Myrrh-Bearing Women and the First Ordination of Deacons
Second Sunday after Easter
Acts 6:1-7; Mark 15:43-47; 16:1-8
This Sunday is dedicated by the Church to the women myrrh-bearers, not only because they wanted to anoint the body of Jesus with fragrant oils, but also because they served the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles to enable them to preach the Gospel of salvation with love and dedication.
Without that women's care, in those disheartening conditions of human life and relationships, the preaching of Jesus Christ and his disciples would have been extremely difficult. The same can be said about the existence, life, and development of the Church of Christ in general, and our Ukrainian Orthodox Church in particular.
Our Church, especially here in Canada, in the context of our people being scattered in small islands across the vast expanse of Canada, the preaching of salvation in Christ to our people, the development and life of our Church, would be simply impossible without the tireless work, faith and love of our women.
We are not making preparations to modernize according to the changing preferences of the times, because God created and Christ equalized the dignity of both men and women, but He assigned them different functions and responsibilities. A woman gives birth to a person and she molds and raises him or her the most. The Lord gave the sacrament of the priesthood in the Church to males.
Therefore, although men and women fulfill different vocations and responsibilities, their merits before God may be the same. To illustrate the above, we need to pay attention to the passage from the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 6:1-7).
It was stated that "when the number of the disciples was multiplying," (these are the first years of the existence of the Church of Christ), "there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution." It should be noted here that in those days, the Church was concerned about the food and the drink for its faithful, because material property was held in common.
The Church and the apostles were not indifferent to the widows and their material needs. But, because it was "not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables" and engage in material affairs to take care of the distribution of material needs, the first community of Christ chose seven honest "men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom," and the apostles, "having prayed," "laid their hands on them." (Acts 6:6)
This was the first apostolic ordination of priests, assistants to deacons, through ordination. In our Orthodox Church of Christ, this is the way: through prayer and ordination, bishops ordain deacons, priests, and bishops. Thus, our Church imitates the holy apostles.
The writer of Acts (likely St. Luke) wrote down the names of all seven men who were ordained deacons:
• "And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit," -- here we have his image on the iconostasis [showing] – he became the first martyr for the faith of Christ, whom the Jews stoned to death; and,
• "Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and, Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch." (Acts 6:5)
These were probably the first months of the existence of the Church of Christ. It was even recorded that this Nicholas was not a Jew, but came from Antioch.
Deacons are ministers who assisted the apostles. Christ may not have instructed the apostles to ordain deacons, but the life of the Church, the concern for the material care of the servants of believers in Christ, showed the apostles the need for deacon ordination. In our Church, deacons also do not serve independently, but are assistants to bishops or priests.
But there is a difference in the fulfillment of duties: in those times, deacons not only served the apostles in preaching the doctrine of Christ, but also performed the service of providing material support for the so-called Hellenists. Nowadays, lay persons are elected for such functions and are not ordained to the priesthood.
But, following the example of Christ's first community-church, we must also elect honest people for these economic and material functions, "men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom," and this apostolic instruction has not been withdrawn or canceled by anyone.
In the last sentence, it is stated:
"Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. " (Acts 6:7)
We, though, have very few priests, and are we obedient to the faith? Should we not give some thought about why we have few candidates for priesthood?
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
