Part 4

The Commission’s job is to determine whether female deacons were the equivalent of male deacons in our history, whether both received the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Experts who answer No rely on the solid evidence that male and female deacons did different things, and therefore are not the same. Experts who answer Yes rely on the equally solid evidence that the ordination rituals for male and female deacons are fully equivalent.

Personally, the equivalency of the rituals (laying on of hands, invocation of the Holy Spirit, ordination inside the inconostasis) decides the question. The effort to denigrate female deacons because they historically did different things, would be like saying only priests who minister in parishes (versus priests assigned to teach) are real priests, or only bishops who run dioceses (versus bishops who run the Vatican or its diplomatic service) are real bishops. 

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