Catholic tradition has developed a leadership structure consisting of three orders, deacon, priest, and bishop, each serving the baptized and enabling their ministry in the world. These three are founded on scriptural roots, though they have evolved far beyond their simple origins in the New Testament. I believe that the church’s devaluing of the diaconate has resulted in a confusion of the function of all the orders and weakness in some of the church’s most vital fi elds of ministry and mission. The adoption of the transitional diaconate, by which aspirants to priesthood are fi rst ordained deacons and serve, typically, twelve to eighteen months being called deacons but in fact, in a novitiate for the priesthood, has further confused the three orders. Candidates for the priesthood are asked by the church to pledge that they believe they are “truly called by God and his Church to the life and work of a deacon” when they have just gone through extensive discernment to establish that they are not called to the life and work of a deacon, but to the life and work of a priest. I would go so far as to say these liturgical words and action make a mockery of diaconate and insure that neither bishop, priest, deacon nor lay person can be clear about what a deacon is or does. Transitional deacons need to have their attention on different things than vocational deacons. Those who are novices training for priesthood should be learning how to preach and preside, how to run meetings prayerfully, and how to give pastoral care not just to needy individuals (which both deacons and lay persons also do) but to the congregation as a whole organism.
The service of Ordination of a Deacon (BCP 537ff.) declares that a deacon is to study the scriptures as a model for life, to make Christ known by word and example (these two covered by baptismal vows as well), to “interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world,” and to assist bishops and priests in worship, teaching and other unspecifi ed duties. The charge mentions service directly under the bishop’s authority and the deacon’s special mandate to serve all, but fi rst the poor, the weak. the sick and the lonely. The bishop’s prayer of consecration of the deacon evokes the kenotic ministry of Jesus Christ as the heart of the servant role. A Bible is given to the newly ordained deacon as a token of authority to proclaim the Word and assist in the sacraments. Oddly, many bishops give a New Testament only to deacons and a whole Bible to priests, which leads me to wonder what difference in authority or knowledge is being assumed and communicated by the gesture. The ordination candidate for priesthood, by comparison, hears words about the importance and weight of responsibility of thr role, as though deacons had less weight and importance. The one being made presbyter is to become “pastor, priest, and teacher” and to take a share in the councils of the church. Like a deacon, the priest is to proclaim and model the Gospel life and love and serve the people.
The priest is to “care alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor” with a kind of impartiality different from the deacon’s special focus on those in need. Priests are to preach, to pronounce God’s forgiveness to the pentitent, to share in baptizing and eucharistic celebration, and to carry out other unspecifi ed tasks.
A bishop is to be a chief pastor, trusted to join in the historic apostolic witness. She is to “guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” worldwide, to ordain all three orders, to lead and to serve, following the model of Jesus Christ. Bishops are to celebrate the sacraments and declare absolution, like priests. Bishops are to “stir up the conscience” of the people and support the baptized in their ministries as well as the ordained, and they are to participate in government and take council with presbyters, as well as defending those who have no advocate. It is the power of God’s princely Spirit that is invoked for these tasks, and, specifi cally, the shepherdly and high priestly work of Christ is associated with episcopal ordination, but not with priestly ordination, in these liturgies.
Looking fi rst at the diaconal ordination, there is not a lot that emerges as distinctive. Interpreting the needs of the world to the church is the clearest specifi c. When deacons emphasize their role as priest- assistants, there is danger that they may end up focused on the housekeeping and pastoral maintenance tasks of the parish rather than the interpreting work on behalf of the world. There is no description of a way in which deacons learn or teach scripture differently than other orders, and dioceses differ as to whether they expect a three-year seminary degree or its equivalent, and the standard General Ordination Examination, of their diaconal candidates, or whether they will provide some alternate schooling in order to reach the profi ciency called for in the canons. Until the church is clearer about what deacons are for, it is hard to choose how to prepare them well.
If we were to fl esh out diaconal calling further, what might it best look like? Servant ministry is at the core, as for all baptized, but given the inappropriate hierarchical valuing of the orders, deacons are often treated as the servants of the Servants: “gofers” on behalf of the clergy and rivals with church members for parish tasks like eucharistic ministry, catechesis and administration of parish-based social service programs. In recent years, the ministry of all the baptized has been restored, properly, to value and prominence. However, this ministry has often been misconstrued as the assigning of more and more parish tasks to non-ordained people, without the more important dignifying of their work in the world as their primary arena for mission and Gospel proclamation.
If we were to take the “interpreter of the world to the church” role of deacons as the starting point, the other functions might fall into proper place and proportion around this one. In order to have the wisdom to interpret, deacons should be those who are working out in the world in an arena of ministry in which they have matured over time and developed expertise. They should be clear-minded about the way in which their work is a wholehearted expression of their Gospel faith. We might also argue that their work should most properly serve populations of special need, such as the poor, sick, weak and lonely, but also others: minority cultures, prisoners, children in peril, immigrants and so on. What might set deacons apart from others skilled in similar workplaces could be their fi re and passion for not only doing the work, but also drawing others (especially those in the church) to serve alongside them and equipping those people with the skills and enthusiasm for often unpopular and poorly remunerated work.
Deacons have a calling to a very particular way of proclaiming the Gospel. For all the while they are unfolding the scriptures and tradition with the people they serve so that these are found to be good news for them, they should be bringing to the larger church and to the bishop good news from the people and their lives, which the church will not always be pleased to hear. Deacons are those who are called to be importunate on behalf of the people in greatest need. Deacons should be loud and persistent. Deacons should be always ushering into the congregations those whom the faithful had not yet thought to include, the ones who don’t appear to fi t, the ones hungering for God who have none of the “social graces” of the church’s particular culture: God in God’s most distressing disguises (Mother Teresa), the untouchable, invisible and unloved.
Deacons should be saying to many of their congregations, “why are all the faces here of one color?” And to the committees and councils, “why are the decision-makers almost all white?” And “where are the children and youth?” And “how can this local church, or Commission on Ministry, or Standing Committee of all one color envision and plan for a multicultural future?” Deacons should be saying, “Is there child care at this conference? Can wheelchairs get in? Where’s the scholarship money? But half of the people in my neighborhood are Muslims!” Deacons should be saying, “people with AIDS may need a place to lie down, or elders a place to sit. Where’s the Spanish translation?” And “are we taking care of ourselves here or those in greater need?”
Here is the diffi cult task of servant ministry–to be hospitable, that is, to make space for these overlooked children of God to have welcome and voice and make claim upon the community and to pray out of their own lives, without taking away from others the very voice for which deacons are called to advocate. So when those they serve need to be heard, deacons will shout for quiet. They will help the children fi nd words. They will help the outcast believe that the church belongs to them. When those they serve are left outside the doors of the church they will stand up and ask why (especially in the bishop’s offi ce), and ask again and again, and be thought rude and unmannerly, until the doors are opened.
Deacons bring bishops the information about populations in need and the urgent summons to assist them, that enable the bishops to take up their own calling to be apostles and evangelists– to go from parish to parish calling the church to put its resources to work where they are needed and to describe how and where this is being done most effectively so that others may learn. Such information should help bishops know where to plant missions and parishes, and possibly where to close them down.
As catechists, deacons (working with lay leaders) have the extra theological education that goes with their expertise in a particular fi eld of ministry so they can teach credibly about the interface between the language, tradition, worship and scripture of the church and work in the world and family life. Their excitement about putting these together should help inspire those whose formation they assist–they are especially gifted to show how the mature baptized lives of those in the great variety of lay ministries fulfi lls biblical teaching, is brought to Christ’s table and renewed there, and fi nds voice in the many parts of worship.
Deacons should help priests be clear that priests are needed not to do all the training and administration of helping programs, but to muster the resources and assist the discernment of congregations to undertake the work that deacons raise to their attention and help implement.
One of the diffi cult interfaces between deacons and priests is around attachment to a parish. It makes sense for a deacon to have longterm geographic stability in order to know the terrain of the neighborhood and to know its systems and resources intimately. It makes sense for deacons who are laboring mightily in the world not to be expected to fl it between several congregations; they need a community of worship where they can feel rooted and nurtured and not always have to stand up in front and lead. Currently, the church seems to expect deacons to be working to support themselves, giving additional hours for some other unpaid “diaconal work,” and then being on deck every Sunday to read the Gospel, wait on table, and possibly also to do itinerant preaching. This is not healthy for anyone, least of all deacons’ families.
I believe that part of the charism of priesthood is to itinerancy. Priests are ordained to serve the whole church, and normally they move through a sequence of congregations or jobs in different places. As they go, they carry a vision of the wider church that refreshes and challenges each local congregation. When they take seriously their itinerancy, priests develop skills in entering and leaving congregations which help their parishioners begin and end relationships and move through changes more gracefully as well. They witness to the way in which a congregation goes on over time in a place, discerning and carrying out local ministries from their own giftedness and call, while priests arrive to equip them with some specifi c new skills and visions at strategic moments in congregational life and then move on, making room for the next priestly leader.
Deacons need particular training, oversight and willingness to practice great care in their relationship with a congregation, so that their long tenure in a place does not cause friction with incoming priests, nor fi ll the leadership gap that is needed in times of transition so that the congregation may rise up with its own gifts. But if the main work and focus of deacons is seen as in the world, not in the parish, then this should not be a diffi culty.
Deacons are not charged to share in the councils of the church, for better or worse. Likely they can accomplish more good on the streets than in church meeting halls. However, it seems suitable that deacons be among those who call the church to formulate legislation to help their constituencies in need, and that they clamor for right spending at budget time, and urge just priorities upon their bishop and presbyter colleagues. Deacons may be those handing out fl yers and information sheets, or carrying placards outside convention halls. They may be those who go to the town meetings that priests and bishops can’t fi t in around their parish duties, and then come and tell what they have seen and heard so that the church may respond.
As the diaconate lives into its full distinctiveness, I am convinced that priests, bishops and lay persons will fi nd themselves freer and clearer about their own arenas of ministry. The hierarchical struggles of the orders should diminish as each celebrates its specifi city and acknowledges its common ground with the others.
Finally, ordained persons, with all the baptized, should hunger for that consummation where there is no distinction; where bishops, priests, deacons, businesswomen, retirees, babies, window-washers, students, artists, farmers, bus-drivers and all the whole people of God–a population larger than all our imagining–shall see that radiance of Love which summons us. The path toward that Love, for every order of ministry and all the baptized, is the path of service which is none other than the way of the cross, leading into resurrection.