The Diaconate

On 3^rd July, Juliet Stephenson, who stayed in the parish last year for a couple of weeks will be ordained deacon.  She, in common with all the others who are admitted to the diaconate, can expect only to serve in that order for a year before they are priested.  Of course, Holy Orders are indelible and so priests previously ordained deacon remain deacons as well (in the same way that deacons, priests and bishops remain members of the community of the Baptized).

The diaconate is part of the three-fold order of the ordained ministry of the Church and admission to it is equally a sacrament with that of being made priest or bishop.  However, for well over a thousand years, the order of deacon has been a sad remnant of its former glory.  The reasons for this lie mainly in the development that ranked the three orders in a hierarchy – deacon, priest, bishop; the diaconal office being understood as a step on the path to the all-desirable priesthood.  .  There have been attempts over the last few decades to re-establish a permanent diaconate (where the deacons have no thought of being ordained priest).  In the Roman Catholic Church there has been some success since deacons are permitted to marry; but in Anglican circles where celibacy is not enjoined on priesthood, the initiatives have not been greatly successful.

In part, this is because bishops and others do not really know what to do with permanent deacons; and, to be fair, in these cash-strapped times, there are hardly sufficient priests, let alone resources to redevelop the diaconate.  None-the-less, the diaconate, in theory, has a full role and dignity of its own.

Deacons are at their most visible in the Mass Rite, where they are conspicuously vested and proclaim the Gospel as well as having other tasks assigned to them.  This liturgical function, however, mirrors their role in the community generally.

The Greek word “diakonos” translates as servant and that, in many ways is what deacons do.  This does not mean dogsbody (or it shouldn’t), but rather that in their ministry, they are a focus of the Christian vocation to serve the people we meet.  In the early Church they were responsible for the administration of a Church community, for the dispensing of charity and the organisation of the routines of the day; they also, often dealt with discipline on behalf of the bishop and presbyters as well as legal issues (that became increasingly burdensome as the Church emerged into respectability and influence after the Edict of Milan).

Some will begin to recognize something of the role of the Archdeacon in all this and for good reason, since her or his office is the last flourishing remnant of the diaconate that underpinned the Church for centuries.  The Archdeacon was the chief deacon (in the same way that an Archbishop is the chief bishop).  Nowadays, archdeacons have invariably been admitted to priests’ orders, but this was not always so.

The absence of deacons in the generality of Church life has led to their responsibilities being assigned to others.  In the liturgical sphere, it was once felt that since their functions fell within the scope of holy orders, a priest (who was, of course, also a deacon) should pick up their responsibilities.  However, increasingly, it is recognized that there is no real reason for this to be the case.  Churches like ours increasingly find laypeople doing what once a deacon would have done.

At the High Mass, once there would have been with the priest a deacon and subdeacon.  Subdeacons were also in Holy Orders – but minor orders.  The Anglican Church only sporadically has retained the institutions of minor orders, more often happily assigning their roles (lector, doorkeeper, acolyte &c) to laypeople: so it is with subdeacons.  In the absence of a deacon, we here have two subdeacons who fulfil most of the diaconal role, leaving only the proclamation of the Gospel and the singing of the dismissal to the priest (though there are precedents for laypeople proclaiming the Gospel and if the subdeacons wished, they could sing the dismissal!).

In many ways, we might then wonder, then why we bother with the diaconate at all anymore.  One answer to this question might be that the diaconate is potentially a very valuable sign of the Christian vocation, providing a focus that inspires all Christians in their pursuit of their journey of Faith.  Just as models of leadership and presidency are, or should be, revealed through the offices of bishop and priest, which are then available to all Christians and others to emulate in their own leadership roles, so the diaconate could supply a template of service, which guides us in that fundamental aspect of Christian discipleship.  Or again, just as bishops and priests stand in the place of Christ’s leadership, so the deacon stands in the place of his servanthood.

However, for this to have a real chance of success, we shall need to think deeply about the character of the diaconal office.  There is an argument that we need to de-clericalize the clergy generally.  It is not always quite clear what this might mean; but there is a vague notion that we should sweep away some or many of the trappings generally associated with the clerical life.

For priests and bishops there are all sorts of comments that could be made on this subject, but it could be a much simpler matter for deacons.  If we could remove them from the sphere of priesthood and recover the diaconate as what some have termed a full and equal order with its own culture, we might also be able to re-establish the diaconate within the mainstream of church life.  In such a system, deacons would have no more (or less) expectation of becoming priests than laypeople: and, perhaps, people would not be made deacon on their way to priesthood.

Furthermore, a comprehensive review of what priests currently do might reveal a large amount that could (more) appropriately be done by deacons, thus providing the route by which we could slowly balance the Church’s ordained ministry between deacons and priests.  On the grounds that there are some similarities between the two offices, some people think that all of our Readers (the late Ron Bell type, not those who read at Mass) should be made deacon– others, of course, do not.

Some attempts have been made over the last thirty years to stimulate reflexion on the diaconate, but there never seems to be much enthusiasm about.  For the moment, we shall clearly continue with the present system, which views the diaconate as a probationary year prior to priestly ordination.  It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.

Please pray for those being ordained this Petertide; among them:

Deacons:

Juliet Stephenson (who stayed in the parish last year)

Lesley Chapman

Michael Douglass

Tim Ferguson

Linda Gardham

Pauline Pearson 

Avril Taylor (who worships with us from time to time)

Priests:

Ruth Birnie

Christine Brown

Audrey McCartan

Ian Flintoft (who has worshipped here once or twice in his diaconal year)

Guy Tindale

Margaret Ledger 

Home page: http://stmatthewsnewcastle.org.uk/