Future Presvyteres Retreat, Notes, Part 1

The first speaker at the retreat was Pres. Katerina Patitsas, Vassi's sister. Her talk was entitled: "'Being' as in Presvytera" including three topics:

• Not-so-rulish Role
• Purpose
• Profile

She introduced us to several of her "special friends." She had brought in icons of Christ, the Theotokos, and the angels, and then showed us more photographs and icons of nuns, abbesses, and saints. Someone asked her to spell "Amphilochios" and someone called out from the back, "And can you use that in a sentence?"

So Pres. Katerina approached the idea of trying to define "this 'presbyetera' person."

• "There's something about who we are that's a little ahrd to touch."
• "You're not the only ones who are wondering what this is." —meaning that the presbyteres themselves don't have all the answers.

She mentioned St. Paul's letter to Timothy (told us to look it up and read it for ourselves, but I haven't done so yet), where St. Paul tells Timothy how to treat the women in the community: the older women, treat as mothers; the younger women, as sisters. Pres. Katerina said that this might be applied as advice on how to treat presbyteres. (She repeatedly said "Maybe!" indicating that there really isn't a definite or easy answer.)

She mentioned that there aren't rules for being a presbytera, unlike the rules for monasticism:

• "There's no training.
• "There's no typikon.
• If there are laws in the canon, I haven't heard about it... and no one's fired me yet!"

She did say, however, that our calling to be presbyteres is derived from our husband's call to serve as a priest.

More tomorrow.