deaconess

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of deaconess Then in 1964, Parks became a deaconess in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025 Then in 1964, Parks became a deaconess in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025 Born in a homestead just north of the D.C. border in 1930 and 1933, the brothers were raised in historic St. Phillips Baptist Church, where their father was an associate minister and their mother a deaconess. Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2024 The Pauline epistles contain numerous references to women who were instrumental in the leadership of the early church: Phoebe, a deaconess; Chloe; Apphia; Euodia; Nympha; Junia. Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023 More recently, a Nov. 15, 2021 issue of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel noted that in 2017, Israeli archaeologists uncovered stones and mosaics memorializing Theodosia the deaconess and Gregoria the deaconess in the ruins of a 1,600-year-old basilica in Ashdod. Susan Degrane, chicagotribune.com, 30 Mar. 2022 In her younger years, Webb was an avid churchgoer in Baltimore, Maryland alongside her father, a deacon, and her mother, a deaconess, who met in a church choir. Robyn Mowatt, ELLE, 22 June 2023 Welcome to the Rehearsal Club, an artist residency and the one-year-old reincarnation of a nonprofit organization founded in 1913 by Jane Harriss Hall, an Episcopal deaconess, and Jean Greer, the daughter of New York’s Episcopal bishop. Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2023 The virus also claimed the life of Shirley Miller, 70, a deaconess who assisted with baptisms and communion. Ray Sanchez, CNN, 18 Apr. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deaconess
Noun
  • Born in 1775, Austen grew up in the Hampshire countryside, where her father served as a clergyman in the village of Steventon.
    Ellen Wexler, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 July 2025
  • According to his Instagram profile, Taylor is a seminary student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, a clergyman, and an Air Force veteran.
    Escher Walcott, People.com, 8 July 2025
Noun
  • One of the exciting new discoveries includes new information regarding Babylonian women–many were priestesses.
    Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 2 July 2025
  • The title mixed action-game elements with tower defense and real-time strategy to create a memorable experience as the swordsman Soh escorts the priestess Yoshiro through a mountain tainted with evil spirits.
    Gieson Cacho, Mercury News, 28 May 2025
Noun
  • In addition to his leadership and donations to Vanderbilt, Wills' other philanthropic ventures included serving as president of the YMCA of Metropolitan Nashville, president of the Tennessee Historical Society and a deacon and elder at The Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville.
    Hadley Hitson, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025
  • The church may very well have served as a hiding place in the Underground Railroad, given that March Haynes, a deacon of the church, was a known member of the network.
    Brienne Walsh, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025
Noun
  • Verny, who is currently the bishop of Chambery, France, has been a member of the commission since 2022 and heads the child protection council of the bishops conference in France, where the church has been rocked by revelations of decades and abuse by priests and bishops.
    Nicole Winfield, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2025
  • Leo’s old diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, meanwhile, is waiting for their bishop to come home, and then there’s Argentina, which never got a papal visit from the first-ever Argentine pope.
    Nicole Winfield, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2025
Noun
  • This would be the case also for an apostate, heretic, schismatic bishop, presbyter, or deacon.
    Fr. Goran Jovicic, National Review, 13 June 2021
  • The Rev. Allen D. Timm, executive presbyter of the Presbytery Church in Detroit, said the church is waiting to hear from the general assembly as to when volunteers will be dispatched to Houston.
    Allie Gross, Detroit Free Press, 29 Aug. 2017
Noun
  • The group’s chair, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a kidney specialist who was a former dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, said in an interview that his organization had worked with the Trump administration and that threats of funding cuts were key to the effort.
    Azeen Ghorayshi, Chicago Tribune, 11 July 2025
  • The shows are also considered a powerful symbol of Puerto Rican self-reliance and the belief that the US territory can stand tall on its own, says Javier J. Hernández Acosta, dean of the School of Arts, Design and Creative Industries at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan.
    Michael Rios, CNN Money, 11 July 2025
Noun
  • In an area that used to produce influential Catholic churchmen the way the Dodgers churned out Rookies of the Year, Gomez has amounted to the living equivalent of a hair shirt: a mode of piety that serves no one but the wearer.
    Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025
  • Martini was a key figure in a group of churchmen who met annually in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to ponder how best to blunt John Paul and Ratzinger’s reactionary thrust.
    Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • And, over time, fewer new European priests arrived in Kongo, making translation less necessary.
    Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 12 July 2025
  • One particular enemy of Gauguin’s was Bishop Martin, a Catholic priest on Hiva Oa who did his best to stomp out local custom, forbidding tattooing, Polynesian dancing, and the customary practice of polyandry.
    Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 11 July 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Deaconess.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deaconess. Accessed 20 Jul. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!