Ghandi said...

Today I climbed a mountain, and saw a fortress and then I was going to write a post about being large and the challenges of traveling large, and then I went to a monastery, and decided there were more pertinent things to write about…

The closest I’ve been to a monastery before today was watching the sisters of the abbey and their tribulations with Maria in the Sound of Music (which by the way has NOT been translated into Ukrainian or Russian, so Ukrainians have no idea what the Sound of Music is… shame). To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I was in a church at all… no matter, I thought going to the monastery would be an interesting experience, so we took a bus from Кремнец (Kremnetz) to Почаїв (Poch-eye-ive) and went to the monastery.

I was warned before I left this morning that one must cover their head in Orthodox churches, so when we got there I bought a scarf (Tina it’s gorgeous, and it now belongs to you, I’ll send pics). When we got in to the compound, a guard rushed us and barked at us to do something, and pointed in the general direction of a crowd. We went over and as it turned out, not only did we have to cover out heads, we also could not wear pants… we had to RENT SKIRTS (even though the skirts were shorter than the pants that both of us girls happened to have on). Ok, we rented skirts, and put them on.


The monastery is gorgeous! The buildings were beautiful, and the interiors were lavish. We commented in every building that one could stand in each building for a week just to take in all of the paintings, and architecture. It was certainly a beautiful place to be.

The whole place had a punch of commercialism added in – there was no money exchanged (officially), but the place was crawling with tourists (like ourselves) most of whom were not there to visit a religious site, but just a site (yes, guilty again). The only thing is that most Ukrainians (yes even the Ukrainian tourists) are much more religious/respectful of religion than a group of your average Canadians. The commercialism was unsettling, but it didn’t really bother me…

What really bothered me was having to wear a skirt. First of all because of course it didn’t fit right, but also because the men did not have to change a THING about their appearance in order to walk around. There were men in various attires – suits, casual wear, jeans and sports jackets, sweatpants SHORTS… and none of them were required to cover up, or change their appearance. That was the first thing that got the hairs on my neck raised a bit…




So then I walked into the main church, and there were some prayers happening, and people lighting candles, and bowing to the priests and what not. There was a relic alter with a long line. The alter had a 2.5 foot intricate metal (I’m gonna guess brass) fence/gate around it, which, to my horror, some poor woman (Nun) was on her knees polishing with a tiny rag, and buff cloth while a man (monk/priest) stood over top of her and “supervised”. In another corner of the same church another nun was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor while a different monk watched over. And then I realized that all over the monastery the women were hard at work while the men watched over them.

Ok, so the icing on the cake – as I was walking out of the building, having had quite enough monastery experience a nun and a priest/monk were walking towards one another in a corridor. The nun was an older lady probably about 75, the monk was a young chap no older than 25 it was obvious from the way she was walking she intended to talk to the younger guy. When they got within talking distance the nun bowed her head, and held a curtsey until the priest said something, and then she stood up. I think my blood actually boiled. Seriously.

The three of us (Christina, Sean and I) got into a short discussion about why I didn’t like the monastery, but decided to end it because religion is not something you talk about with people you have only known for 3 weeks.

But here’s my issues: A) why do the women have to change their clothes, but the men don’t? What is so wrong with women that how they come to God isn’t good enough? I really wish that I spoke better Ukrainian because if I was totally fluent (or the monastery was totally English speaking) I would have probably staged a bit of a scene.

B) Why is it that the women are working, and the men get to supervise? Yeah ok nuns are the caretakers of the house of got and the priests are supposed to be doing different jobs, but really? The men are there just to look over the women doing work? I think I would have been less bothered by the women working so hard if there was an absence of men, but seeing the men there doing nothing but looking on really highlighted the power differential.

C) the kicker… so I asked my travel mates “ why would she bow down to him even though she is just as holy as he is?” and I was given answers like “respect” “he’s a priest” etc. ARGH. Respect for what? The fact that he is a priest? Ok, so here’s how I see it: she has probably spent most of her life in the monastery serving God. Given their age difference (lets be prudent and say 50 years) I would say that she is a WHOLE LOT more holy, and probably more committed to her faith. I would even go so far as to say that she is probably closer to God than he is!! Oh, wait, but he has a title “priest”, which is not open to her, and he earned in much less time than it has taken her to prove and live her faith. So wheeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr does respect come in?

What did Ghandi say? Ghandi said “I like your Christ, but I don’t like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”

I am not trying to malign anyone, or their faith. I happen to be a firm believer, and practitioner of the basic values of the Christian faith (even though I might not do it in the name of God). I also respect everyone’s right to practice their own faith in whichever way they see fit. I believe that as long as your religion encourages you to do good things to your fellow global inhabitants (humans, animals, plants), then take whatever you need to stay motivated. BUT this “way of faith” is not because God or Jesus said that women should be subordinate to men, it comes from somewhere very different. Some time later, Sean realized and then pointed out that had the priest that I saw in the monastery been Jesus, he probably would have bowed to the woman, rather than the other way around!

Listen, I’m no religious scholar. I am a near totally confident atheist, so perhaps I should not comment on things like this that don’t concern me. But my observation of this is that these power differentials not only do not come from the teachings of Christ (and therefore are not the order of God), but are in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ, and the will of God. (I’m gonna come on strong here…) This is a patriarchical system that has perverted the essence of their own religion so that it suits them better. They have, for centuries, encouraged this perversion in order to maintain their comfy, powerful perch. Put God behind whatever it is you want and suddenly no one is allowed to question you. I do not think Christ would agree.

Please don’t take offence. But please do look closely at your faith; are you living the way (INSER DIETY HERE) intended you to, or are you living according to the way your RELIGION has interpreted your deity – I defend that these two ways of life are very different…..

I wont be visiting any more monasteries, promise!

*love*