Are Women Allowed to Be Deaconesses, Ushers or Bishops in the Church?
1) Direct answer
No. Women are not to serve as bishops or deacons, and “deaconess” as an office over the church is not Scriptural. Ushers are not a Bible office, but the work of keeping order and directing the assembly belongs under the deacons’ oversight and should be handled by qualified men. Sisters may serve in helps that do not place them in authority over men.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man; but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:11–12). Church offices carry authority over men; therefore they are not given to women.
- For a bishop/elder: “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife… one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection” (1 Timothy 3:1–5; Titus 1:5–9). That language fixes the office to a man.
- For deacons: “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1 Timothy 3:8–13). Again, male headship is required.
- The church chose “seven men of honest report” to serve the tables and keep the order of the work (Acts 6:3). That’s the pattern for deacon-type service.
- In the assembly, “Let your women keep silence in the churches” (1 Corinthians 14:34–35). That forbids public authoritative leadership over men in worship.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice: a bishop must be the husband of one wife and must rule his house. How could that be a woman? It cannot.
- A deacon must rule his house and be a husband of one wife. That sets the office to a man.
- Ushers function under the deacons to keep order and direct the congregation. Since Scripture assigns that kind of oversight to men, ushering in the sanctuary ought to be carried by men as part of that deacon-led service.
- This does not make women secondary in value, but it keeps God’s order. Sisters are called to powerful ministry in their God-given sphere: prayer, testimony, music, hospitality, visiting the sick, helping the needy, teaching children, and older women teaching younger women (Titus 2:3–5)—all without exercising authority over men.
4) Reinforcing statement
It’s not culture; it’s Bible order. One God set one pattern: male headship in church offices, with women richly active in every good work that does not place them over men.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
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61-1217 §55
Now, "Peter being the bishop of the church," and I can show you scripture, plumb on down to at least nearly seventy years, that Peter never was out of Palestine. Right in the Scripture! And you say that Peter was murdered in Rome, and Paul had his head cut off in Rome. That's dogma. I have read all of the martyrologies I can find, and there's not one of them that states anything about Peter or Paul either one being killed in Rome. Of the earliest authentic martyrologies that we can read, there's none of them that s...
India trip report
57-0126B §36
When we landed in India, under difficults, the bishop of the Methodist church come to meet me, and many others. And they told me that my setup was wrong, coming in, that the wrong group had sponsored me and so forth, and wanted me to turn my sponsorship from them over to this other group. And I said, "Brethren, as a man of honor, I must keep my word." That's right. I've been falsely advertised many times in different places, but brethren, the reason that's happened is because I don't have any paper of my own. I don...
Will the Church go before the tribulation?
58-0309E §34
When I went to India and got off of the airship at Bombay, there was a bishop of the Methodist church. And all of them standing there said, "Don't you tell us you're a missionary, Mr. Branham. We know more about the Bible than you Yankees will ever know." And that's true. He said, "We had the Bible two thousand years before you was a nation." That's right: Saint Thomas Church is still there, where Saint Thomas went down and preached. But he said, "We understand that God has visited you, to make this Bible live agai...
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58-0510 §43
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Abraham and his Seed after him
61-0416 §68
Now, you lukewarm church member, I'm going to pour it on you good. What do you think when God put his child here, the church, what kind of tutor did God get for him? A bishop? Huh? A pope? Who did He send to raise his child? The Holy Ghost! Bishop will pull punches and want a straw in his hat to be archbishop, and all kind of state seers, and all these other kind of things; but the Holy Ghost will bring the true message before the Father. Yes, sir. So how do you think the Holy Ghost must feel when He comes up befor...