Professor Theodorou's article on "Deaconesses and Orthodox Theology", posted in romfea... translated into English
Sixty-five years ago, in 1949, in my book entitled, Heroines of Christian Love: The Deaconesses through the Centuries,
and more than sixty entire years, in 1954, with my doctoral thesis on the Ordination
of Deaconesses, I have sown a few seeds that afterward flourished, thus highlighting
and promoting the issue of the ordination of deaconesses.
Today, Roman Catholics and Orthodox do not have deaconesses. Deaconesses
are in various Protestant, Old Catholic, Anglican communities. We have not yet
this traditional institution, but it is auspicious – promising I would say –
that there is a huge movement in all the Orthodox Churches and Roman Catholic
to revive the institution of Deaconesses. Today they sound more and more voices
are heard in favour of reviving the
institution of Deaconesses and their ordination. In Orthodoxy I would like to
remind you the courageous efforts by the Apostoliki
Diakonia to establish many years ago the School of Deaconesses, print my
first book Heroines of Christian Love,
and spread the idea for the renewal of this old institution of the Church. Not
to mention, of course, the numerous Inter-Orthodox Conference, which focused on
this issue, and particularly and above all the Pan-Orthodox Conference of
Rhodes, convened by the care and under the auspices of the holy Ecumenical
Patriarchate, which showed the need for the revival of the institution of
Deaconesses.
The presence among the speakers of my colleague and old friend Dr.
Zagano underlines the huge traffic that takes place in America to renew this
diaconal institution. Dr. Zagano with her books and other publications make
frequent reference also to my own works on this issue. Like Prof. FitzGerald in
the Greek Orthodox Church in America, Dr. Zagano within the Roman Catholic
Church has become an apostle of the revival of this institution. And in Europe
there is a huge movement in this direction, especially in Germany. There are
reports, there are cardinals, there are Theological Schools, there are doctoral
dissertations, seminars, etc., All of which are pushing to revive the
institution. And enough women are already prepared to become deaconesses, and
all of them are waiting for the approval of the Vatican to authorize the
ordination and their accession to the active diaconal service of the Church.
I am sure, though, that the distinguished speakers in the various
sessions of the conference will highlight anything that advocates revival of
the institution of ordained deaconesses, indicating at the same time the
difficulties and obstacles that must be left aside.
Allow me now, to say a few words on this issue. I will not of course
bring owls in Athens. I will not say anything new, but repeat some of what I
have written and said these past sixty-five years. I will only highlight a few
key points that should perhaps be identified and addressed during the
conference.
Deaconesses existed undoubtedly in the Church of the apostles. It is
well known what St. Paul the apostle wrote about the existence of Phoebe, a
deacon in the Church of Kechreae, near Corinth, whom he extols in the Letter to
the Romans. But up to the end of the 4th century AD we have not ordination
prayers, i.e. texts that show how was the ordination in the various ranks of
the clergy in the Church. Since the end of the 4th century, however, in the Apostolic Orders a special rite for the
consecration of Deaconesses, similar in form and content to that which exists
for all the upper and lower clergy ranks. At that time, of course, no
distinction was made within the Church between upper and lower clergy.
The rite of ordinations says: Prayer
or epiclesis on the ordination
of Bishop, then Prayer and epiclesis
on the ordination of Deacon, then of
Presbyter, then of Deaconess, Subdeacon, Reader etc. And the blessing and
grace of God is sought to send the Holy Spirit to consecrate the deaconess and
the other ordained.
But from the 5th century AD onwards the ordination rite developed and
became more extensive, and I would say, triumphant. We notice that for the
ordination of Deaconesses requested again within it God's blessing and grace to
send the Holy Spirit to make the ad valorem becoming deaconess a servant and
celebrant of the Church.
Thus, for the ordination rite of deaconesses there are two longer
prayers of consecration, similar to the other ranks of the upper clergy, that
of the bishop, the presbyter and the deacon. In both of these prayers what was
stressed is that God gave his blessing and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
not only to men but also to women, and asked God to send his Spirit to sanctify
the deaconess. This is done in both prayers. In between the prayers for peace
are inserted, where again the Church prays υπέρ της νυν προχειριζομένης to become worthy of the office, which is called to
serve.
Careful study of these ordination rites both morphologically and in
terms of content leads to the following conclusions:
1. While in these described ordination rites the laying on of hands of
the so called lower clergy, i.e. the singer, the reader, the sub-deacon, were
performed outside the sanctuary and not during the Eucharistic Liturgy, and
without singing: “the Divine grace that always heals the patient etc.,” to the
deaconesses in the process of ordination, like as to upper clergy – bishop,
presbyter and deacon – two prayers were heard. And we can describe that the
deaconess standing before her ordination in front of the Beautiful Gate, her
head being covered with a maphorion, and
when the time comes she is transferred to the altar, where she is ordained by
the Bishop with laying of his hands on her head, invoking the Holy Spirit to
make her worthy for the service she is about to undertake.
It should be noted that the invocation prayer: η Θεία Χάρις η πάντοτε τα ασθενή θεραπεύουσα, (the Divine Grace that always heals the patient),
which is heard in the ordinations of the senior clerics and of deaconesses is a
feature of only the senior ordinations. It is never heard during the laying on
of hands of the lower clergy.
From this evidence it becomes obvious that during the ordination of
deaconesses all the essential elements of the ordination of a deacon are
present. The deaconess is vested, like the deacon, with diaconal orarion and she communes at the time of
Holy Communion, like the deacon, inside the Holy Sanctuary, taking the Holy
Grail from the hands of the Bishop and placing it on the altar.
One would normally expect that with the expansion and more elaborate
ordination rites and ceremonies of the deaconesses, like those of all the
priests, that the deaconess would be relegated to the lower clergy. The Church
however took her and put her ordination together with those of the higher
ordinations of the upper clergy.
All these explain why in the canonical orders of the Church the female deacons
have many tasks related to the diaconal sacramental priesthood. They certainly did
not have the tasks of the presbyters, but we should not forget that neither the
deacon had, because he never performed sacraments.
2. Also the following topic should be investigated: Both the so-called
Syrian Teaching, the 3rd c. AD Didaskalia,
and the Apostolic Orders, of the late
4th century, reveal a hierarchy of degrees of priesthood. Higher stands the
bishop, who is the symbol of God the Father, followed by the deacon as a symbol
of Christ, then by the deaconess as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and only after
them come the presbyter as symbols of the Apostles. This hierarchical
arrangement must be explained: why is she Syrian Teaching of the Apostles and
Apostolic Orders place in the deaconesses even before the presbyters.
3. It should be noted that in the canonical rules of the Church the deaconesses
are mentioned within the ranks of the clergy. The 1st, the 4th,
and the Quintsext Ecumenical Councils all have special rules for the ordination
of deaconesses.
The subsequent civil law, which we know represents the Church practice
of the time, and in particular the Corpus
Juris Civilis, the famous Codex
Justinianus, incorporates deaconesses in the clergy. It has an arrangement
with the inscription: "on bishops and priests", where it also places
deaconesses. Then we have the Nouvellae,
the Neares, as we call them, of
Justinian, which frequently mentioned women Deacons. The 6th Nouvella e.g. has the characteristic
title περί του πως δει χειροτονείσθαι τον επίσκοπον" (how the bishop should be ordained), which
refers to the bishops, the presbyters and the deacons, male and female. We also have the 3rd Justinian
Nouvella, which determines the number
of the clergy in various churches, stating that the number of the clergy
serving in Hagia Sophia are: 60
priests, 100 deacons and 40 deaconesses.
4. It should also be borne in mind that in the Orthodox Church against
the various doctrinal or canonical expressions developed later, the primacy
belongs to the earlier advanced primary liturgical experience and practice of
the Church which is “das gebetete Dogma”, i.e. the praying Doctrine, expressed in
the liturgical prayer.
Let us also recall the well known Latin expression: lex orandi lex est credendi,
i.e. the Law of Faith is associated with the Law of Worship. For this reason
all opinions of refusing the ordination of deaconesses are simply unwarranted. It
is testified in the liturgical texts, and the dogmatic expressions for various ranks
in the priesthood are later than these liturgical texts. Therefore, these
liturgical texts of the Church should not be overlooked.
We should also never forget that while the Ecumenical Councils, as we
said, recognize the ordination of deaconesses, no church doctrinal decision exists
to date that repeals the ordination of deaconesses. This potentially is still
valid in the Church.
And it seems that survived throughout history in some monasteries: until
the days of St. Nektarios, this saint of 20th century ordained
deaconesses on the island of Aegina; until the penultimate Archbishop of
Athens, the late Archbishop Christodoulos, ordained a deaconess in a convent of
the Metropolis of Demetrias.
5. We must distinguish between the “diaconal” sacramental priesthood and
the “hierurgic” sacramental priesthood. All senior clerics have a sacramental priesthood, but some have
special gifts and functions. The deacon cannot do what a priest does. The
deaconess, like the deacon, has no have operational tasks, but this is the
division which the Church makes according to the different gifts. But the
priesthood is one and always presupposes the descent of the Holy Spirit and
such priesthood undoubtedly the deaconesses have.
6. Some say that today there are not many devout female persons to be
ordained deaconesses, while there are plenty fine women who in different
parishes perform many diaconal services, especially in the field of solidarity
and charity. But we must not forget that in the history of the Church there were
always devoted women. Remember the immense work of John Chrysostom, who had
next to him not only the Saint Olympias, but many deaconesses whose names are
known: Sylvina Pentadia, Procla, Amproukle, Saviniane, Elissanthia, Palladia, Martyria,
and many others.
What we must struggle is the awakening of the Church, in order that in a
time of crisis, like the present one, the diaconal service is not limited to
soup kitchens and various other ministerial departments, but remember that one
of the main tasks is to care for Christ in the person of suffering brothers.
A great Roman Catholic theologian, Karl Rahner remarked that “in the
future the Church will either become diaconal or will cease to exist”. Of
course, this was a rhetorical exaggeration, because the Church has not only diaconal
services, but liturgical, missionary, preaching, tacking etc. too. What Rahner
wanted to emphasize was that the Church must be awakened and undertake bold diaconal
services in society. Perhaps the Pope Francis today moves in this direction on
the part of Catholic Church. And the Patriarchate of Alexandria’s initiative to
revive liturgically the order of deaconesses is extremely significant.