Abstract
The main controversies connected with the “issue of women” in contemporary Greek Orthodoxy concern their exclusion from the ministerial and sacramental orders of the church as well as from entering Mount Athos. There is a conspicuous absence of strong sentiments and reactions on the part of Greek women regarding this exclusion. Consequently, the main challenges to these exclusionary positions are coming not so much from within Greek society itself, but rather from outside, forcing Orthodox hierarchs and theologians as well as the state to respond. This article aims at exposing and analysing some of these responses showing how tradition and certain feminine images are used to project these controversial issues not as a “battle between the sexes”, but rather as one between Orthodoxy, Greekness and the West.