The Mar Thoma Church: Gender Equality in the Sacred Space

Last updated on: March 11, 2015 at 2:21 pm by Guest Contributor

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The Mar Thoma Church: Gender Equality in the Sacred Space 2015-03-11T14:21:12-04:00 Guest Contributor

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By Jesudas M. Athyal.

This article discusses the wider implications of a major milestone in women’s participation in the Mar Thoma Church (MTC). The denomination is part of the ancient Indian Church that traces its origin to the missionary work of Saint Thomas in south India during the first century AD. Today hundreds of congregations of MTC exist in the diaspora all over the world. The Church, while accepting at the theological level the full participation of women in all realms, has so far been reluctant to take administrative steps to include women in the pastoral ministry of the Church. MTC’s response to the “Lima Document” of 1982 entitled “Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry” by the Commission on Faith and Order, stated: “… the Mar Thoma Church presently has barriers due to custom, culture, tradition on allowing women to share in the ordained ministry of the church. It is earnestly hoped that these will break down as men develop greater consciousness of the change of times and women become willing and open to new challenges that God is opening before them.”

Anitha Oommen at the high altar along with the chief celebrant, Bishop Theodosius, and others

Under the reform movement initiated by Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius, the current bishop of the Mar Thoma Church’s Diocese of North America and Europe, the Rev. Sam Panicker, the Vicar of the Carmel Mar Thoma Church (Hudson, MA) assigned Ms. Anitha Oommen, a member of the congregation, to be the Deacon for the Holy Communion service on Sunday, January 4, 2015. This was, perhaps, the first time that a woman served as the deacon for the regular Holy Communion service in a parish church of MTC, as the very entry of women in the sacred space of the high altar was considered taboo. The event of January 4, therefore, marked a major step in the participation of women in the ministry of the church.

While the question of women’s participation in all realms of the church seems to be a settled matter in most mainline Protestant churches, this continues to be debated vigorously in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Like the churches of Indian origin, the Catholic and Orthodox churches too do not ordain women as priests, though they follow a less rigid approach with regard to the presence of women at the high altar. Both the traditions have a long history of women serving as acolytes and, in certain cases, as deacons. According to the Catholic scholar Phyllis Zagano, women as deacons is not a concept for the future but “for the present, for today.” Pope Francis too has emphasized that understanding women’s participation in the Church cannot be limited “to the acolyte, to the president of Caritas [and] the catechist.” Instead, what is needed today, according to him, is “a more profound theology of women.” The Orthodox churches in many parts of the world, till a few centuries ago, had the practice of female deacons though, for a number of reasons, it fell into disuse. The practice, however, has neither been abolished by canon or a council nor completely disappeared. The Inter-Orthodox Theological Consultation that met in Rhodes, Greece in 1988 noted that deaconess were ordained within the sanctuary during the Divine Liturgy with two prayers: she received the orarion (the deacon’s stole) and received Holy Communion at the altar. The consultation affirmed the need to revive the practice of women deacons.

Anitha along with the bishop and clergy

Even though the notion that women are inferior to men is a deeply rooted tradition in many parts of the world, modernization and secularization have challenged to a certain degree the patriarchal structures of the West. The waves of change have influenced the traditional patriarchal structures of India as well, but religion there seems to be the last bastion of male dominance. On the one hand, under the impact of modernization and urbanization, many Indian women have moved out of the house and into the professional space. Women today enjoy an equal status with men in most areas of the secular life. The religious structures, however, is where the age-old traditions are reinforced and solidified. Even the Indians in the West, who lead highly successful and professional lives in the secular world, are seen to fall back on tradition – translated here as casteist and patriarchal values – in the religious sphere. As George Zachariah put it, “the association between Patriarchy and Casteism based on notions of purity and pollution has influenced the doctrines and the ecclesial practices of the Indian churches.” [See the Keynote Address presented at the seminar of the American Academy of Religion in Chennai (India) on the theme, “Identity and Social Distinctions among Indian Christians, at Home and in the Diaspora: Some Theological Reflections,” on July 19, 2014 (unpublished).]

What happened on January 4 was historic, at least as far as the Indian churches are concerned. The church in the diaspora has managed to pose a challenge, howsoever insignificant, to the age-old stranglehold of patriarchal supremacy in the churches of Indian origin. If the resistance of the Indian churches to gender equality in the sacred space is rooted more in the religious tradition of purity and pollution than in the reformed Christian values, does it also follow that the churches in the diaspora, that are at the intersection between the Eastern and Western values, can provide the favorable ground for a feminist reinterpretation of Christian ministry? Questions remain, but an important step in gender equality in the sacred space has been attempted and achieved. Though much remains to be accomplished, this, truly, is a moment for celebration and thanksgiving.

Jesudas Athyal is a Visiting Researcher at the Boston University School of Theology and a member of the Mar Thoma Church; he represents the Church in the Inter-faith Commission of the National Council of Churches.

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