Tag: Diaconate

Let’s Make History: Ordain Deaconesses in the Orthodox Church Today
Women in the Church

Let’s Make History: Ordain Deaconesses in the Orthodox Church Today

March is Women’s History Month, when we particularly witness women’s vital roles in our past, including in the Orthodox Church. These stories deserve our attention and appreciation, but let’s not just look to the past, let’s also look to the future. Let’s make history.  Let’s make history by ordaining women as deaconesses in the Orthodox…

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Deaconesses: An Orthodox Institution Untheologically Blocked
Women in the Church

Deaconesses: An Orthodox Institution Untheologically Blocked

by Petros Vassiliadis At the initiative of the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies “Metropolitan Panteleimon Papageorgiou” (CEMES), an International Scientific Symposium on “Deaconesses. Past-Present-Future” was organized in Thessaloniki (1/31-2/2, 2020) at the International Hellenic University (IHU), to which its Inter-Orthodox English-speaking Post-graduate Program “Orthodox Ecumenical Theology” belongs. In addition to ΙΗU, 4 other…

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Women’s Gifts and the Diaconate
Women in the Church

Women’s Gifts and the Diaconate

The reinstitution of the ordained female diaconate in the Orthodox Church today would result in a much-needed and transformative outpouring of women’s gifts into the Church and into the world. In order to appreciate the positive potential of the female diaconate, we must understand the absolute parity of women and men in the eyes of…

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A Renewed Diaconate Completes the Church
Ecclesiology

A Renewed Diaconate Completes the Church

In recent centuries, the diaconate has only enjoyed a symbolical or transitional role in the church. Parish clergy are ordained to the priesthood after serving only briefly as deacons. It is as if they are expected to “move on!” or “move up!” The diaconate has been reduced to little more than a preparation or stepping-stone…

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Bishops and Synods: Testing the Spirits
Church History, Ecclesiology

Bishops and Synods: Testing the Spirits

In modernity and postmodernity, bishops and synods have taken varying approaches to testing the spirits and ascertaining what is needed for the renewal of pastoral ministry. The task engaged by the participants in the symposium hosted by the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess on October 6-7, 2017, was to consider how the Church might…

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Shared Ministry and Divine Grace: Restoring the Diaconate in Orthodoxy
Liturgical Life, Women in the Church

Shared Ministry and Divine Grace: Restoring the Diaconate in Orthodoxy

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko The Orthodox world is buzzing with the recent news report on the ordination of deaconesses in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. To the best of our knowledge, the ordination occurred after the Divine Liturgy in the nave of the temple, and appears to resemble the rite used to ordain subdeacons. This…

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Public Orthodoxy seeks to promote conversation by providing a forum for diverse perspectives on contemporary issues related to Orthodox Christianity. The positions expressed in the articles on this website are solely the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Orthodox Christian Studies Center.

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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University