Source: St. Phoebe Center
Document to be Reviewed at September Zoom Event
August 23, 2024 – The St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess has released a new set of proposed guidelines for ordaining women as deaconesses in the Orthodox Church today.
In a Zoom event to be held September 23, 2024, three St. Phoebe Center board members — Dr. Carrie Frederick Frost, Dr. Teva Regule, and Dr. Helen Creticos Theodoropoulos — will introduce and comment on this new version of the “Proposed Guidelines.” They will review the document section by section and explain the incorporated feedback. St. Phoebe Center Advisory Board Member Rev. Dr. Radu Bordeianu will serve as moderator. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to read the “Proposed Guidelines” in advance. See more information about this event and register here.
The “Proposed Guidelines for the Revival of the Ordained Female Diaconate in the Orthodox Church Today” were created by the St. Phoebe Center to generate discussion within the Orthodox Christian community, to expand its imagination of what this ancient order might look like today, and to move forward together to ordain deaconesses once again. The document was first published in 2023, during the Center’s tenth anniversary symposium “Deaconesses for the Orthodox Church Today” held at Hellenic College Holy Cross in November 2023 with the blessing of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and with a greeting from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
At that symposium and in other venues, the St. Phoebe Center solicited and received feedback from the whole church including laywomen, laymen, deacons, priests, and bishops. The document was revised based on this valuable and appreciated feedback, and now the Center offers this new version to the Church for discussion and inspiration.
The St. Phoebe Center continues to welcome comments and feedback at stphoebecenter@gmail.com.
The St. Phoebe Center is a US non-profit organization, and its mission is to “educate and prayerfully advocate for the revival of the ordained female diaconate to help serve the ministerial needs of the Orthodox Church and the world today.”
The mission of the St. Phoebe Center is in accordance with the 1988 Conclusions of the InterOrthodox Consultation on the Place of the Woman in the Orthodox Church and the Question of the Ordination of Women, Rhodes, Greece and the numerous other calls for revival of the female diaconate from across the world.
Carrie Frederick Frost, Chair
St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess
OrthodoxDeaconess.org
https://www.facebook.com/
5 Comments
The intent here is not to revive something that was ancient and passed out of practical use–the order of deaconnesses–but to create something new that has never existed. It’s a supremely bad idea that must be resisted.
Good deacon, there is incontrovertible evidence that deacons existed in the early church. If I had the time, I would find and post the actual prayer of ordination. You may wish to look and find it.
Sorry, deaconesses.
Actually, by confusing deacons and deaconesses, you make my point. As Father Lawrence Farley has said, the one is not the other. The first existed, not everywhere, and it was allowed to lapse. It was never a major order.
This was an excellent review tonight of the very clear guidelines needed for the ordination of deaconess to go forward and be active with the bishop and diocese, several parishes, and in the individual parish and community support and outreaches. What seems lacking are dedicated funding sources and administrative and educational certifications. It seems imperative to church unity and health, canonicity, and growth these issues be addressed. As with many things, the plain “time and money” issue hits in. The administrative structure needs both a blessing and independence to free the bishops from feeling too much is being added to their already lack of time and fewer resources. A boost and a blessing would be for donors to step up and have dedicated funds to offer to get this urgent balance back of an ordained and commissioned diaconate into an updated practice of servant leadership for the good of all.
I believe our beloved Vladkya, Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral ROCOR would have been positive in this effect. Vladyka Hilarion blessed me to serve in the altar, blessed me to aid in all of Kenya when I requested to work with a music project in just one small area, blessed me with growing a school and a monastery and all that was good.