[Tantumergo]

"Wow. I didn't know that. Lay confessors."

There is precedent in the Roman rite (way, way, way back when!) for deacons hearing confessions and reconciling apostates to the Church.

There is a certain logic to it as the deacon is "the bishop's man" and as such participates in his ministry. When the deacon was given faculties by a bishop to exercise the Sacrament of Penance he was essentially reconciling the penitants to the local Church by acting as a "vicar" of the head of the local Church - i.e. the bishop.

P.S. I have no personal desire ever to be a confessor - coping with wayward deacons is bad enough as it is!!!

[Kolokotronis]

In Orthodoxy, Deacons are also usually the "Bishop's Man", though we are looking at a type of permanent married diaconate along the lines you guys have and the Church of Greece is looking at re instituting the female diaconate of the 4th century. There's something that ought to prompt a comment of two!