Q: What is your opinion about St. Paul’s attitude towards women in his epistles?

A: According to our faith, religious revelation is not something ‘prescribed’. It is rather the expression of the word of God in human words that have their specific character and limits. It is, as Bishop Georges Khodr puts it, ‘an enlightened state of humanity’. Hence we ought to perceive the light through the earthly veil. In fact, this is a delicate process that requires awakening, effort, knowledge and most importantly an orientation of the heart to Jesus-Christ. This is what applies as well to the writings of the Apostle Paul who said that he “has this treasure in jars of clay“. In my opinion, Paul is torn (and this is part of his cross) between the the Gospel that revealed to him that there is no “male or female” in Christ, on one side, and the “ancienty” of a male society he grew in and which marginalized women and judged them as inferior, on the other side. This is what I explain in this book. This is also what I talked about in my previous book “The Image of Christ in Marriage and Family” (Al-Nour Coop, 1983).

Q: Did you reflect on the priesthood of women and can you give us your opinion about it?

If you look at the content of the mentioned books you realize that I didn’t deal with the priesthood of women. But since you ask for my opinion, I tell you that I don’t have a final and definite opinion about this issue. All I have are the following wishes that I would like to address to my church for reflection: 

• I hope, along with the great Orthodox spiritual father, Bishop Anthony Bloom, and the brilliant theologian Elizabeth Behr-Sigel, to treat this subject that moves the inner –conscious and unconscious- psychological feelings with an open heart, without constriction, away from any impulsive reactions towards what happens in the other churches.
• I hope that the subject be treated with a spirit of “repentance” in the original Greek meaning of the word which means “changing your mind” and rejecting what is old in it --for we very often mix between what old is and what true tradition is. However, some encouraging premises of this “repentance” started to grow after the Orthodox theologians’ historical meeting of Rhodes in 1988. Indeed, in the closing declaration of the meeting, it was acknowledged that, under the influence of factors which are strange to the church’s essence, injustice was practiced towards women in our church.
• I hope to re-activate the order of the “deaconesses”, which is authentic and traditional in our church. It dates back to its beginning and has lasted until a late period of its history. In this respect, a deep research written by the Orthodox theologian Evangelos Theodoru was recently published. Furthermore, I recommend the readers to have a look at these two extremely important references:
• Elisabeth Behr-Sigel: La consultation interorthodoxe de Rhodes (30 oct – 7 nov 1988). Présentation et essai d’évaluation, “Contacts”, Paris, n. 146,pp. 124-144.
• Evangelos Theodoru: L’institution des diaconesses dans l’Eglise Orthodoxe et la possibilité de sa rénovation, “Contacts”, n. 146, pp. 124-144.

Q: Between equality and difference: Do you think equality erases difference?

Difference is when the man remains a man in the full sense of the word and the woman stays a woman in her full feminine side. However, we must say that the man is not a “super male”. He is rather the one who adds to the characteristics of manhood the essence of what exists in femininity such as tenderness  and inclination that the woman is not the one who melts in her femininity but adds to the feminine character the most important quality of manhood (such as cohesion and determination). As for what equality, it means to allow for both to realize their full humanity, each according to his special type, whether masculine or feminine. But the full realization of humanity for the woman was and still is disturbed in a society that has been for ages controlled by males who insist on setting the limits of her womanhood and confining her within, in a way that serves their interests. This way, a lot of her human energies are wasted without that the society profit from them. This has led the women to imitate men in everything, longing to share their power as well. However, the consequence was the transformation of the woman into a missed-man or into a creature void of humanity. A real equality, entailing distinction without discrimination or inferiority, is what we truly long for and what truly deserves to be fought for in order to enter the civilization of the 21^st century.

Costi Bendali was interviewed by Diaa Bendali on 19.03.1994

This Interview was published in the magazine ‘Point of View’ (Wudjhat Nazar), n- 15/16.

Translated into English by Catherine Srour Kolundzic