Episcopal Church change allows Denise Giardina to be a deacon again
By Bob Schwarz
Staff writer
December 08, 2007

Half a lifetime ago, Denise Giardina graduated from seminary and became a deacon in the Episcopal church.

“I felt a real strong call toward some sort of religious life,” Giardina recalled.

By the time she graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1979, however, she sensed she The Episcopal Church didn’t have a place for deacons who wanted to stay deacons. A deacon was a transitional title seminary graduates had for a year before they were ordained as priests. the rest