Kay

Mark wrote: “However it could also mean as you suggest, namely that women are included in the office of deacons. In Romans we have the same delimma. It could rightly mean that Pheobe is a deacon. But it could also equally mean that Paul is simply describing her as a servant.”
Mark,
Yes, we agree. She can be a deacon if one does not come to the verses about Pheobe with the presupposition that she cannot be a deacon because she is female.