Our Identity as Women in Christ

By Victoria Boyd (and edited by Bp. Joseph)

“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” - Titus 2:1-5

Toxic Feminist Identity in the Contemporary World 

In today’s world, we are told that women are valued for their job, just like men. We are equal with men, but yet, we find ourselves under stress and strain from the natural differences we have with men. Motherhood, for most of us, is a calling that means we must deal with fatigue, morning sickness, childhood issues, education and discipline problems, and a whole host of issues for which men are often ill-equipped or unable to resolve on their own. Contemporary women often despise motherhood and hate men, because of the supposed “injustice” of the natural world towards women. Even more insidious ideologies are now teaching young women to embrace transgender ideology, and this leads to a further destruction of the natural orientation of femininity. Feminism has not resolved the issue of women being created by God to be caretakers and helpmeets to their men, although we are told that our identities no longer should focus on these aspects of our natural talents and abilities. This sets up a divide in most women’s hearts, where they feel that spending time in the home is a waste of their lives and talents, but also guilty if they do not, because their children and husbands need them. How do we resolve this problem of identity and contentment? How do we embrace a different kind of womanhood? 

Ancient Pagan Femininity 

In the Pre-Christian ages, women were often seen as sexual objects, forced into subjection and a kind of slavery by men, who are naturally physically stronger than us. In many cultures, women were regarded as property, just like slaves, and they were excluded from inheritance and legal considerations. In ancient Asian and European cultures, a woman’s status was associated with the wealth and position of their father, so women with high status were born into rich or powerful families, and they were married into similar families. This made women into status symbols, which cared little for their souls or salvation. Pagan culture valued things like prostitution for priestesses serving pagan gods, and practiced infanticide and abortion by killing newborns by abandonment or sacrifices to evil demons. 

Traditional Jewish Womanhood 

In the midst of all this darkness surrounding ancient women, there is one bright point of glorious light. The ancient Hebrews had a covenant with God that focused on raising up godly generations to follow Him. Even though the Jews were not faithful to this Covenant, the Law of God still protected women, gave them an inheritance and legal protection, and taught that men had to act responsibly towards women. In fact, one could not be a Jew without a faithful Jewish Mother. According to the Talmudic tradition, if a Jewish Man married a gentile woman, his children were not Jews. Only by a faithful Jewish mother, could children be raised as Jews in God’s covenant. This complements what we now know as Christians, that the best quality Christian children, who contribute the most to God’s Church, are the product of pious, faithful, dedicated Christian mothers!

Saintly Christian Womanhood 

After Christ established His Church, things changed radically for women. Women were made equal to men in the Christian covenant, and through Baptism, received an equal portion of the Holy Spirit. Women can have all of the spiritual gifts that men have, even though God preserved the separate natural and communal functions of Motherhood, Fatherhood, Brotherhood and Sisterhood. Not only were women the first to witness Christ’s resurrection, telling the Apostles that He was alive, but women were great missionaries early in the history of the Church. In many countries, such as in Armenia and Syria, through the conversion of the great princesses and evangelists, St. Helena of Edessa and St. Sandukht of Osroene, missionary work was initially done through the testimonies of great women of faith.

While we are equal with men in Christ’s new Covenant of the Church, women did not abandon or change their God-given roles as mothers, teachers, caretakers and nurturers. In fact, what we see in Scripture is that the opposite occurred - women were treasured, protected and allowed to grow in these motherly roles. Not only were women to mother their own children, but they were supposed to function as spiritual mothers for younger women in the Church. In this way, the teaching and discipleship of mature Christian women provided the local church with a spiritual core of the community’s discipline, which even the bishops, priests and deacons could not provide, and raised generations of mighty young Christians to challenge the idolatry, immorality and pagan values of the world. The discipleship of Christian women created many generations of fearless martyrs that eventually overcame the Roman and Persian Empires and brought many millions of people to Christ! It is not an inferior position for women to only teach and preach to other women and children, but the exclusion of strange men and other people’s husbands from the most sacred of all circles - the Christian home!

The Place of Women in the Church

Women function in a completely different paradigm from men. Men strive to climb a hierarchy that already exists, trying to find their place in it and competing against one another for position and resources. This male hierarchy is temporary, constantly fluctuating, and without natural love and stability. It is typified by antagonism and competition, more than real love and cooperation. Women, on the other hand, create a hierarchy through birth, making a society of older children caring for younger children, different in their experience and learning, molded together in love and a common family spirit. These bonds are permanent, and they are difficult to erase, even after generations. Culture is formed by this family hierarchy, and culture forms the “casing” for the Church, the outward protective layer in which the Church can propagate and spread. The woman, by nature, sits enthroned in the hierarchy of her creation as grand and powerful as any bishop, glorified by her own labor. As Scripture says, “her children rise up and call her blessed!” (Proverbs 31:28) This is the beauty, virtue and real power of motherhood, without which, the Church collapses. In this way, our feminine side reflects the creative attributes of God. 

When women compete with men for position within the Church, we lower ourselves from the place of natural empowerment that God has given to us by His grace. We remove ourselves from the mysterious foundation of the family, and begin to play a game of career, which, ultimately, because of our superior sense of care and intuition for emotion, we dominate. This leaves no place for the men to succeed, and leads to anger and jealousy. It also destroys the icon of God the Father, who is motivated just like our husbands are motivated, to procreate, protect, and provide. This aspect of God’s nature must be modeled for men, because they learn through imitation, not through natural intuition like women. When women remove the image of God’s Fatherhood in the Church, by overwhelming it with our creative and abounding femininity, women remove the motivation for men and boys to compete in the hierarchy, and we also remove the icons of successful men for our young men to follow, and thus, we make serving the Church meaningless for our men. Men simply cannot compete with us. 

A Solution

As the women of the Diocese come together to consider what virtuous womanhood looks like, how we start and stay on the pathway to holiness, we need to remember how fundamental our role is for encouraging and energizing all the men of the Diocese. Our men have an abstract idea in their heads, a priestly aspiration or responsibility, which lacks real power without our help and cooperation. Many of us are wives of clergy, and some of us are even wives to bishops (which is allowed in the Anglican Vicariate to Anglican Bishops who convert with their whole diocese to Orthodoxy), and our role in the ministry extends the natural grace of motherhood into the ministry. Our men are made or broken by our opinions, attitudes, and cooperation. They cannot make us do anything, but if we resist or dislike what they are doing, it becomes an insurmountable barrier. Our blessing and cooperation is absolutely necessary for them to succeed. In this way, our cooperation is like the human cooperation with God’s Spirit, necessary for sanctification and Theosis. This means that our “synergy” is a component of ministry that cannot be lacking, and that we must be mindful of this process moving forward in our Diocese. This is a special calling, and an Icon of Christ and His Bride, the Church. (Ephesians 5:22-33)