[maryz]

I may be remembering wrong, but I thought you had said before that the role of deaconesses in the Eastern Orthodox churches was not the same as the role of deacons.

[Kolokotronis]

What they do not have is a liturgical role, though I suspect that is just the way the tradition developed after the fall of Constantinople. Now deaconesses work in monasteries, hospitals and some rural areas where there are no priests. Earlier, say when +John Chrysostomos was Patriarch, there were hundreds of female deacons in The City alone and they did have a liturgical role, or so some of the records seem to indicate.