Read on Twitter
Deaconesses existed in the Coptic Church until the 13th century. Only 800 years ago and incidentally the same century Christianity stopped being a majority of the Egyptian population. After a 700 year interval, HH Pope Shenouda III revived the office of Deaconess Pentecost 1981. https://twitter.com/waxesandwanes/status/1287561231075807239
Having Deaconesses, female Chanters, and female Readers is not innovation or modernism. It is Traditional in the true sense of Tradition. Our sister Church of Armenia has always had Deaconesses and female Readers, who read the Gospels. We ordained 3 girls to the choir last year
at my parish. Oddly, in our case at least, the greatest resistance to this has come from women! And we've struggled to assure the girls they are part of the Choir, even though most of the male Chanters and Readers I've talked with at my Church want them standing with us.
Here's a list of quotations on Deaconesses from the Tradition I put together. More citations to add would be greatly appreciated: https://polishmiaphysite.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/quotations-on-deaconesses/
