Last week, we kicked off Women’s History Month by highlighting the roles women are already doing in the Church today and in recent history that we normally think of as being confined to men. We saw women engaged in pastoral care, including chaplaincy, pastoral counseling, youth ministry, college and young adult ministry, family ministry, adult and women’s ministry, spiritual advice, and spiritual accompaniment. This week, we continue our series by looking at women who have served or are serving as church diplomats and consultants to bishops.
Let’s start with church diplomats. A number of women fill this role today, both at the professional and volunteer levels. To work in the intra-Orthodox and ecumenical spheres, a person requires a solid church affiliation, a strong understanding of Orthodox theology and life, an openness to learning from others, skills in diplomacy, and (usually) a willingness to travel. This is often the province of volunteer laity with doctorates, and three such women are Despina Prassas, Elizabeth Prodromou, and Tamara Grdzelidze. Tamara Grzelidze has worked at the professional level on staff at the World Council of Churches and as the Georgian Ambassador to the Vatican. Other people, such as Anne Glynn Mackoul and Valerie Zahirsky ended up in ecumenism because of their deep grounding in the church combined with other skills.
The skills gained in ecumenical circles can also benefit a person’s work in other settings. Laura Wachsmuth (pictured here), a seminary graduate and chaplain at a Veterans Administration hospital, once wrote, “My interest in ecumenism is finding fertile ground in my work as a chaplain resident. The colleagues that I work with at the hospital come from a variety of different religious traditions, e.g. Judaism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism. I have become especially interested in the relationship between Judaism and Christianity and am continually pestering the Jewish rabbi with questions I have in regard to this topic!” Apart from their qualifications and skills, church diplomats inevitably bring with them a deep-set passion for building bridges, for fostering understanding across divisions.
That brings us to the council, commission, committee, and task force members who act as advisors to bishops. Lay men and women who share their expertise on church councils, commissions, committees, and task forces can have an effect internationally, nation-wide, jurisdictionally, and across a given diocese. The roles often—but not always—call for a degree of expertise in a non-theological field. (Advisory roles that demand a familiarity with theology tend to go to clergy—even though there are a host of laypeople with seminary training who could bring fresh and important perspectives.) I have found laity contributing advisory councils in the areas of family care, science and technology, canon law, liturgy and church art, Christian education, social and moral issues, international religious freedom, and religion and foreign policy in the various jurisdictions, metropolises, and archdioceses, and sometimes at high levels on religious issues in the United States federal government. There may be others, and I’d value hearing about them. But have a look below at the list of women in these important advisory positions, in alphabetical order.
Lila Kalinich has been a member of the Social and Moral Issues Committee of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (now the Assembly of Bishops).
Sister Vassa Larin has been on the Commission on Canon Law as well as on the Commission on Liturgy and Church Art, for the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ann Marie Mecera (pictured) has served as delegate to Diocesan Assemblies, Diocesan Councils, a Pre-Conciliar Commission, and several task forces for the Orthodox Church in America.
Elsie Skvir Nierle (of blessed memory), was a member of the Ganister Orthodox Foundation Committee of the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, and a trustee of St. Vladimir’s Seminary.
Mary Winstanley O’Connor has been the chair of the Governing Council of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, and the chair of the Archdiocese’ Order of St. Ignatius.
Elizabeth Prodromou has been a special delegate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as well as vice chair and commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She has also been a member of the Subgroup on Religious Freedom, Democracy, and Security in the Middle East and North Africa for the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group.
Marilyn Rouvelas has been an advisor to Archdiocesan Center for Family Care and a member of the advisory board of the Interfaith Marriage Project of the Greek Archidiocese. She was also a member of the Leadership Council of Churches for Middle East Peace.
Eleana Silk has been a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Metropolitan Council of the Orthodox Church in America.
Faith Skordinski was a Delegate-at-Large for the Special Investigative Committees of the Orthodox Church in America.
Gayle Woloschak (pictured) has been the chair of the Organizing Committee for the Conference on Stem Cell Research for the Commission for Science and Technology of the Greek Orthdox Archdiocese. She is also a member of the Commission on Canon Law for the Inter-conciliar Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church. She also has been a member of the Metropolitan Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA. She has been a a member of the Social and Moral Issues Committee of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (now the Assembly of Bishops).
Valerie Zahirsky has been the chair of the Department of Christian Education, Orthodox Church in America.
And then there are lawyers. It surprised me when I sat on various councils--though perhaps you are less naïve than I was--to learn just how often a parish, diocese, archdiocese, or jurisdiction requires legal advice. If your parish is selling property, looking for a tenant, wanting to lease property, hire a contractor, deal with a lawsuit, or make a significant purchase, you might well need to talk it through with someone in the bar association. If you have a law degree and are in good standing, this is relatively simple way to step forward. There are other paths you could also take. Rebecca Pontikes (pictured), near Boston, for example, runs her own independent legal practice with a social justice focus. Catherine Bouffides Walsh earned her a law degree from Harvard, is a partner in her practice, and has been one of the main advisors (pro bono) to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese headquarters in New York City through a number of recent crises.
Next week: administrative heads, institutional trustees and directors, and parish council leaders/members.
Patricia Fann Bouteneff is president of Axia Women.