text: "...but the practice continued in different areas."
  
  BlueHeron: In the free world, as it were, one never hears of the practice. One never, for example, hears of US Orthodox  women deacons in Orthodox parishes. Nor in Western Europe, Eastern or Russia. You note that there are some nuns ordained deacons in monasteries; that in the Armenian Church (Oriental) images of "a husband and wife deacon team" surface. Big deal! But at the recent Pan Orthodox council on the island of Crete, the women's diaconate was not listed at all as a priority, as something to be promoted. Something is awry in the whole thing. Hopefully, the commission called by Francis will review Fitzgerald's work, among others, and clarify what global Orthodoxy does not seem to be able to. I know Orthodoxy likes to distance itself from the "Churches of the Reformation," churches of the second millennium, but in this issue (women's diaconate) both groups might find common ground.