Reformed Christian Studies

Olympias the Deaconess ( Wikipedia) By Rev. Prof. Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, Th.D.. Ph.D. 5.       Deaconesses in Early Church History Already in the later Pre-Christian synagogues, the office of Deaconess seems to have been developing (see the Talmud ); and Paul discusses it as well-established in the New Testament Church.   Rom. 16:2 & I Tim. 5:11 & 5:9 ff .    Pliny mentions church diaconissae or ministrae in his 112 A.D. Epistle to Trajan ; and so too do Ignatius, Hermas, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Theodore of Mopsuestia, the Apostolic Constitutions , and Chrysostom.  The Apostolic Constitutions give the following prayer “concerning a Deaconess” at the time of her church appointment: “O bishop , , you shall lay your hands upon her in the presence of the Presbytery, and of the Deacons and Deaconesses, and shall say: ‘O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, Who did repl