Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church: Called to Holiness and Ministry

Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church is a patristic, historical, and liturgical study of the deaconess in the Church. It includes the stories of the women deacon saints, the decline of the order, and the attempts at its restoration by St. Nektarios of Aegina, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, and a close examination of the 1988 Consultation in Rhodes. An essential read regarding the role of women in the church and their ministry, it is "a significant and thought-provoking study which will contribute positively towards the future of our Church." (Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch) Contents Letters from His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew p. viii Preface p. xiii Prologue by Evangelos Theodorou p. xxi 1. Early Development p. 1 2. The Identity of Deaconess p. 18 3. The Witness of the Women Deacon Saints p. 28 4. The Charism of Women Deacons: The Apostolic Constitutions Rite p. 59 5. The Charism of Women Deacons: The Byzantine Ordination Rite p. 78 6. The Ordination Issue p. 111 7. The Decline of the Order p. 134 8. Towards the Restoration of the Order of Women Deacons p. 149 9. Women Deacons: Ecclesial Memory or Spiritual Opportunity? A Concluding Commentary p. 179 Appendix A. A Partial List of Women Deacon Saints p. 201 Appendix B. The Byzantine Ordination Rite of the Deaconess p. 202 Appendix C. Excerpts from The Place of Women in the Orthodox Church and the Question of the Ordination of Women p. 204 Appendix D. Discerning 'The Sign of the Times': Women in the Life of the Orthodox Church Damascus 1996 p. 207 Appendix E.  Discerning 'The Sign of the Times: Women in the Life of the Orthodox Church Istanbul 1997 p. 215 Appendix F. Prayer for the Ordination of the Deaconess p. 226  Product Description Paperback: 227 Pages Publisher: Holy Cross Orthodox Press ISBN: 978-1-885652-22-5 Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 Author: Kyriaki FitzGerald Publication Year: 1999