A Clarion Call for Catechesis in the ACNA

Now, the reason a lot of those of us who actually I'm in favor of ordaining deaconesses, I would call the role, but Father Russell exemplifies the reason a lot of people are skeptical of this, because oftentimes it conflates the role of a deaconess with that of presbyterial ministry.

Father Russell mentions that at times deacons have been called to preach, but I would ask him whether that's ever been true of either a non-transitional deacon to preach in the Eucharistic assembly or whether it has ever been true of a woman to preach in the Eucharistic assembly.

And on both of those questions, the answer from church history is unanimously no.

And in our ordinal, the answer was no up until very, very recently.

Now, there's a reason for that.

As I've covered before, Chrysostom acknowledges, for instance, in 1 Corinthians 11, there is, of course, this beautiful unleashing of the gifts of the Spirit upon all the people of God, both men and women alike.

But there is distinctiveness in the body of Christ.

There is a differentiation of the appropriation of gifts that don't pertain to one being of lesser value than the other, right? It's not as though deacons are of less value than the priests or the gift of prophecy is somehow less value or things like this, right? Church mothers are of less value than church fathers.

Nothing like that.

But John Chrysostom, as I've covered before, addresses 1 Timothy 2 quite explicitly and talks about what's being prohibited there as teaching from the, quote, seat of the bema.

Now, what is the bema? The bema is a Hebrew category that's about the authoritative position and proclamation of the word.

That was understood to happen where? In the Eucharistic assembly.

The Eucharistic assembly, in virtue of its conjunction with the deliverance of the Eucharist, which is the chief central visible word that God speaks to his people by which he gives the body and blood of his son, is conjoined to the preaching.

The preaching is the deliverance of the word audible, which is then consummated in the deliverance of the visible word through the sacrament.

And as such, it is the thus says the Lord kind of authority that's supposed to be exercised there.

That is reserved as a fatherly task and as the task of Christ to his bride.

And for that reason, reserved to men who then play that role.

And it's peculiar to presbyters.

Deacons were called to do this at times, especially if they were in discernment for the priesthood.

But other than that, you do not have the sort of example that Father Russell says there.

But worse than that, when Father Russell addresses 1 Timothy 2, he dichotomizes between the authority of St. Paul and the authority of St. Peter.

Now, if you look at the video I've done on the Anglican rule of faith and then Anglicanism crushes Moscow and Rome.

If you look at those videos, and I'll link those in the description here below, it is quite clear, both from church history and from scripture itself, that no one dichotomized between the authority of the apostle and the authority of Christ.

The apostolic teaching, whenever they intended to teach as apostles, was considered the very word of the Lord.

This is the basis, for instance, that Thomas Bilson, Bishop Thomas Bilson gives in a perpetual government in his book, A Perpetual Government of the Church, that the canonization process went underway.