“My understanding was that none of the Orthodox Churches were ordaining women, was I incorrect?”
The Synod of the Church of Greece has approved the reinstitution of the female diaconate after its disuse for well over 1000 years but I don’t know if any women have actually been ordained to it yet.
One has to understand that this diaconate is fundamentally different from anything the West has ever seen. It is limited as to who is eligible and most especially what they can do and where. It never did and never will lead to the priesthood or even the sort of male diaconate one sees in Orthodoxy or the Latin Church. Frankly, the reinstitution of the female diaconate in the East will hinder the development of this sort of Western lesbian “priestesshood” since it demonstrates quite graphically the limited role women played in an ordained capacity in the early Church. They of course played a major role in other capacities.
The so-called deaconesses of the Patristic Church were just the wives of Deacons. It wasn’t an ordained position, in the liturgical sense, but merely one of service. Thus, the lesbian womenpriests of some “Catholic” communities, would not be satisfied, because they want to be front and center on the altar.
I am just going to assume that that there is a difference in terminology and Theology here, because in the West a Deacon is an Icon/conforms himself to “Christ the Servant” hence the being invested with the Gospels....therefore cannot be female.
I will assume that the Diaconettes are in fact closer to the lay orders of “reader” or some other such position.