Antiochian.org would like to highlight our sister publication the Handmaiden Magazine. With so few national Orthodox publications in the US, and even fewer written specifically for women, the Handmaiden is meeting an essential need in women’s hearts and minds. This magazine is more than a journal. It is a community of women, living out their faith together, to strengthen and encourage one another.
Our purpose in highlighting this exceptional magazine is to tell you a little something about the magazine, to point you to two great specials they are offering this month, and to give you a taste of the great content they provide by introducing you to two articles from past issues. We have also included a brief interview with Heather Zydek, Assistant Editor of the journal.
About The Handmaiden Magazine
With the Handmaiden of the Lord, the Holy Theotokos, as its guide, The Handmaiden strives to be a beacon of light, a place where Orthodox Christian women and others who are interested in Orthodox life and spirituality can come together to learn, share, relate, and grow.
The Handmaiden is full of topics that help women from every walk of life, and covers issues that are closest to women’s hearts. In each issue you’ll find general articles on such topics as childrearing and education, women’s ministry, spirituality and Orthodox life, women’s roles and relationships, etc. You’ll also find regular columns, such as: Heroines of the Faith (lives of female saints); The Orthodox Home (helping women to fulfill their role as the heart of home); Woman to Woman (a forum for readers to share ideas and thoughts); Books to Treasure (reviews of books by, for, and about women); Culture Currents (interviews or articles on contemporary issues facing women in the Orthodox Church of the twenty-first century).
The Handmaiden's Latest Issue, on the Theme 'Beauty and Art' Has Just Been Released
Inside you'll hear from Deacon James Bryant, a Seattle-based architect who explores for us the call and responsibility of the Christian artist. Then we get to meet the artists themselves: Liliana Ursu, a Romanian poet who grew up in communist Romania. Poetry, she says, was part of her survival. Next you'll meet Kimberly Taweel, a composer and educator who sees the presence of God in her art. We had to drag it out of her, but she was honored this year by the LA Philharmonic as one of its Unsung Heroes! And we've profiled Canadian artist, Judy Ng Choi, a bookmaker and admirer of Yeats whose creations show how unique one artist is from the next. Each Orthodox artist shares how their faith influences their art… and that's only the beginning of what you'll find amid the 64 pages!
A Few Moments With Heather Zydek, Assistant Editor of the Handmaiden
(A Short Interview)
Antiochian.org: Please tell us a little about your role with the Handmaiden.
Heather: I am an Assistant Editor of the journal; my specific role is to edit our eight regular columns. I am also a columnist myself; my column is called "Culture Currents". I also assist Conciliar Press Marketing Director Shelly Stamps with Handmaiden marketing. I have been involved with The Handmaiden since the summer of 2002.
Antiochian.org: Are there many Orthodox publications for women?
Heather: As far as I know, there are two in America: The Handmaiden, which began in the winter of 1996, and The St. Nina Quarterly, which, to my understanding, is not being published at the moment. I'm not sure if the different jurisdiction's women's organizations have their own smaller periodicals.
Antiochian.org: What makes the Handmaiden standout from other Orthodox publications for women? Why should women want to take the time to pick up this magazine and read it, verses others they may subscribe to?
Heather: I think the Handmaiden stands out, and I'll just state the obvious here, because it is the largest (and pretty much, the only) national periodical that is currently being published for a more general group of Orthodox Women. That said, I think Orthodox women should read The Handmaiden because it is a magazine full of intimate and enlightening articles that encourage Orthodox women (and men!) in their faith. The magazine has long been cherished by our loyal subscribers, Orthodox women who often feel disconnected from a larger Orthodox community. Many of our readers eagerly await the arrival of the magazine each quarter and savor every article from the magazine's beginning to end; in fact, I began as one of these readers, and this is how I became involved with The Handmaiden.
Antiochian.org: What kind of content does the Handmaiden have? Is it more academic reflections? Or more practical every day issues? How is it geared toward women specifically?
Heather: The Handmaiden is geared toward women in that we feature articles on topics that would be of utmost relevance and importance to Orthodox women (although sometimes our topics are of interest to men as well, but that isn't our main objective). Most of our writers are women. I would say that the content is definitely not academic; it is intelligent and challenging, yes, but also written in a way that will satisfy many different kinds of readers at many different reading levels. We typically cover one issue or "theme" with each issue, and our three or four main feature stories related to the theme are written in many different styles. Some are more personal reflections, some pastoral exhortations, some journalistic articles, some academic essays. Our columns also vary, but tend to be very practical, written on subjects that speak to Orthodox women where they are at in their everyday lives.
We like to think of The Handmaiden as more than a "magazine" or "journal" -- we think that our readers feel that they become a part of a community when they subscribe to The Handmaiden. We hope to become an even more interactive community in the future, with the help of Internet forums and our improved website.
Our readers come from many different backgrounds -- from the cradle-Orthodox babushkas and yia yias and to the twenty-and-thirtysomething convert hipsters; But we all have one thing in common, and that is the most important thing to us all -- our desire to know, love and serve the Lord our God, with all our hearts and minds and souls, as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling within the beautiful Orthodox Church.
Antiochian.org would like to thank Heather and all those who work so hard on such a great magazine. May God continue to bless this ministry.
And Now, Excerpts from Two Articles from the Handmaiden
Our first is an example if an article geared specifically to women. The article deals with the issue of day care. Our second article highlights the spiritual growth aspect of Handmaiden articles, and show how their content is relevant to all (men and women) who would like to grow in their faith.
The "Day Care Dilemma"
By Heather Sullivan Zydek
"I don't know how she does it," is more than the title of a current best-selling novel about the plight of an upper-class career mom in London by Allison Pearson; it is a phrase we so often hear in reference to the ubiquitous "super moms", women who engage in that fast and furious tight-rope walk, balancing full-time work and motherhood. If the career mom is said tight-rope walker, than one might argue that the tight rope that supports her unwavering steps is the multi-billion dollar day care industry that takes in millions of children from birth and up every year.
Day care -- which ranges in type and kind, from commercial center-based care for children of all ages to in-home care by relatives; from night-time to full-day to part-time and everything in between -- is something that, according to some estimates, gives daily shelter to three out of five preschoolers. Few would argue that day care has become an integral part of the American growing-up experience. While once being raised in full-time day care was something experienced only by children of the very poor and the very rich (by way of nannies), today, women of all socio-economic backgrounds and education levels use day care to enable a full-time job outside of the home.
Coming Closer to Icons
by Jim Forest
"Show me the icons you venerate and I will tell you what you believe," Saint John of Damascus declared in the eighth century.
At the time those words were written, icons were under attack. In 725 the Emperor of Constantinople, Leo III, ignoring opposition from Patriarch Germanus, decided the making and venerating of icons violated the Old Testament prohibition against graven
images. Perhaps it was his hope that ridding the empire of religious imagery would help break the momentum of Islamic expansion. Whatever his motive, churches in areas under the Emperor's rule were obliged to destroy their icons. As a result, early icons are an extreme rarity.
The great theologian who rose in defense of icons was Saint John of Damascus. Because he was living in a desert monastery near Bethlehem in a period when the Holy Land was under Moslem rule, imperial decrees from Constantinople had no effect. For the same reason, ancient icons at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai have survived.
Saint John wrote at length on the meaning of veneration, giving many biblical examples, all the while stressing that it is not matter which is venerated but rather "the fashioner of matter, who became matter for our sakes."
