Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
One time a while back I came across something in the ministry that mentioned deacons and deaconesses, in a positive sense. It occurred to me that although that is in the Bible and is even brought up in a few places in the ministry, the LC's, in practice, do not have deaconesses. Then I realized neither term, deacons nor deaconesses, are ever used in the LC's. However, "elder" is used, ostensibly because it is in the Bible. So why isn't "deacon/ess" used among the LC's? The terms are in the Bible, as elder is.
There are brothers functioning as deacons.....but they get called "leading brothers" or "responsible brothers" or "helping brothers" (among other similar phrases). But never the actual word which is in the Bible, deacons! Then I realized......if you use the word "deacon", then the next logical question is "and who are the deaconesses?", since both are Biblical. One way to avoid having women in any official, labeled, position of responsibility is by calling their male counterparts by a specialized name not found in the Bible. No "deacons", then no question about "deaconesses"!
I realized when at least half of the church in any given locality is female, how can their specific needs be met when no female can be in any position of responsibility and none of their words, feelings, or sense carries any weight in any matters concerning the church being fellowshipped?
|
Nnnnnnnnn... no.
Trapped, you seem to be thinking in clergy terms... title-ish.
I have heard the term deacons used but it really just refers to serving ones, the most used term. And serving ones also includes brothers or sisters. Elders is a term that is used to refer to... well elders... but even then not as a formal title..... not like “Hi, I’m Elder Buzz! Nice to meet you.” but like “there will be an elders meeting in Harold’s VW van this Saturday “. Anyway, serving one replaces deacons and deaconess and means the same thing.
Drake