Article XXXII: Of the marriage of priests

3 Responses

  1. I’ve heard similar arguments between Catholic and Orthodox people- the Orthodox claim their priests can counsel married couples better because they are themselves married. Then again, many Orthodox priests are monks anyway…

    I think the last two questions, and perhaps the second too, are answered by Article VI.

  2. Steve Lusk says:

    Does no one read 1 Timothy (3:2-5 and 3:8-12) and Titus (1:5-6)in the “literal and grammatical sense”? These seem to REQUIRE that bishops, deacons, and priests (elders) ALL be men, each with one (and only one) grave, sober, and faithful wife and multiple children old enough to give evidence of being “in subjection with all gravity.” “For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” Yet those who cite these verses as proof-texts against ordaining women tend to defend a celibate priesthood or episcopate in defiance of those very same verses.

  3. Bob Chapman says:

    Mr. Lusk,

    I am not an expert of biblical Greek. Even so, your cited passages in 1 Timothy only mentions deacons and bishops.

    Since the overseer (bishop) was the senior elder in a community, I would have expected “elder” if the requirement was for all elders.

    There is also the issue of using the male gender of a word whenever the gender could be either male or female.

    The Orthodox have always ordained women as deacons. http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=3997