Round tables and workshops — The place of women in the Orthodox Church

This article reports on two workshops devoted to the place of women in the Orthodox Church, organized during a congress of the Orthodox Brotherhood. It is an account of debates bringing together some twenty to thirty participants of various backgrounds. The central figure is Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, whose work on the female diaconate structures the discussions. The main idea is that the restoration of the female diaconate faces no fundamental theological obstacle, but encounters persistent cultural and clerical resistance. The article also documents testimonies from Bulgaria and Lebanon, illustrating the diversity of situations in the Orthodox world. On the theological level, it highlights the notion of the person, grounded in the Trinitarian model, as a framework that transcends the logic of power and allows for a rethinking of relations between men and women in the Church.