Mags GarganDear Editor, When Sr Mary McGlynn talks about women deacons and the Orthodox Church (Letters, IC 25/09/2014), she is talking through her wimple (if she wears one).
She says: “The Orthodox Church restored the office of deacon for women in 2005.” The Orthodox Churches, not having a Pope like the Latin-rite Church, make up their own minds on these issues. The Greek Orthodox Church accepted that women could be deaconesses in 2004, while the Russian Orthodox Church has always had deaconesses
But, as the Church of England averred in its synod discussions, there is a substantial difference between male deacons, female deacons and deaconesses. First of all, the role of deacon was traditionally one of the three major orders in the Catholic Church (bishop, priest and deacon), involved ordination and was limited to men. Edith Stein (St Benedicta of the Cross) said in her “Essays on woman”, cited by Sr McGlynn: “If we consider the attitude of the Lord Himself, we understand that He accepted the free loving services of women for Himself and His Apostles and that women were among His disciples and most intimate confidants. Yet He did not grant them the priesthood, not even to His mother.”
Women have never fulfilled the role of deacon in the Catholic Church. Deaconesses, on the other hand, were created by the laying on of hands for specific tasks. In the early Church, deaconesses performed roles like anointing and baptising adult women converts, visiting unmarried women and guarding the door of the church to prevent non-Christian women from entering. None of those tasks requires deaconesses today.
Yours etc.,
Kieron Wood,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.