declares that in all cases the persons elected [deacons]
must be male members. (Chap. 13. 2.) In all ages of the Church godly
women have been appointed to aid the officers of the Church in their
labors, especially for the relief of the poor and the infirm. They
rendered important service in the Apostolic Church, but they do not
appear to have occupied a separate office, to have been elected by the
people, to have been ordained or installed. There is nothing in our
constitution, in the practice of our Church, or in any present
emergency, to justify the creation of a new office." The next year an
explanation of this action, which so obviously contradicts the facts of
history, was asked, but the committee declined to say any thing more.

The Southern Presbyterian Church has proceeded further, and in the
direction of the female diaconate, as it is characterized in its main
features wherever it has existed, when it declares in its _Book of
Church Order_, adopted in 1879, that "where it shall appear needful, the
church session may select and appoint godly women for the care of the
sick, of prisoners, of poor widows and orphans, and, in general, in the
relief of the sick."[86]

In isolated Presbyterian congregations deaconesses have already obtained
recognition. At the Pan-Presbyterian Council, held in Philadelphia in
1880, Fritz Fliedner, the son of Dr. Theodor Fliedner, was present as a
member, and through the influence of his words the Corinthian Avenue
Presbyterian Church set apart five deaconesses, whose duty it should be
to care for the poor and sick belonging to the congregation.

"More recently the Third Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, Cal.,
empowered its three deacons to choose three women from the congregation
to co-operate with them in their work, granting them seats and votes in
the board's monthly meeting."[87]

The very interesting article from which the quotation has just been made
seems to think the term "deaconess" a misnomer for the Kaiserswerth
deaconess, as she belongs to a community, whereas the deaconess of the
early Church was attached to a congregation and belonged to a single
church as an officer; but it may well be questioned whether the class of
duties assigned to the deaconess of the early Church and of modern times
alike, that is, the nursing of the sick, the care of the infirm in body
and mind, the succoring of the unfortunate, and the education of
children, are not the main characteristics