Video Transcripts: Q & A with Henry Reyenga - Women Deacons

Henry - You know, this is all very interesting about women as deacons, women as prophets,  women in leadership. And I was just thinking about my own situation here at Christian  Leaders Institute. I have my daughter working with us. Another daughter is working with Dr.  Feddes. She's a paralegal and all the record stuff. And then another daughter is in the finance, Ann Merkel and some of those things. One of the things that was interesting is in Acts 21,  leaving the next day we reach Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist. One  of the sevens were like one of the minister, Deacon ministers way back. He had four  unmarried daughters who prophesied  

Carolyn - just this reference and nothing else.  

Henry - Were they Deacons? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, we don't know. But it's just it's  fascinating how family legacy.  

Carolyn - That's right. And, you know, he is later associated with the the city of Hierapolis in  Asia Minor, and this may or may not be the same Philip. But there the four women deacons,  we're sorry, deacons, they're not deacons. The four women prophets, were also  commemorated in the and they had a great church at the top of the hill. And it was there and  it commemorated both Philip and his daughters. And there were later legendary stories that  gave them names. But we don't really know,  

Henry - isn't it so interesting. You wish you could go back in reference to the references, but  they all say the same message is that your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and the  leader now one more thing I was just interested in now, in your discussion, you know, you see very specific roles for women, Deacon ministers, like baptisms, and so forth. But really, we're  talking about ministry in general. Sure. Is that just ministry to only women?  

Carolyn - No, no, no, I just highlight that that one particular role that you see in the Apostolic  Constitutions, it does seem that at that particular time in place, there was this very developed Ministry of Women to Women.  

Henry - So like, I know, one of the things you'd mentioned, we were talking about the early  hospital movement, you know, babies left to die on the Appian Way or on some place.  

Carolyn - that's something I was saying, I forgot to say when we were talking about children is that the, the most ordinary way of controlling family of family population was child  abandonment, just leaving children to die. But unless they were picked up by someone else,  and that also often happened is that someone would pick up a baby and raise it, then usually  as a slave, and the person would then qualify as a verna, somebody who was raised in the  household, even though the child was not born in the household. So so that's something that  that one of the Roman writers talking about Christian say, he says, They do this unusual  thing, they raise all their children, meaning that was not the ordinary way  

Henry - and they pick up children, and they pick up children. I do know that Sal says, once  said that Christianity is made up of, you know, slaves, of women, and some men rabble  rousers or something like that. But that is interesting that this was like in 130. AD. right  around that time. So you really do see like if if ministers, women, in Christian households, are  gathering everybody in and mobilizing, there is probably potentially demographically it's a  woman's movement, the early church.  

Carolyn - Yes, that's right. Women organized to do what needed to be done. You know, we  haven't really talked about widows either. It doesn't fit into this too much. But that's another  thing the, the way widows get organized sometimes. And but they would go around from  house to house and do work of charity. And they would also evangelize each other, evangelize

other women. So it's some sometimes in places you didn't have deaconesses. But you did  have widows who were operating like this.  

Henry - Wasn't there like a list of widows? Was it like an ordained order? I did read that  somewhere. What's your  

Carolyn - I Timothy 5, There's a discussion about widows. Let widows be enrolled, who have  these certain qualifications and enrolled in what? Right, you know, the readers already know  what he's talking about. And we don't, but it does seem as if, yes, there are groups of widows  in some churches who are dependent on the church for support, right. So it works both ways  that they they are supported by the Church and in return, they provide certain certain  services to the church. One of them is hospitality, for visiting people and another is, is it's the  same kind of ministry to women, but without any kind of an official ordination.  

Henry - So, so, you get the drift of this class, you know, from Jesus and Joanna and Mary  Magdalene, and then the Apostle Paul and Phoebe and well did we read about Philip and the  daughters, and then we read about widows, lists of widows, because we find out the mortality rate is extremely high. So, but in then you see in the early church Celsus complained about  this woman's movement that's taken over the empire. I mean, if you really think about it, you  know, if we look deeper at the early literature of Christianity, the Bible, early literature, the  Pliny the younger and two female slaves, they call ministers that is a translation of deacon.  Really, there is a large case to be made about how God is launching, both genders, male and  female, for the work of the Lord. So very interesting.