Office of Deaconess

     Many theologians have debated if there is such an office of deaconess and if it is does it carry the same responsibilities as the office of deacon for a man. Pheobe is usually brought into this debate as many scholars deny she was a deaconess or in the position of pastor. There has come to the forefront documentation as to the office of deaconess being acknowledged by one of the apostles, Bartholomew.

    "Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve - designating them apostles - that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter) James the son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder) Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." Mark 3:13-19. 

    From my book - "When Will Eve Be Forgiven?" 

    Bartholomew, one of the twelve disciples, wrote protocol concerning ordination of a deaconess within the church. CONCERNING THE DEACONESS – THE CONSTITUTION OF BARTHOLOMEW. XIX. Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew, make this constitution: O bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the presence of the presbytery, and of the deacons and deaconesses, and shalt say, THE FORM OF PRAYER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A DEACONESS. XX. O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and Huldah; who didst not disdain that Thy only begotten Son should be born of woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of Thy holy gates, -- do Thou now also look down upon this Thy servant, who is to be ordained to the office of a deaconess, and grant her Thy Holy Spirit, and “cleanse her from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, that she may worthily discharge the work which is committed to her to Thy glory, and the praise of Thy Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to Thee and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume VII, Constitution of the Holy Apostles. Book VIII, Section III. 

    In the above writing one of the original 12 apostles wrote how a deaconess is to be ordained. High honor is given to the position of a woman as a creation of Christ. She is viewed as a fellow worker in the kingdom of God. I was very pleased to have run across such an account, not so much for the knowledge of a position in the church for women. But because there was a time in which they were seen as capable of being a servant along with men in the church.