Who Supports Women’s Ordination in America?

This chapter examines the “who” of support for women’s ordination: who supports and who opposes female clergy in their congregations? It examines the nationwide Gender and Religious Representation Survey to uncover which factors are associated with support and which with opposition, paying special attention to things like personal demographics, religious behavior and attitudes, congregational context, and political orientations. The results show that support for female ordination is much more a function of congregational context and religious and political orientations than it is of demographics, most notably gender. Political and theological liberals as well as those currently attending congregations that admit female clergy support women’s ordination regardless of whether they are male or female. Also, those who have lower levels of sensitivity to “sanctity/purity” moral reasoning are more supportive of women’s ordination.

Rural Seigneurs and the Counter Reformation: Parishes, Patrons, and Religious Reform in France, 1550–1700

This article examines the role of lay seigneurs in religious change in the French countryside in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during the Catholic Reformation and a period of socioeconomic change in land ownership and exploitation. The focus here is on middling and lesser lords—the rough equivalent of the English gentry, who held land in a single province or evenpaysand had a frequent presence in their parishes—rather than the great nobles who operated at a national level. Brittany is used as a case study, for it was a province rich in rural lords and because relatively good source material survives. It is argued that seigneurs were important patrons of religious innovation in the countryside, particularly in the parish church. They were rarely innovators themselves, but they lent support and resources to the introduction and maintenance of new devotional practices. Lords worked closely with clergy, sharing their aspirations and ideas. Four areas were particularly prominent in eliciting their support: appointment of clergy, support of missionaries, new devotional practices, and funding of building projects and liturgies in parish churches. These combined family strategies of enhancing social status and individual means to salvation which were indivisible in the world of the lay rural nobility. It was from a traditional understanding of lordship that patronage of religious reform stemmed.

‘This is a Great Event in Our Church’: Bishop of Lutsk Polycarp on the Signing of the Act of Unity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches

Analysis of the previously unknown to the scholarship documents strives to close the gaps in studying unknown facts and events of the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine in the days of the Great Patriotic War. The article presents new archival sources in order to explore the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine more fully and objectively. The significance of the publication of these archival documents stems from current processes and state of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, where it has exposed to persecution by the political elite of Ukraine. Certain circles of the Ukrainian clergy support the split of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its persecution. During the Great Patriotic War religious life in the occupied Ukrainian territories was extremely ambiguous. The Nazi occupiers encouraged the split in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which resulted in emergence of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, which maintained canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which was non–canonical and sought to break all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. The authors have carried out archeographic and source–studies analysis of the new documents in order to establish their authenticity, time and place of their origin and to determine their novelty and scientific and practical significance. Archival sources identified in the course of documentary project ‘Orthodoxy in Ukraine in the days the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945’ shed light on the situation, describe numerous killings of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, speak of cooperation of the episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church with the occupation authorities. The attempt to create a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church failed. In spring 1943, the troops of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) opened hostilities against the Nazis, who responded by ceasing all support of their spiritual pillar, the Autocephalous Church. The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church only recognized legitimacy of the Autonomous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. After the bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church escape in the steps of the retreating German army, the Orthodox parishes on the territory of Ukraine passed into jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate of the ROC.

A Pilot Survey of Clergy Regarding Mental Health Care for Children

Collaborations between healthcare and faith-based organizations have emerged in the drive to improve access to care. Little research has examined clergy views on collaborations in the provision of mental healthcare, particularly to children. The current paper reports survey responses of 25 clergy from diverse religious traditions concerning mental health care in children. Subjects queried include clergy referral habits, specific knowledge of childhood conditions such as depression and anxiety, past experiences with behavioral health workers, and resources available through their home institutions. Overall, surveyed clergy support collaborations to improve childhood mental health. However, they vary considerably in their confidence with recognizing mental illness in children and perceive significant barriers to collaborating with mental health providers.