[lightman]

The diaconate might be another matter. There plainly was an ancient order of deaconesses, but whether they ever functioned liturgically as deacons is a matter of great dispute, and the affirmative position that they did must be tempered with the fact that ancient canons forbid women entering the altar unless the be virgins over the age of 40 or widows living in chastity over the age of 60. There is also general opposition to any attempt to revive the order of deaconess.

AOCA Metropolitan PHILIP (Memory Eternal!) spoke favorably of women in the diaconate...it is in his authorized biography.

[The_Reader_David]

Yes. But Met. +PHILIP (memory eternal!) was a modernizer — clergy suits instead of cassocks (blessedly I’m in the Diocese of Wichita, where, except when Met. +PHILIP was actually physically present, clergy still wore and wear cassocks), cutting the ektenia before the Our Father out of the Liturgy, and the like. I stand by my assertion that there is general opposition to any attempt to revive the order of deaconess.