Tag Archives: deaconesses

Talking Deaconesses with Fr. Peter Heers

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on January 24, 2024

Six years since Fr. Peter Heers and I collaborated in drafting the 2018 Public Statement on Orthodox Deaconesses signed by over 50 other clerics and scholars, we meet again online to talk over the current push for deaconesses, in advance … Continue reading →

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Talking Gender with Dissident Mama

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on December 5, 2023

Shortly after my talk with Fr. Thomas Soroka on Ancient Faith Radio, I had the great pleasure of also talking about gender issues with Rebecca Dillingham for her blog, Dissident Mama. I mentioned our talk and linked to the podcast … Continue reading →

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Talking Points on Deaconesses

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on December 4, 2023

The argument over deaconesses in the Orthodox Church tends to center around past history and present needs, but the history of deaconesses is obscure, easily distorted, and not always relevant. After all, history is not tradition; it only becomes tradition … Continue reading →

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A Public Statement on Deaconesses

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on December 2, 2023

I suppose it’s because I’m in ROCOR that I am not terribly bothered by the push now on in the Greek Archdiocese to make women deaconesses. Many of us in ROCOR tend to assume the Greeks have become unhinged and … Continue reading →

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Speaking of deaconesses, here I am on Ancient Faith—and more

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on August 3, 2023

Just a note to let you know about my podcast interview on Ancient Faith posted earlier this week and to remind you of the other helpful posts on deaconesses and on the much bigger issue of male and female, so … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Church of Whose Granddaughters?

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on July 31, 2023

How is one to understand a scholar—a theologian no less—who writes a book accusing the Orthodox Church of not living up to its own theology in its treatment of women while ignoring everything in Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition, and the … Continue reading →

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Deacons and Deaconesses, with Pictures

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on August 22, 2022

For many Christians, the issue is this simple: The Church once had deaconesses, so it can have them again. The reality, as usual, is rather more complex. History is not tradition; history only becomes tradition when it is handed down.  … Continue reading →

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The Church once had deaconesses. So what?

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on January 18, 2018

For many people, the fact that the Orthodox Church once had deaconesses, somewhere at sometime, is enough to justify having them again. After all, they say, we Orthodox believe in tradition, and deaconesses are part of the tradition. Are they … Continue reading →

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Orthodox Deaconesses?

by Brian Patrick Mitchell Posted on October 11, 2017

Remarks by Protodeacon Brian Patrick Mitchell At the St. Phoebe Center Conference on “Renewing the Male and Female Diaconate” Irvine, California October 7, 2017 Thanks, Helen [Theodoropoulos], for the introduction, and thanks also to AnnMarie Mecera and everyone else at … Continue reading →

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