"When God created man and woman, he was thinking, 'Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being?' And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful."
The recent fights for women empowerment in India included the right for women to enter inside the holy sanctum of a temple. One of the main activist was Trupti Desai. Her protest lead to the breaking of long centuries of tradition in the Shani Shingnapur temple, Maharashtra of not allowing women inside the temple . On April 1 , high court said that it is the fundamental right of women to go inside the temple. women are not allowed inside the temple because they are considered impure especially during their periods. As most of the Hindu gods out of 3 lakh deities are male and they are unmarried , women are not allowed to touch their holy idol inside the temple or even enter the sanctum. As shani temple has allowed women to enter the premises after massive protest and high court order, there is no progress seen in the Sabrimala temple in my hometown Kerala. the main reason may be that the government is not so interested and the women also.
But the topic of my blog is when will christian women folk be allowed inside the altar of the church and when will we see a women priest doing the holy sacrifice . no one has raised this issue. at least not as a priestess but she should have a place inside the altar . There are 2 important persons inside the altar, a priest who guides the holy Eucharist and a laity who helps the priest. Women are also allowed to lead in some parts of the ritual but only by standing outside the altar as in singing songs.
Jesus and Woman
Jesus Christ had 12 disciples but does not mean he did not have any other followers, he had female disciples also for eg Mary Magdalene . Mary Magdalene had an important part in Jesus's life. After Jesus died , the 2 persons who came to tomb were women and the first person to see a resurrected Christ was Mary Magdalene. He was born of a virgin lady St Mary. According to Dr. Stagg, Jesus was the only one religious founder who never discriminated against women in any way. He gave equal rights to both man and woman. According to gospel, Magdalene was given special training and commisioned her as an apostle by Jesus.In eastern Christianity she is called "equal to the apostles".Jesus also saved a prostitute from being stoned by some protesters as she was performing adultery , Jesus said that only that person can stone her who has not committed sin, and thus the protest stopped. He used to teach theology to women which was considered unconventional at that time. He drank water from a samaritan woman's bucket . The Dalits are the Samaritans of today. Jesus told Mary the sister of Martha that woman should not be stuck to the kitchen but she should also opt for study, Thus started the liberation concept and woman rights.So from above para we can see that Jesus never discriminated woman in any way but gave equal rights to them, So why are christian traditions of today not following that. a woman inside the altar leading the people with the songs could be more gracious as compared to a male laity. During the baptism of a child a baby boy is taken inside the altar while a baby girl is not, so the discrimination is from the infancy period.Woman are trained to be nuns and man to be priests but nuns are not allowed inside the altar while a priest is. See it written in the Bible that woman are not allowed to preach but Christ doesn't say anything like that, now should we follow Christ or the bible. That's a controversial and confusing statement. I say that we should follow Christ and give woman their rights as long as they want it. Some of the Catholic churches in European and American nations had female altar servers in the past, but in the Indian Orthodox tradition we have never experienced it. According to the Canon law of 1983, there have been improvements regarding women entering altar.
Break the traditions to see the Future.
www.womenpriests.org
