[Kolokotronis]

Why? The only Church without a married lower clergy is the Latin Church. All the rest of the Churches ordain men who are married prior to ordination.

As for female deacons, to the best of my knowledge, there are no Churches with female deacons, though they certainly existed in the past. Their deaconate was composed of widows and unmarried virgins, mostly elderly widows. Their function was to deal with adult women converts usually at baptism. The order fell into disuse centuries ago, before the Great Schism if I remember correctly. I don’t know if there were ever female deacons in the West.

[ronnietherocket3]

As for female deacons, to the best of my knowledge, there are no Churches with female deacons, though they certainly existed in the past. Their deaconate was composed of widows and unmarried virgins, mostly elderly widows. Their function was to deal with adult women converts usually at baptism. The order fell into disuse centuries ago, before the Great Schism if I remember correctly. I don’t know if there were ever female deacons in the West.

I have heard that the Russian Orthodox and Armenian Churches do (or have had some since 800), but I am uncertain. Is there evidence that this female diaconate was an ordained position or if it was not an ordained position that was referred to as deaconess but was understood to not be an ordained position?