We didn’t expect this! Nobody could have expected this.
At the first meeting of what was to become Axia Women, those of us who were present wrote a vision statement:
“We are an organization by, for, and about Orthodox women in the service of Christ.”
Two of us had conducted a national poll of women in Orthodox churches. They had discovered that many women were actively engaged in church activities, programs, and services on the parish, diocesan, and jurisdictional levels. Many engaged in vocations outside the churches’ walls yet within the purview of Christ ‘s mission. We knew this was happening, but for the most part no one was acknowledging the scope of women’s endeavors.
So we created the Woman of the Week series. Our Board President, Patricia Bouteneff, thought it would be a good idea to profile individual women in their own words, describing their life’s work, their area of expertise, and daily routines as Orthodox women in the world today.
And what an avalanche of riches! Women we all know, seated in the pew, commuting to work, shopping for groceries, showing up at church lunches and school events. Orthodox women are:
- Leading the choir and teaching music to students in church, at home and in school; translating and preparing the choir books for liturgy and special services; teaching the tones for prayers and hymns; organizing festivals
- Creating a network of Coptic Christians in the United Sates for community growth and recognition in local, national and international platforms; running youth groups and adult educational and spiritual gatherings across parishes
- Homesteading … preparing the land, planting and harvesting the crops, feeding the animals… all while homeschooling the children near a monastery
- Serving as doctors, nurses, medical researchers and chaplains in urban and rural neighborhoods
- Creating and developing organizations that produce servant leaders among clergy and laity; women who imagine and found ministries for women in Orthodoxy; women who form bridges between Eastern and Oriental Orthodox women on a global level
- Authors and filmmakers, artists and iconographers, scholars and teachers, youth workers, health and fitness educators
You can see the whole galaxy of the women, stars who shine in their vision, energy, and achievements. Everyday women with families and neighbors whom they love and care for, women who wake up each morning to pray while they make breakfast, go through the laundry for the day’s clean clothes, women who go on hikes, read, bake bread, watch tv, care for sick friends and family. And many of these women pay tribute to mothers and generations of faithful women who encouraged them who were models of Orthodox belief and practice. Many of these women themselves are raising generations of women, their daughters, students, protégées who will serve in their turn. c
This is amazing because all this reveals the many layers of our personhood. Working requires skill and focus; relationships require care and nurturing; citizenship requires attention to neighbors and social issues. And it all overlaps. We do all of these things and each of these things day to day, all around us (360 degrees) all the time (365 days a year). Some of the work comes with official titles, duties and responsibilities--and much of it does not.
It is amazing because through the exhausting amount of energy all of this requires there is a glow, a radiance from the spirit of love and grace and adventure that such work brings to the women we see. We see it in their faces and in the faces of their families and friends and co-workers.
It is amazing because we each of us go about our daily lives with transcendent vision and a sense of purpose. The details and drudgery , the feeling of being overwhelmed or without hope can be overcome with rest, support and renewed commitment to why we do all that we do. It’s for the love of God and God’s people
Each new profile adds to this constellation of women who have gifted us with their stories, their victories and struggles with the pride and exuberance of joining a community of mutual support. It such a joy to greet each other. I can’t wait to see whose profile will appear each week. I draw inspiration from these women and think about how I can expand my life’s work and how I need to remember to offer care and rest for each of us and for myself.
This is an amazing community in the making. Imagine what will happen when we all meet in real life with no restrictions.
Finally it is amazing to understand that this work is motivated and suffused with the love of God as we come to know God and do God’s work through Orthodox worship and community. The work expands our souls and our minds while grounded in personal prayer and collective worship. The quiet prayers in the moments of intimacy with God and the liturgical beauty and rituals of our Church bring us close to God and to each other; each of us with our own gifts, following our own paths, contributing to the greater good, building the body of Christ. Those who see membership falling in our churches, attendance dropping, parishes unable to sustain full time clergy and choir —-need look no further than the talents and energies of these women and others who serve their families, communities, professional and civic organizations with such dedication and purpose with the love of Orthodox Christianity as inspiration and sustenance. We can only grow in numbers. We can build connections and networks that will bring life and energy to a centuries-old institution that has an amazing resource of women’s talent, charisma and grace, a resource it dares not overlook, pass over, or ignore. Axia Women are the women in the pews glorious and fulfilled by, for, and about our lives in Christ.
Judith Scott is Axia's spiritual advisor.