Introductory Parameters for the Ministry of Ordained Deaconesses in the Orthodox Church
Saint Catherine’s Vision (SCV) is pleased to announce the collaboratively written Proposal for Introductory Parameters for the Ministry of Ordained Deaconesses in the Orthodox Church in the USA. An initiative begun in 2006, by His Eminence, Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, this process was energized in recent years by the example set by the Holy Patriarchate of Alexandria, taking deliberate steps toward establishing the ministry of deaconesses for the Orthodox Church in Africa. Metropolitan Methodios invited a select group of Orthodox hierarchs and theologians from the USA and around the world, as well as Saint Catherine’s Vision, to collaborate with him on this initiative.
This Proposal seeks to offer “first phase” considerations toward a more complete restoration of the ordained diaconate (both male and female) within the life of the Church. The Proposal is respectfully submitted so that Orthodox Christian faithful, but especially our beloved bishops, may more readily obtain reliable, essential information to help them in their efforts to discern (cf. Matthew 16:3) some of the initial theological, spiritual, pastoral and practical parameters that may be associated with the ordination of deaconesses.
