Author Description

In this issue of The Rule of Faith: A Journal of Orthodox Thought & Culture, the journal of the St. Basil Society, in conjunction with the St. Basil Center for Orthodox Thought and Culture at Eastern University, after editorials by Fr. Joseph Lucas, PhD and Dr. Cyril Jenkins, we have articles from Dr. Joshua Moritz ("Should the Orthodox Take Baby Steps towards a Feminine Priesthood"), Dr. William J. Tighe ("Deaconesses in the Late Antique Orthodox World: On the Peripheries (Latin West and the “Far East”) and in the Center"), Protodeacon Brian Patrick Mitchell ("Orthodox Deaconesses: When History is Not Tradition" and Fr. Raphael {Brown} ("Models for Holiness"). With the exception of Fr. Raphael's essay on St. Mary of Egypt, the articles this issue take particular focus at the question of deaconesses, what they were in the early Church, and what they most definitely were not. Why we are visiting this question (touched on already in the last issue) can be gathered from Fr. Joseph Lucas's "from the editor's desk." We are happy once again to bring you several more poems by Matthew Robb Brown, and an entry by someone new to the lists, a poem from Michael S. Sayre. We hope it is both edifying and enjoyable.