In the Absence of the Minister: Structures of Subordination in the Role of Deaconess in the Church of England

Abstract

The order of deaconesses, which survived in western Christianity until the beginning of the eleventh century, was revived in the Church of England in 1862. The role of deaconess has been systematically compounded of anomalies which express the otherness of women and their subordination to men. That deaconesses are subordinate to clergy and dependent on their goodwill is evident from analysis of the formal structures and informal networks within which their respective roles are located. Deaconesses depend on clergy for task allocation, for the settlement of grievances, for participation if any in decision-making, for career development and even for their sense of identity, since it is not other women but clergy who typically serve as role models. During interregna, when a parish lacks an incumbent priest, the restricted nature of the deaconess's role is manifest. Interviews with deaconesses and women lay workers in one English diocese reveal the depth of frustration many of them feel. The recent decision to ordain women not as deaconesses but as deacons will expand their role only slightly, will not resolve their anomalous status and will merely confirm their subordination to the clergy.