Women Serving the Church as Deacons: Brief Response to Christian Adjemian.

The next few posts I will be breaking up my one huge post that considered if women ought to serve the church as ordained Deacons into seven smaller posts.

----------------

The pastor of First Reformed Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Christian Adjemian wrote a paper titled "On Women Deacons" last revised December 2008. Dr. Adjemian's paper appears to argue for the unique office of Deaconess, which Rev. Backensto's paper demonstrates is an unwarranted position. I have also demonstrated, that the office of Deacon has a categorically different type of authority than the office of Elder; therefore, Rev. Adjemian's comments about deacons not having authority in the church misses the point of having two church offices. The Deacon has authority in the church, but it a different type of authority than an Elder.

Many of his other comments, especially about structure, are very helpful. His sixth section answers many typical objections about the role of women in the church very well, with the exception of Deacons and church authority.