noun. A laywoman serving as assistant to a Protestant minister.

noun. Used as a title prefixed to the surname of such a woman.

noun. One of an ecclesiastical order of women in the early church, who discharged for members of their own sex those parts of the diaconal office which could not conveniently or fitly be performed by men.

noun. A member of an order of women more or less fully established in recent times in several Protestant churches, with duties similar to the preceding; also, a member of the Institution of Deaconesses first established by Pastor Fliedner, of the United Evangelical Church of Prussia, at Kaiserswerth in 1836.

noun. One of an order of women whose duties resembled those of deacons.

noun. A woman set apart for church work by a bishop.

noun. A woman chosen as a helper in church work, as among the Congregationalists.

noun. A female deacon.

noun. A female servant in the early Christian church.

noun. a woman deacon

"A deaconess is a member of a deaconess institution, actively engaged in charitable deeds, but, like the deaconess on the Continent, she can sever her connection with it when adequate cause presents itself, and return to her family and friends."

deacon  protestant deacon  

Angstrom  airn  carolling  chieftainship  decad