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including reference to article deaconess
Bishops are usually drawn from the ranks of the [[monk]]s and are required to be celibate. A non-monastic priest may be [[ordination|ordained]] to the [[episcopate]] if he no longer lives with his wife (following Canon XII of the [[Quinisext Council]]). In contemporary usage such a non-[[monasticism|monastic]] priest is usually [[tonsure]]d to the monastic state at some point prior to his [[consecration of a bishop|consecration]] to the episcopacy. Priests and deacons may be married, provided that they are married before their ordination to the diaconate. If they are later divorced and then desire to remarry, they are not permitted to remarry unless they first leave the clergy and return to lay status. All Orthodox clergy must be male.
There are records of deaconesses in the [[New Testament]] and in the early churchuntil the fall of Constantinople. The consensus today is that Many church historians consider this office was never equivalent to that of deacon, but had separate responsibilities. More recent research suggests female deacons exercised a similar role to male deacons in at least some places. The ancient office of [[deaconess was subsumed by ]] is still present in various jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church and is often the immediate precursor to the office of abbess.
Those in the minor orders are subdeacons and readers who are tonsured and attendants (acolytes). These offices are not restricted from marriage.
The typical progression of ordination is: reader, subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop. Each ordination must take place in that order, although it is possible to ordain a layman to all five offices in the course of three days.
The organization of the Orthodox Church is both hierarchical and conciliar (or synodal). It is hierarchical in that priests, deacons, and laymen are expected to follow their bishop and to do nothing without their bishop, in that Jesus Christ is the head of every bishop. It is conciliar or synodal in that there is no single superior position whom all the bishops follow, but rather the bishops meet together in [[synod]]s or [[synod|council]]s and reach binding agreements through consensus. A bishop, even the patriarch, is bound to obey the decisions of his synod. A council with representatives from all the churches is an [[ecumenical council]].