Deacons, Presbyters and Bishops in the Current North American Church: Some Reflections on John Chryssavgis’ Remembering and Reclaiming Diakonia

This session will explore the diaconate in light of its history, cultural questions of gender, and contemporary ambiguities regarding its status.  Dr. Kyriaki Fitzgerald will present an extension of her argument for the ordination of women to the diaconate in light if its historical practice.  Maria McDowell will argue that women should share with men all the privileges, responsibilities and functions of priestly ordination in light of an iconodule theology which images the saints as unique, free and irreducible virtuous persons.  Fr. Gregg Roeber will assess Fr. John Chryssavgis’ book Recovering Diakonia and his argument on the continuing ambiguities that surround deacons in light of Dr. Alexei Krindatch’s recent survey of U.S. Orthodox jurisdictions, recent findings in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and compares them to the current state of the Roman Catholic diaconate.