A real church lady

Last spring, I finally got to meet Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. At ninety-six, she is the undisputed "grandmother" of Western Christian Orthodoxy and one of its foremost theologians. We had been corresponding for years, yet when she arrived from Paris to deliver a lecture at Boston's Hellenic College, she appeared more frail and diminutive (she is 4' 9") than I had anticipated. Her moral stature is something else, yet her mischievous, self-effacing smile immediately puts you at ease.

Behr-Sigel converted to Orthodoxy when she was twenty-four, but only after she had been one of the first women admitted to advanced theological studies by the Protestant faculty at the University of Strasbourg and the first woman authorized by the Reform Church of Alsace-Lorraine to exercise pastoral ministry.

The Orthodox community which received her--she married an expatriate Russian engineer--was an extraordinary group, composed of immigrants who had been thrown into an entirely foreign culture and context. Freed from the constraints of Russian Orthodoxy's relationship with the state, "Western Orthodoxy" was an idea that began to take shape there.

Behr-Sigel was in the middle of it. She wrote a doctoral thesis on Alexander Bakharev (1822-71), a prophetic figure whose conviction that Orthodoxy should break out of its ghetto mentality cost him his teaching position and led to the proscription of his writings. Behr-Sigel went on to teach at the new Institute of Saint Serge in Paris, and at the Catholic University. Her spiritual father was Lev Gillet (1893-1978), whose major writings appeared under the pseudonym "A Monk of the Eastern Church." She chose that title for her monumental biography of him. With Olivier Clement, she edited, and still edits, Contacts, a review that publishes the best of Western Orthodox theology and spirituality. She was also a close friend of Mother Marie Skobstova (1891-1945), whose efforts on behalf of French Jews led to her death in a Nazi concentration camp.

One of Behr-Sigel's major, ongoing efforts has been to reexamine the role of women in Orthodoxy. Without stridency, she requests a soul searching: Why are women not allowed behind the Royal Doors in the sanctuary? When a male child is "churched," why is he brought into the sanctuary, but a female is not? Why were women traditionally considered impure for forty days after child birth and forbidden to receive the Eucharist? Given such practices, one can imagine the opposition any suggestion that women be allowed to participate in the ministerial priesthood might raise. Yet Behr-Sigel has asked Orthodoxy to consider these issues--and she has been heard. She sees women's rights and egalitarian roles as a cultural phenomenon the church must acknowledge if it is to address the modern world. Nor is the Holy Sprit to be limited by confessional boundaries, she insists. Thus, the ordination of women in other confessions will pose critical ecumenical questions for Orthodoxy, as eucharistic communion among Christians will be definitively compromised if these ordinations are an aberration.

Behr-Sigel's approach to these "hot potato" issues (as she calls them) is consistent with her theology and spirituality. Rather than attack the tradition of the church, she uses what is most venerable and basic in it to bolster her arguments. For example, Orthodox spirituality is centered on the Resurrection, and the great witnesses to this event are Mary of Magdala and the myrrh-bearing women. There is also the theological anthropology of the church fathers, which proclaimed the equality of men and women together as images of God, and the theme of the royal priesthood of all the baptized, who "make" the Eucharist along with the celebrant.

She has also proposed a creative revival of the order of deaconesses that once existed in the Eastern Church. Deaconesses ministered primarily to women, and their role was catechetical and philanthropic. Furthermore, Behr-Sigel urges that the role of priests' spouses in the life of the parish be recognized, dignified, and sacramentalized.

Behr-Sigel is no longer alone in her concerns. In recent years there have been a number of international congresses of Orthodox women to discuss such issues and to make recommendations. Still, her prestige and experience have made her the anchor and natural spokesperson for these groups. While the results have not been spectacular, they are encouraging. Whereas the Catholic Church recently closed the book on any discussion of the ordination of women, Orthodoxy is listening and thinking. In part, that is because of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. Future generations may well see in her one of the great figures of our time.

Jerry Ryan, a previous contributor on ecumenical matters, lives in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

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