Visit The Religious News Network to read the full article
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). As a step toward educating Orthodox Observer readers about the ordination of men with disabilities, Fr. John Chryssavgis answered questions from the Observer‘s Managing Editor Corinna Robinson. Fr. Chryssavgis is Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Throne, and Executive Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Holy Cross School of Theology, where he is Professor of Theology. He also serves as theological advisor to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on environmental issues.
Corinna: Are there canons that explicitly bar men with disabilities from ordination to the priesthood or diaconate?
Fr. John: The earliest and principal canons referring to disability and ordination—actually, they speak specifically of ordination to the episcopate!—are found in the Apostolic Canons that were formally adopted in the seventh