The following interview took place over
several days via email and in person. In it, Brad Jersak queries Archbishop
Lazar Puhalo on the role of women and the Orthodox tradition. The conversation
was triggered by a statement from blogger and theologian, Derek Flood
(www.therebelgod.com), who observed, “So often, even where women are not
acknowledged, they are the real spiritual backbone of the church.”
Archbishop Lazar:
Interestingly, several women
are classed as "Equal of the Apostles" in the Orthodox Church. All of
them publicly preached the Gospel; most of them were martyred for preaching the
Gospel. One of these Equals of the Apostles was St Nina, a slave girl who
converted the Kingdom of Georgia (Iveron) to Christianity, and the nation
remains to this day the oldest of the Orthodox Catholic Christian nations.[1]
Among the others, Mary of
Magdala and Photini (the Samaritan woman at the well) were martyred. St
Helen the Empress (mother of Constantine) and Saint Olga of Russia are also
"Equals of the Apostles." Both had a great deal of authority over
men, and both taught the faith publicly. Both had much to do with their
sons’ conversions.
[1] Church tradition also acknowledges
the sisters Mary and Martha, along with Junia (Rom. 16:7) as apostles and
fellow-prisoners with Paul. Junia and Andronicus were apparently a couple and
are regarded as ‘of the seventy’ whom Jesus sent out as evangelists. Andronicus
became bishop of Pannonia, but the two took the Gospel far beyond that diocese.