Holy Orders

For Roman, who was once himself a soldier before taking holy orders, it was harder than most.

In the Middle East, churches in Lebanon and Syria have already conferred holy orders on women, while at least one Palestinian woman is known to serve in the US.

“His vocation is the holy orders in which he promised obedience, he vowed obedience to his bishop and his bishop’s successors,” she said.

They said he would be "subject to the disciplinary processes of the church, which will remove him from his office as vicar and prohibit him from exercising his holy orders".

It would be reductionist, he wrote, “to believe that women would be granted a greater status and participation in the church only if they were admitted to holy orders.”