What exactly is the traditional role of women in the Orthodox Church? This question can be controversial, and attempts to answer it by referencing early Christianity are often short on solid scholarship in service to the Church. The subject of deaconesses is a significant lightning rod for this issue at the moment. Presbytera Dr. Anysia Metrakos joins me to discuss this question, which is her academic field of expertise.

SIGN UP for Presbytera Anysia's OSI course "Holy Women of Byzantium": https://www.orthodoxstudies.org/courses

https://youtu.be/WqwunnIz4DI?si=JwKWd0miMbDQazV9

FATHER ALEX AND THE MOTHER CHURCH

“You realize, having Father Alex here, what he could do for us?” Metropolitan Joachim had said to his best friend Patriarch Bartholomew in 1992, when the patriarch broke normal protocol to request Fr Karloutsos’s transfer from Archbishop Iakovos.

Karloutsos proved this prophecy correct: by the end of the 1990s, the Ecumenical Patriarch had been received as a head of state in America, prayed over the President of the United States at the Phanar, and begun to establish an image as the equal of the Pope of Rome. Read the story of Karloutsos and the EP in the 1990s here:

https://orthodoxhistory.org/2024/09/05/father-alex-and-the-mother-church/

PHILIP LUDWELL III AND SLAVERY

Philip Ludwell III is the first known convert to Orthodoxy in the Americas and was one of the richest men in colonial America, closely connected with the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Like many of his peers, Ludwell owned African slaves, making his legacy complicated, to say the least.

In this article, Nicholas Chapman offers a detailed examination of Ludwell's attitude and actions regarding slavery, as well as the broader context of slavery in colonial Virginia.

https://orthodoxhistory.org/2024/09/03/philip-ludwell-iii-and-slavery/