Alexandria speaks on deaconess kerfuffle

This letter fails to address much of what many people are asking. To name but a few:

• How could this happen?
• By what authority to you make an entirely new order of clergy?
• What are you going to do next?
• Is this woman going to perform as her bishop "ordained" her to do?

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(Patriarchate of Alexandria) - In the last few days, there was talk about the energy of the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Zimbabwe and Angola, Mr. Seraphim, who, last Thursday, May 2, 2024 , ordained a minister for the missionary needs of his Holy Metropolis. The event caused a lot of reactions, and gave rise to the free expression of various opinions and approaches.

To avoid confusion, the following is clarified:

– The mission in Africa needs deaconesses, mainly for the pastoral work and for the baptisms of adult women, as well as in special cases, such as widowhood, in stricter male-dominated environments, where for a long time the widowed woman is cut off from social and church life.

- The Church is well aware of the position, the order and the conditions-conditions of the status of a ministry, as they are described in the Prayers, the Rules of the Apostolic Orders and the Synod in Trullo. It is particularly pointed out that deaconesses were never established in the history of the Church as women-ministers of the Holy Mysteries, but as dedicated women-helpers of the general pastoral, liturgical and sanctifying work of the Church, addressed only to women, where local conditions and customs they were excluded from church life. The first Church was faced with this pastoral problem and found the solution, through deacons. When, of course, societies progressed spiritually, matured, recognized women's rights, the institution of deaconesses fell into disuse. But it is documented that the institution existed and certainly remains in the "spiritual arsenal" of the Church to deal with similar situations even today, under special local conditions.

-In the face of the continuous spread of the Gospel word in Africa and the continuous influx of local brothers to Orthodoxy, pastoral issues were raised, concerning African women, exactly similar to those faced by the Church of the early Christian years. The Holy Synod of the Presbyterian Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa took the decision in principle to revive and activate the institution of Deaconesses within its pastoral jurisdiction. However, this Decision was referred for further study to finalize the individual details, such as the vestment, the way of ministry and the functional position of the deacons in the life of the Church today.

However, Rev. Metropolitan of Zimbabwe Mr. Seraphim, for many years a missionary in Africa, joined the implementation of the initial decision of the Holy Synod, which, however, has not become active until today, since the study on the subject to take the final Synodal Decision has not been completed. Does this mean he jumped the gun? Does it mean this was the eventual goal of the study? Is some correction coming? What of this woman?

Let us have confidence in our Church and especially in the Ambassadorial Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa, which sacrificially, quietly and selflessly proclaims Christ and this Crucified One to the ends of the African land, based on the tradition and practice of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. May the same sensitivity be shown, which now appears in the case of the intention to properly revive an ancient pastoral act of our Holy Church and in the matters of staffing the holy clergy of the Patriarchal Throne of Saint Mark, of the systematic and practical support of the Apostolic work in Africa or to the major issue of the illegal entry of another Autocephalous Church into the jurisdictional limits of the Palaeate Patriarchate of Alexandria and to the blasphemous attempt to split His native flock, which came to know Christ through the intense sacrificial ministry and the death of even humble Greek missionaries, to the glory of God and illumination of our African brothers who are "in darkness and the shadow of death".

From the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa

Alexandria, May 11, 2024