Deaconess

Deaconess (and deacon) comes from a Greek word diakonos (διακονος), which means a servant or helper. It occurs frequently in the Christian New Testament of the Bible and is sometimes applied to Christ himself.

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Deaconesses trace their roots to Biblical times when women were set apart by the early church to care for the poor, for widows and orphans, and provide catechism instruction to female candidates for baptism. The Apostle Paul commends a deaconess, Phoebe, to the Romans in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Paul's reference to Phoebe, "deaconess of the Church of Cenchrae", in Romans 16:1 should be understood against the background of developing ministries in the early Christian church rather than as a reference to an established female diaconate at the time.

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Christian: :This article is about the religious people known as Christians; for the 1980s British music group, see The Christians.For other uses of the term Christian, see Christian (disambiguation)....

Bible: The Bible (sometimes The Book,Good Book, Word of God, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, "(the) books", plural of βιβλιον, biblion, "book", originally a diminutive of βιβλο...