Ordained, but Deliberately Not to the Priesthood

The diaconate is defined by an exact boundary, and the precision is the point of the order rather than a limitation on it.

What a deacon may and may not do

A deacon is ordained but not to the priesthood. In Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican practice a deacon may baptise, preach, read the Gospel at the liturgy, witness marriages and conduct funerals, and may not consecrate the Eucharist or absolve in confession. For most of the second millennium in the West the diaconate was merely a step passed through on the way to priesthood; the Second Vatican Council restored it as a permanent order open to married men, and permanent deacons are now numerous.

The question of women deacons

Women served as deacons in the early church, Phoebe is called one in the letter to the Romans, and the Byzantine church ordained deaconesses with a rite resembling the male ordination closely enough that scholars argue about whether it was the same order. Whether that office can be restored, and whether it would be the same order as the male diaconate, is under formal study in the Catholic Church and unresolved, and several Orthodox churches have taken preliminary steps. Anglican and Protestant churches ordain women deacons without controversy.