Which Churches still practice the separation of males and females on either side of the Church

  • Thread starter Thread starter Medical_Student
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Medical_Student

Guest
This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest practices that has been forgotten (even in the Latin Church where it was technically dissolved in 1983 but perhaps fell out of vogue before then).

Side note for Latins: The Roman Canon of 1917 “strongly advocated this practice.” Read interesting piece here about on parish in Arizona under Fr. Carota, a man beyond his time, bringing the practice back. veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/a-modest-proposal-seat-men-women-boys-girls-apart-during-mass/

Anyway, I live in the US, and I was raised here. I fell away from the Church but have had Catholic fever for the past 3 years, and am pretty passionate about Eastern Churches mostly. I remember going to India and in the churches seeing them split male and female. This is a very fond memory of mine. However, my mother informs me that such things are changing and the Syro-Malabar Church 1 hr. from our house no longer practices this. What gives?:bang head:

Anyway, which Churches still practice this? I assume there are still Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Churches that practice this. I went to a Coptic Orthodox Pascha last year and of course they do as well. But the Coptic Catholic church?

What about the Byzantines, Maronites, Chaldeans, etc.? I know some churches in southern Germany (latin) still practice this, and it confuses the tourists…👍
 
Why was the practice practiced?

What about married couples? or families?
 
Children sit in the front, all together. Then you sit with your respective sex parent.

Married couple will split once entering the Church, no problem.

If couple with very young child/infant, then you can sit together.

It is an ancient tradition. It allows one to focus on the qurbana/mass/divine liturgy and elevates the spirituality and atmosphere of the mass. When else in our lives do we split male and female? It is also reminiscent of the Judaic traditions.
 
I think today it’s a rather cultural thing. India and perhaps a few other Middle Eastern countries might be the only ones who still practise that, along with a few countries of Africa.

I don’t think I’d like to see it brought back. I know it fell out of use around here because it never was the custom. I know from looking at the photographs of the church’s early years - women and men were seated together, families together, and the priest seemed to have no issue.
 
I must disagree and heartily would welcome them

And they are a part of every church’s tradition prior to 1918 as far as I know.
 
LoyalViews said:
I think today it’s a rather cultural thing. India and perhaps a few other Middle Eastern countries might be the only ones who still practise that, along with a few countries of Africa.

I don’t think I’d like to see it brought back. I know it fell out of use around here because it never was the custom. I know from looking at the photographs of the church’s early years - women and men were seated together, families together, and the priest seemed to have no issue.
Click to expand...
Ditto.
 
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Cathedral on Long Island still did this when I visited there a few times two years ago.
 
Those in the Latin Rite who cringe when women have their feet washed at Mass of the Lord’s Supper must be all for this practice, no?
 
LoyalViews said:
India and perhaps a few other Middle Eastern countries might be the only ones who still practise that, along with a few countries of Africa.
Click to expand...
This is not true. It is practiced in the United States of America in some churches. For example, the local Old Calendar Greek Orthodox Church has it.
 
I used to visit an Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where I used to live about a 2 years ago. They still have this practice.

All males (children and adults) enter on the left Entrance, and sit on seats of the left side of the church. All females (children and adults) enter from the right entrance to the chruch, and sit along the seats on the right side of the church.

Married couples split up before entering and sitting on the opposite sides, babies are kept by a parent of their own gender, on their respective side of the church. All females have their heads covered.

Oh and before the entrance there is shelf for everyone to take their shoes off, before entering the church. You are only allowed barefoot, or with socks inside the church. Also, all food and drink must be left outside the church too.

Just a summary of my observations.

Edit: As far as I know, these practices are common among all “Oriental Chruches”
 
Tomdstone said:
This is not true. It is practiced in the United States of America in some churches. For example, the local Old Calendar Greek Orthodox Church has it.
Click to expand...
True, but it is Ironic that I haven’t seen this in some Old Calender Greek Orthodox Churches in Europe.
 
mcw013 said:
Oh and before the entrance there is shelf for everyone to take their shoes off, before entering the church. You are only allowed barefoot, or with socks inside the church. Also, all food and drink must be left outside the church too.

Edit: As far as I know, these practices are common among all “Oriental Chruches”
Click to expand...
Oh that is interesting and I think that would be a good practice for at least America to have. It observes full attention and Holy Ground/Mass
All day everyday we are constantly distracted and have ten million things on our mind. I think the added turning your phone off or silent would be a great benefit too.
 
ROCOR parishes (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) practice this separation, with women on the left (on the side of the Theotokos icon) and the men on the right (on the side of the icon of the Savior.)

Not strictly enforced, of course.
 
Xenia said:
ROCOR parishes (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) practice this separation, with women on the left (on the side of the Theotokos icon) and the men on the right (on the side of the icon of the Savior.)
Click to expand...
In the Eastern Churches we have the icon screen to guide as a reminder, as Xenia kindly notes above.

Most Christians are likely familiar with the custom of seating the bride’s family and guests on the left and the groom’s family and guests on the right. These customs are related.
 
ByzCathCantor, I never made the connection with weddings, good to know!
 
My earliest memories of a Latin Rite liturgy go back to about 1950, and never experienced anything like this around here. The premise seems to be that spouses would be “distracted” by sitting next to each other, or men in general would be distracted from worship by sitting near women? We don’t have enough problems with Catholic practice and Mass attendance in the West now, but that someone thinks we should separate families at worship? Different if a Sui juris church had this in its tradition, but to impose it in the Latin Rite - well, no words.
 
The Syro-Malankara Catholic, Malankara Orthodox, Chaldean Syrians in India, Indian Syriac Orthodox (and many Assyrian Syriac Orthodox), Chaldean Catholic and Church of the East do in the MidEast (not so strict in many diaspora parishes), Syro-Malabar Catholics usually do so in India (less strict in cosmopolitan areas and the diaspora). Some of the protestant offshoots of these traditions continue to practice the men on the one side and women the other.

The Latin Churches in India have the same practice of men on one side and women the other in some areas, but there are more exceptions than with the Eastern Churches.
 
I believe this practice is a hold-over from Jewish synagogue worship, which is the basis for Christian worship.
 
The pre-Christian (Jewish, pagan) practice in most of these areas was to have women in the back or even a separate space.

In the Syriac Churches, it was the insistence of our father St. Ephrem the Poetic Deacon and his elevation of the role of women’s participation in the Liturgical Rites of the Church. He even ordained deaconess to sing in the choir and said women should sit in the front, although across from the men to avoid the two sexes distracting one another.
 
On a related note, I remember it being mentioned during my research about the Byzantine Catholic Church being separated by males in the front of the church and women in the back. The exception was the priest’s wife who was seated in a place of honor to one side of the iconostasis.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top