Monday, December 8, 2008

Stop: No Presbytides Allowed!

The Council Of Laodicea (a.d. 363-4) wasn't friendly to women. Two of the sixty Canons are pointedly forbidding:
Canon 11
Presbytides, as they are called, or female presidents, are not to be appointed in the Church.
and,
Canon 44
Women may not go to the altar
.
These old boys didn't much like Jews either (so, world over, what has changed in 1 700 years; not a lot). This is what the Council had to say about Jews;
Canon 29
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
Like a lot of "Christians these days, the Council had a lot to say--probably a different opinion for each attendee--but if you choose to read all sixty Canons you'll have a difficult time finding even shreds of Scripture. But if one has power and authority (not necessarily from God), then who needs Scripture. That attitude has been around a really long time and it will continue to be exercised until Satan iexorcized.
When my church voted a woman as Pastor a lot of disgruntled's got up and walked out. Makes me think they were leftovers from Laodicea...with an attitude.
Evidently, for those men (almost entirely) who scowl at the thought or reality of a woman pastor, don't read much of what the Prophet Joel has to say.
I remember getting (what I thought was) a kind invitation to dinner, but instead turned into a lecture against women pastors. And all the while the long, long lecture lasted, I was looking down the barrel of a wagging index finger. Nonsense! was my conclusion, and it has not changed. Somehow I manage to make enough trouble for myself without having to endure the bloviating (there's that word again) of grouchy men and women whose minds are mired in the mud of their prejudice.
So what does Joel have to say? Here it is:
"And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. Also on [My] menservants and on [My] maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD." [Joel 2:28-31].
So whom do we heed? The men and women who were prophets of God? or the disgruntled men and women who always were, and always will be, critical of those who labor for the Lord?
God Bless e.c.

1 comment:

gadadhoon said...

you pasted a verse twice: "And it shall come to pass afterward....