0 in some Churches, a woman who performs particular duties but who is not a deacon -- （某些宗教团体的）女性工作人员
I too, have received letters from constituents, including deaconesses who are serving in very deprived parishes.
Nobody can deny the tremendous work that deaconesses have done over the centuries.
In addition, however, they are also fulfilling the role of deaconesses as full-time parish workers and church social workers.
There are about 16 deaconesses who cannot become deacons because they married a divorced partner.
We must emphasise the very real contribution that deaconesses are making in that way.
The decision is also awaited by many women who are not deaconesses but members of congregations, and women who are not members of congregations.
It enables deaconesses, who now exercise their ministry as laywomen, to be ordained as deacons, not as priests.
The status of deaconesses is generally ambiguous in that, although they function in every way as clergy, they are not clergy.
