21

WOMEN DEACONS WITH

AUTHORITY?

Some evangelical feminists claim that women deacons

had governing authority in early church history

Linda Belleville helpfully points out a number of writings from the early

church fathers and other documents that give evidence of women serv-
ing as deacons in at least some parts of the early church.^1 However, then
she goes on to say, “Canon #15 of the Council of Chalcedon (fifth cen-
tury) details the ordination process for women deacons and places them
in the ranks of the clergy.”^2
But is it correct that some early church documents place women
deacons “in the ranks of the clergy”? When we look at the actual doc-
uments, they turn out to contradict what Belleville says.
It is true that there was a “laying on of hands” to establish a woman
in the role or office of deaconess, but there is no indication that this is
parallel to what we today refer to as ordination for pastors or elders, and
it is not true that this canon places a woman “in the ranks of the clergy.”
Here is what it says:

A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess

under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination.

And if, after she has had hands laid on her and has continued for a

(^1) Linda Belleville, “Women in Ministry,” in Two Views on Women in Ministry, ed. James Beck
and Craig Blomberg (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001), 89-90.
(^2) Ibid., 90, italics added.