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Handout #45 |
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Deaconesses in Syria in the third century |
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| Establish for yourself, bishop, administrators of justice as helpers who can join with you in the work of salvation. Choose those who please you from among all the people and appoint them deacons, a man for the execution of the many things that are necessary, and a woman to serve among women. For there are houses where you cannot send a deacon to women because of the pagans, but you can send a deaconess. And also because the office of a woman deacon is necessary in many other things. In the first place, when the women go down into the water they must be anointed with the oil of anointing by a deaconess .. But a man should pronounce the names of the invocation of the deity over them in the water. And when the woman who is baptized comes out of the water, let the deaconesses welcome her, and let her take her and teach her how the seal of baptism must be kept intact in purity and sanctity. Didacalia Apostolorum | ||||
