Many leadership roles in the organized church have been prohibited to women, but the majority of churches now hold an egalitarian (men and women’s roles equal) view regarding women’s roles in the church. In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, only men may serve as priests, elders, or decons; only males serve in senior leadership positions such as pope, patriarch, and bishop. Women may serve as abbesses. Most mainstream Protestant denominations are beginning to relax their longstanding constraints on ordaining women to be ministers, though some large groups, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention, are tightening their constraints in reaction. Most all Charismatic and Pentecostal churches were pioneers in this matter and have embraced the ordination of women since their founding.