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.
Why are we not a denomination?
58-0927 §104
Let your women keep silent in the churches: ... it's not permitted to them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. Then, in the Old Testament they wasn't allowed to speak, because Paul said here they wasn't. Is that right? "Let your women keep silent, it's obedience." Now if you want to run your marginal reading there, take it back to Genesis 3:16, see. All right. "Under as under the law." And if they ... learn any thing, let their ... ask their husbands at home: for it's a sh...
Church Ages, part 5: The Pergamean Church Age
60-1207 §57
Not one time can I ever glean one thing of all the bishops of the Nicolaitane church that formed the hierarchy of Rome, the pope... Not one time in history have we a record of any of those bishops ever raising the dead, or anything like that, because Christ (the resurrection) wasn't in their hearts. They had consolidated, and went off for a denomination, sold out their birthrights. But the church of the living God had the power of Christ. The other church had the dignitaries in it, but the true church stayed with t...
Preparation
53-1111 §8
I remember when I was first ordained in the Baptist church, when the Bishop ... or, not exactly... A Baptist doesn't have a bishop, that's Bible doctrine, he's a bishop. But we Baptist call it the state overseer or general overseer or something. See? Not a bishop. They got off the line on that. But I always refer to it in the Bible way, bishop. That's what the Bible says he is, a overseer is a bishop.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-108
But this freedom from persecution and death was not as magnanimous as it first appeared. Constantine was now the patron. As a patron his interest was somewhat more than that of an observer, for he decided that the church needed his help in her affairs. He had seen them disagreeing over various matters, one of which involved Arius, Bishop of Alexander, who taught his adherents that Jesus was not truly God but a lesser being, having been created by God. The Western Church held the opposite view, believing that Jesus...
Church Ages, part 5: The Pergamean Church Age
60-1207 §68
Now, in doing this, they consolidated and made the early ... formed the early Catholic church later. Then at the first great Nicene Council... When I read that I just fell on my knees. The great Nicene Council had taken place in A.D. 325. All of them was brought together. The bishops and fathers of the Christian faith was brought together at Nicaea. That's the reason it's called the Nicaea Council, in A.D. 325. And about fifteen hundred delegates came to the convention, or the council. About fifteen hundred delegat...