Women in Eastern Orthodoxy: Questions of Pastoral and Liturgical Participation

Conference Theme

The role of women within the Eastern Orthodox tradition is shaped by the Orthodox Church's canonical principles and hierarchical structures, as well as different cultural expectations regarding women. In practice, women often form the bedrock of the Church's congregational life. In recent decades, there has been renewed scholarly attention to questions of ministry, participation in liturgical life, historical precedents for women’s roles and pastoral needs in contemporary Orthodox communities. How is this reflected in practice locally? What theological considerations are involved in discussions about the role of women in Eastern Orthodoxy?

Programme

The detailed programme will be published here by early August 2026.

Professor Ashley Purpura (Purdue University, USA) will be giving the keynote lecture at the seminar.

The programme will consist of the following papers (in alphabetical order):

1. Lloyd Gregory Abercrombie, Inculturation? An Exploratory Reframing of Female Leadership and Ordination in the Orthodox Church
2. Nadezhda Beliakova, The Order of Deaconesses as a Path to the Recognition of Women's Ministries: Pre-Conciliar and Conciliar Debates in the Orthodoxy of the Russian Empire and Their Post-Soviet Silences
3. Andreas Bergman, The Voice of the Holy Spirit in the Church: Conciliar Authority, the Normativity of Universal Tradition, and the Question of Women’s Liturgical Participation
4. Sabina Bodin Hadzibulic, Serbian Orthodox Women in Sweden:  Agency, Roles, and Engagement in the Serbian Orthodox Church
5. Georgeta Fodor, Gender Norms in Romanian Orthodox periodicals of the second half of the XIXth century
6. Nina Glibetic, Confession and the Amma: Women's Spiritual Authority in the Byzantine Tradition
7. Aikaterini Karadima, Sacred Landscapes in Motion: Women's Agency in the Reconstruction of Orthodox Religious Life after the 1923 Population Exchange
8. Katherine Kelaidis, Rethinking “Masculine Orthodoxy”: Gender, Authority, and Modernity
9. Kaja Kojder & Abel Abrha Asgedom, Faith, Survival, and Agency: Ethiopian Orthodox Women at the Polish-Belarusian Border
10. Elena Kravchenko, Russian Orthodox Women, Practices of Obedience, and the Power of Ethnic Identity
11. Crystallia Latsara, Towards an Ecclesiology of Anarchy
12. Ann Marie Mecera, Beyond the Clergy: The Need for Pastoral Care in our Parishes Today
13. Pekka Metso, Observations on the ongoing discussion regarding women’s roles in the Church within the Orthodox Church of Finland
14. Aleksandra Michalska, Between Charisma and Marginality: Female Prophetic Authority in Eastern Orthodoxy through the Cases of Prepodobna Stoyna and Baba Vanga
15. Irena Nikaj, Women’s Liturgical Presence and Visual Authority in Eastern Orthodoxy: Albanian Art, Heritage, and Lived Tradition
16. Irina Paert & Liina Eek, Matushki as a test of patriarchy: Clerical Wives and Symbolic Capital in Estonian Orthodox parishes past and present
17. Natalia Sidorenko, A difficult verse revisited: Eastern Orthodox interpretations of 1 Timothy 2:15 ("Women will be saved through childbearing”)
18. Evangelia Spyrakou, The Chanting Woman from Byzantium to Greek Orthodoxy Today: Liturgical Office, Sources, and the Question of Continuity
19. Zhanna Timofeeva, Shadowed Agency: Women in Newly Forming Ukrainian Orthodox Parishes in Germany
20. Teemu Toivonen & Helena Kupari, Gender and (In)equality Issues as Motifs for Leaving Orthodoxy
21. Zhengnan Zhao, Monasticism Without an Altar: Women's Religious Communities and the Female Religious Life in early Nineteenth-Century Russia

The conference is part of an event organised by the Orthodox Church of Finland in cooperation with Filantropia, Orthodox Clergy Association, Orthodox Youth Association, Helsinki Orthodox Parish, and University of Eastern Finland.

Registration

Registration for audience members is open until 25 October 2026 (see the link above). The link for remote participation will only be sent to those who have registered.

Organizers / Inquiries

Maria Takala-Roszczenko, University of Eastern Finland [email protected]

Teemu Toivonen, University of Eastern Finland [email protected]

Talvikki Ahonen, Åbo Akademi University [email protected] 

Ksenia Medvedeva, The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

Photo by Kati Räihä-Velentza: Fresco with Orthodox saints in St Herman of Alaska Church, Helsinki Orthodox Parish