[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?

[Kolokotronis]

I seem to remember that to the extent we know, these women were “ordained” but in a different way than men, but I could be wrong. I was reminded by a priest friend that there are a few deaconesses in women’s monasteries in Greece but they don’t fulfill any sacramental role. He isn’t really sure what they do. He suspects that the Russian ones are the same. Maybe a member of the ROC here knows, if there are any. Most Orthodox have left this site over the years.