Dear Orthodoc:
<And does she read from the Sancturay or go behind the Iconostatsis for the priests Blessing before reading? I bet no.>
Well neither of us know that for a fact, although I could ask her the next time she is at St. Vladimir's. The fact that she was tonsured with the same rite as a male reader would be, was given a riassa, is communed as "Reader so and so", etc. says a lot about what Met. Maximos intended for her.
<Why? They never parTicipated in the Liturgy->
Yet they wore a sticharion and an orarion and communed at the altar. How is that so different than seeing a girl in a sticharion carry some liturgical item?
That reminds me of a point: lots of Orthodox think that there is some rule about women not being allowed in the altar. That rule is simply not existent, according to Prof. Meyendorff here at St. Vlad's. The canons prohibit ANYONE from going into the altar if they don't have a reason to do so. In the middle ages the whole "ritual purity" thing came up, where it was legislated that women could not even come to church if on their menstrual cycle, but that is clearly a judaistic and cultural practice that is a corruption (it did lead to a diminishing of the female diaconate, however).
<Deaconess - In the early Church, deaconesses were blessed with the same prayers and 'set aside' with a similiar (although not identical) ritual as males. >
It is certainly similar enough to be the same "thing":
http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/deac_ord.htmhttp://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/deac_gr3.htm(forgive the necessity of my refering to an otherwise heretical website as they are the only ones I know of who scanned that information online).
[Armenian Orthodox have altar girls who vest.]
<Never heard of this perhaps someone can expand on this.
Orthodoc>
I have personally witnessed it at a liturgy celebrated by Archbishop Khajag Barssamian in January 2000, and you may find photos in the Armenian diocesan newspaper of altar girls. Of course, Armenians are not in union with Eastern Orthodox so this is an argument from "similarity" I guess.
Orthodoc, my last post was somewhat sarcastic and I apologize for that. I was slightly offended at what I perceived as your eagerness to jump at something like this as "just another example of Byzantine Catholics deviating" when I know for a fact that the Orthodox have at least one woman reader. I see it as, "The Byzantine Catholic priests that are having altar girls are breaking their rules, so that can't be used as an example against their overall practice."
In Christ,
anastasios