New Deacons in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

New deacons have been ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, on June 5 & 6. Because of current public health circumstances due to COVID19, the ordinations have taken place in a new way this year. The Liturgy of the Word portion of the ordination service, including presentation of the ordinands and sermon by Bishop Alan M. Gates, was conducted as an online gathering via Zoom on Friday, June 5 at 7 p.m. The examination and laying on of hands for the ordinands took place at separate events at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Saturday, June 6.  Only the primary participants were able to be present in person, to accommodate physical distancing protocols.  Family members, friends, sponsors and the wider diocesan community watched via live webcast.

Of the nine ordained, four were ordained to the diaconate: Marilee Comerford (Trinity Church, Marshfield); Valerie Cowart (All Saints’ Church, Chelmsford); James Thomas (St. John’s Church, Sandwich); and Natalie Thomas (St. Christopher’s Church, Chatham). (The other five were ordained to the transitional Diaconate, a step towards priesthood, in separate online services).

Those ordained to the diaconate chose to be ordained together, serving as each other's supporters, a wonderful affirmation of their sense of community and belonging in the diaconate.

Blessings to Marilee, Valerie, James and Natalie on their ordination.

newly ordained Deacon Natalie Thomas

Natalie's morning prayer on the day of her ordination (published on her Facebook page)
God, make me worthy of the ministry you have entrusted to me.
I want to stand in the gap – a reminder of injustice, suffering, and pain in the church and a sign of love, endurance, and promise in the world.
I want to love the gap.
I want to remember that church and world are more wrapped up than we ever know.
I want to love the things that are uncomfortable,
help me make my home in the questions that aren’t easily answered.
Help me to push myself and the people who seek to follow you to be discontent
with what feels good enough and to push on towards your way of wholeness.
Help me to remain, to remain steady for those who cannot feel you in the moment.
Help me to remember that you show up to all of us in our own ways
and in our own time and all I am called to do, is love.
Help me to forgive, over and over and over again,
to remember that I get to choose what I hold on to and what I release.
Help me to believe in who you have called me to be.
Help me to run your race with all you have given me,
please God give me glimpses of you along the way.
Help me to stay grounded in your truth – remind me that I am dependent on your love
and without your guidance and your word, the word, as my light and lamp, I will falter.
Hold me when I don’t think I’m held.
Keep me humble, aware that I never know the full picture,
remind me that you are bigger than any of us can understand,
keep my ears open to year ever active truth.
Anger me and embolden me when our world doesn’t look like what you imagined for us –
stir up in me a longing for equity, justice,
and liberation that cannot be diminished by worldly comforts
May I go to places where I can be among those who know your way,
the way of exclusion and suffering.
Remind me that you lived your life among those the world deemed sick –
help me do the same.
May this ministry transform and challenge me.
Every. Single. Day.
Most of all, may I always remember that this is not my path to carve out, you have gone ahead, Holy Spirit, Miriam, Mary, Sarah, Hagar, Bathsheba, Mary Magdalene, Sedonia, Phoebe, Elaine, Dorothy, Annette, Sojourner, Rosa, Barbara, Pat, Esther … the Spirit has gone ahead and I am never ever ever alone on this path.

It's a prayer that we can all pray!

'a prophetic, insistent voice'

A deacon is an ordained leader in the Church, serving as a prophetic, insistent voice that calls the attention of the Church to the needs of the world. The deacon serves as a bridge between Church and world, sending the people out at the end of the liturgy into the world to live out their baptismal ministry. Deacons bring the needs of the world to the attention of the Church. They make certain that the marginalized people in our society are remembered in the Prayers of the People. They organize outreach efforts in parishes. They raise questions: Why are people homeless and hungry? Why are our city streets places of danger for our young people? What can we do about it?

Source:
The Rev. Sue Nebel, Deacon
St. Simon’s Episcopal Church
Arlington Heights, IL
http://www.episcopalchicago.org/at-work-in-the-church/commission-on-ministry/ministry-of-a-deacon/

The diaconate is 'big' - Thomas Merton

A reflection by Thomas Merton, shortly after his ordination to the diaconate in 1949:



‘The first thing about the diaconate is that it is big. The more I think about it the more I realize that it is a Major Order. You are supposed to be the strength of the Church. You receive the Holy Spirit ad robur, not only for yourself, but to support the whole Church.’

Distinctive Deacons in the Church of England - DACE

Source: http://deaconstories.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/vocation-one-deacons-story/ :
‘The deacon is one of three orders in the church of England.  It is important to see the orders as interconnected and complementary, not in opposition to each other. What are orders? For me, orders, or ordination is a gift from God – a gift not to me personally but to the church. Ordination – our orders - say something about how we as a church see God.
My story is rooted in a theology of ordination that says we are all Christian disciples through baptism and as Christians we have a duty and a joy to share in the ministry of Christ. Orders are there to help the Church understand itself. Orders reflect and focus the ministry of Christ in particular ways – diaconal, priestly and episcopal – serving, reconciling, overseeing and uniting.

2010 ordination at Ely Cathedral

Orders also reflect and focus the ministry of all the baptised – orders do not permit vicarious ministry but rather act as a focal point for all ministry.
The deacon is both model and enabler of the diakonia of the whole church.
The priest is model and enabler of the priesthood of all believers.
And the bishop either in person or as part of the college of bishops is the model and enabler of oversight and unity within our particular part of the church.
Understood in this way, orders and ordination do not lead to clericalism but to a flourishing of the ministry of the whole church, ordained and lay.
This may seem aspirational rather than reality -  but we set our sights high!
Within the Anglican tradition, we have sequential ordination.  You can’t be a priest without first having been a deacon.  I find this both helpful – reflective priests and bishops  value their diaconate as an undergirding their priestly ministry- and at the same time, it can be  very unhelpful.  It contributes to an hierarchical understanding of orders.  Priests are sometimes considered more senior than deacons regardless of the length of time in orders;  you can only be priested if you’ve completed the probationary year of deacon.  It can also contribute to an invisibility of the diaconate.  Although priests and bishops are deacons, they are not perceived as such by others.
The case for the diaconate as a ‘full and equal order’ has been eloquently made by James Barnett from the Episcopal Church in America in his book of that title.  And my vision within my own church has been for three orders, each open to men and women.

(from bridgetmary’sblogspot.com)

In 2007 the Faith and Order Group of the Church of England produced an excellent report called the Mission and Ministry of the Whole Church.  It calls for the distinctive diaconate to be actively encouraged both within the traditional parish boundaries and also as pioneer ministers reaching out to the unchurched.
Church reports are sometimes produced and shelved  and I’m not certain how much influence it has had -  but I do see a growing acceptance within the structures of the church that the diaconate is an order to which people are called, and that it is important for God’s mission in our world.  This is shown through development of the guidelines at Ministry Division for Bishops Advisory Panels and the growing awareness of DDOs and bishops that the diaconate is more than a probationary year. There is even reference on the Ministry Division website to the Distinctive Diaconate.
Some of this is undoubtedly influenced by ecumenical relationships;  in the UK through the Methodist Covenant;  in Europe through the Porvoo treaty with the Nordic Lutheran churches which each have a diaconate, and in North America through the Anglican Communion – both the Episcopal church and the Church of Canada have an active diaconate.
So I’m hopeful about the future for the distinctive diaconate.’
(Taken from Rev Kathryn Fitzsimon’s talk at the conference for York deacons in Feb 2014)

50 years of service in the diaconate

News from the Association for Episocopal Deacons:
Congratulations to Sister Priscilla Jean Wright of the Community of the Transfiguration, who celebrated 50 years of service in the diaconate on June 18, 2014. Sr. Priscilla is the last living deacon to have entered church service as a deaconess. When the canons changed in 1970, she became a deacon. Sr. Priscilla served the Navajo in Arizona and New Mexico and also served in the Dominican Republic where the Community of the Transfiguration had a ministry. 

Sr Priscilla Jean Wright

The Diaconate: A Flagship Ministry?

The Diaconate: A flagship ministry? by Paul Avis, published in Theology and Ministry 2 Journal - here's a link to the article.

"The diaconate has been in a state of ferment in many churches for decades and the debate shows no sign of ending. Why are churches wrestling with diaconal ministry to this extent? Individual deacons may well be blessed with a fruitful ministry, but the churches are struggling to identify just what a deacon is. Why is the issue proving so difficult? Does it mean that we cannot make sense of the diaconate, that it is an enigma that we cannot resolve,an insoluble problem? I take the diaconate to be indeed the most problematic but, at the same time, the most promising of all the ministries of the Church. I believe that the way to greater clarity about the diaconate depends on our willingness to allow our understanding of diakonia to become conformed to the paradigm that we find in the New Testament, particularly, though not exclusively, in the letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. The churches have been agonising endlessly about the diaconate, but in this paper I shall argue that much of their perplexity is created by theologising on a false premise concerning biblical interpretation".
Paul Avis was General Secretary of the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity from 1998 to 2011, and later served as Theological Consultant to the Anglican Communion Office, London. He is now retired.