Sir, - Father David O'Hanlon (November 13th) rightly points out that the intention of the ordaining bishop is crucial. The intention of ordaining women as real deacons, however, was clearly expressed in the invocation of the Holy Spirit which was the "ordaining prayer" that accompanied the imposition of hands. The ancient ritual for ordaining women deacons contained two prayers, both spoken over the ordinand while the bishop imposed hands. The first was: "Holy and Omnipotent Lord, through the birth of your Only Son our God from a Virgin according to the flesh, you have sanctified the female sex. You grant not only to men, but also to women the grace and coming of the Holy Spirit. Please, Lord, look on this your maidservant and dedicate her to the task of your diaconate, and pour out into her the rich and abundant giving of your Holy Spirit. Preserve her so that she may always perform her ministry [leitourgia] with orthodox faith and irreproachable conduct, according to what is pleasing to you. "
The second ordaining prayer was: "Lord, Master, you do not reject women who dedicate themselves to you and who are willing, in a becoming way, to serve your Holy House, but admit them to the order of your ministers. Grant the gift of your Holy Spirit also to this your maidservant who wants to dedicate herself to you, and fulfil in her the grace of the ministry of the diaconate, as you have granted to Phoebe the grace of your diaconate, whom you had called to the work of the ministry."
These prayers of ordination are identical, apart from slight changes referring to gender, to the ordination prayers for male deacons. Full ordination texts for male and female deacons as used during the first nine centuries are printed out side by side in www.womenpriests.org, where also more scientific background commentary is provided. Father O'Hanlon clearly relies on the remarks of some ill-informed medieval scholars who believed that the ordination of women deacons was purely a blessing. The evidence from the first nine centuries proves unmistakeably that the true sacrament of ordination, involving the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the imposition of hands as defined by the Council of Trent, was given to women. Father O'Hanlon also does not have the facts right about church councils. The first Council of Nicaea (325 AD) did not disregard women deacons. It merely stated that women deacons who came over from the sect of the Paulinists were not recognised in the Catholic Church as deacons, as is clear from the context. It applied the same restriction also to Paulinists in other ecclesiastical offices. The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) declared: "A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under 40 years of age, and then only after a searching examination." The age limit for male deacons was 25. The ecumenical Council of Constantinople (692 AD) reaffirmed the age limits: "Let the canon of our holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter be not ordained before he is 30 years of age, even if he be a very worthy man, but let him be kept back. For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptised and began to teach when he was 30. In like manner let no deacon be ordained before he is 25, nor a deaconess before she is 40." If women deacons did not receive Holy Orders during the first nine centuries of the Church, then neither did male deacons, priests or bishops. Do we serve the Church better by denying the facts? - Yours, etc.,
John Wijngaards, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England.