
Holy Apostles Convent and Dormition Skete, eds. The Life of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos. Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent, 1989, 0944359035 (hard)
Valerie Karras. Women in the Byzantine Liturgy. Oxford University Press, 2006, 0195175271 (hard)
Leonie Liveris. Ancient Taboos and Gender Prejudice: Challenges for Orthodox Women and the Church. Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2005, 0754653447 (hard)
Johanna Manley. The Lament of Eve. Menlo Park, CA: Monastery Books, 1993, 0962253626 (pbk)
Frederica Mathewes-Green. The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 1002, 15547252866 (hard)
Frederica Mathewes-Green. Real Choices: Listening to Women Looking for Alternatives to Abortion. Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 1997, 1888212071 (pbk)
Brenda Meehan. Holy Women of Russia: The Lives of Five Orthodox Women Offer Spiritual Guidance for Today. New Edition. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997, 0881411574 (pbk).
Mother Raphaela Wilkinson, Growing in Christ: Shaped in His Image. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003, 0881412538 (pbk)
Barbara Pappas. Are You Saved? The Orthodox Christian Process of Salvation. 4th Edition (expanded). Westchester, IL, Amnos Publications, 1997, 0962372145 (paper)
Michael Plekon and Sarah Hinlicky, eds. Discerning the Signs of the Times: The Vision of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001, 088141218X (pbk)
Letty Russell, Aruna Ganadason and J. Shannon Clarkson, eds. Women’s Voices and Visions of the Church: Reflections from North America. Geneva, Switzerland. World Council of Churches, 2005 (pbk)
Jessica Rose. Sharing Spaces: Prayer and the Counselling Relationship. London: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd., 2002, 0232523878 (pbk)
Mother Maria Skobtsova. Mother Maria Skobtsov: Essential Writings, Trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003, 1570754365 (pbk)
Sub-Committee of the Ecumenical Task Force of the Orthodox Church in America, ed. Women and Men in the Church: A Study of the Community of Women and Men in the Church. Syosset, NY: Dept. of Religious Education, Orthodox Church in America, 1980, 0866420436.
Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women. New York: Paulist Press, 2001, 0809140160 (alk paper).
Eva Catafygiotu Topping. Holy Mothers of Orthodoxy: Women and the Church. Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Pub lishing, 1987, 0937032530 (pbk).
Eva Catafygiotu Topping. Orthodox Eve and Her Church. Berkeley, CA: Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, 1989 (pbk)
Eva Catafygiotu Topping. Saints and Sisterhood: The Lives of Forty-Eight Holy Women. Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publishing, 1990, 0937032751 (pbk)
Benedicta Ward. Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987, 0879076062 (pbk)
View a full list by clicking on Sharing Our Resources to the left.
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