Unlike bishops and priests, there are no specific tasks for deacons, although they are often thought of as having ministries that focus on serving the poor and marginalised or those at the fringe of the church. In the Anglican world, deacons can't do the 'ABC' of absolution, blessing and communion and therefore can't be appointed as parish vicars / rectors. While this could be seen as a limitation, it's better thought of as a freedom to stay focussed on other front-line ministries.
The go-to New Testament passages on deacons show us that they were first formally appointed to take on the work of food distribution so that the apostles could focus their energies on word ministries and prayer (Acts 6:1-6). And even though their task was very practical, it was imperative that those chosen had Spirit-shaped character (Acts 6:3, cf. 1 Timothy 3:8-13). But of course, as the story unfolds in Acts, we find that at least two of the deacons become powerful testifiers to the gospel of Jesus (Acts 7-8, 21:8), so there ends up being some significant overlap of their work and the apostles'. This is comparable to the overlap between the work of Anglican deacons and priests.
As I keep thinking about the diaconate, my question is, Why don't Anglicans ordain more people who work in churches as deacons? Here in Melbourne, we have many non-ordained church workers who are licensed by the Archbishop as 'Authorised Lay Ministers'. Why not make them deacons?
Reasons might include that some Anglicans believe that a person needs to be 'called' to ordained ministry and that when they are ordained, they are 'ontologically' changed. Therefore, ordination is more than just functional and more than just a practical recognition of the work someone does in a church. I'm not sure that I find this a particularly convincing argument. On the one hand, there's not much solid biblical evidence for it and on the other, it would seem strange to have lower expectations of an Authorised Lay Minister than a deacon if they were doing the same job.
Recruitment and training have become practical distinctions. That is, while the vicar of a local church can employ anyone they see fit, a deacon needs to have been through a diocese's program of formation. Perhaps this means that a deacon's suitability to their role is more broadly recognised than a lay minister's.
In the Diocese of Melbourne, there are very few distinctive deacons (as opposed to 'transitional' deacons who are moving towards becoming priests). By comparison, Sydney Diocese, with its more functional view of ministry, has been proactively reviving its diaconate over the past few years and so has a few more. Interestingly, these dioceses also have different stances on the ordination of women to the priesthood and this may affect their relative numbers of deacons. Melbourne accepts female priests and Sydney doesn't so in Sydney, all ordained women are deacons.
This leads to another good point to make when thinking about deacons which is that all clergy are deacons. That is to say that when a deacon is ordained priest, they don't stop being a deacon. I think this is great because it reminds the clergy that no matter how high up the organisational chart they might climb, they must always remain servants of others. Right in line with Jesus' teaching in Mark 10:35-45.
Thoughts on Theology-in-Practice for Anglicans and Episcopalians - plus some other stuff.
We've clearly lost something along the way, as the Prayer Book's Ordinal talks about it being "evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles’ time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons". I don't think anyone looking at the Anglican church today would see Deacons as being much different to priests.
ReplyDeleteI'd ask a far more pointed question than yours: which is why do we bother with Deacons at all? At present, the diaconate is just the porch to the priesthood
Maybe a PhD student researching Anglican doctrinal history could tell us what deacons used to do (as perceived by the Prayer Book authors) that they don't do any more?
Another interesting question related to this might be:
ReplyDeleteHow has the ratio of bishops to priests to deacons changed over church history? My basic knowledge of early church history suggests that there used to be a lot more bishops than there are now - it seems that every town of any size had at least one. Also I get the feeling there were more deacons than priests, whereas now it is the reverse.
Rather than abolishing the diaconate, perhaps we should ordain people who want to be priests straight to the priesthood. They are already doing curacies under the supervision of a more senior priest and have an extensive program of post ordination training. I'm not sure what limiting them from saying the ABC and presiding at communion achieves. As you suggest Tim, I would like to see more of our Lay Ministers become vocational deacons, with less extensive training requirements than priests. I think this more closely fits the Biblical model of deacons/elders focusing on serving particular needs, while priests/overssers have more focus on preaching, teaching and discipleship.
As a more general comment related to ordination candidates, I would also like to see more congregational involvement in their nomination and selection. At the moment, the only people involved from the local church are the vicar and wardens. There certainly needs to be involvement from the bishop and diocese to maintain quality control, but the current system emphasises individual call to ministry of the candidate above the corporate call by the congregation.
On the question ratios - my gut feeling is different. I think the relative number of bishops has probably grown with the population and that there are now fewer priests. Certainly back in the English Reformation there was something of a glut of priests once the monasteries were dissolved.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of studies on this kind of thing. The chapter by Bowker in 'The English Reformation Revised', Haigh (ed) might be a good place to start.