So as deacons prepare to equip the royal priesthood of God to serve God the Father (Revelation 1:5-6), let us pray that the Holy Spirit will once more fill us, and give us ears to hear how God reveals himself to the Church and in the world today: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your people and kindle in us the fire of your love. Renew the face of your creation, Lord, pouring on us the gifts of your people.
Author: GillK
Gill has been a missioner in Nigeria, Romania and various parishes in England. She was ordained a 'distinctive' deacon in 1991. In this capacity she was warden of the College of St Philip the Deacon in Exeter diocese, and founder member of the CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons https://cofedeacons.org. She has also written the story of her own call, Deacon by Design. https://www.waterstones.com/book/deacon-by-design/gill-kimber/9781910719794
She's passionate about the diaconate and, now retired, continues to support those who are called to this ministry.
Deacon Jonathan Halliwell, our education adviser, has kindly downloaded the Six Qualities and Evidences for distinctive deacons to a useful Word document.
In 2017, an historic step was taken by the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, when he consecrated five women to be deaconesses in the Congo. On May 2, 2024, Angelic Molen of Harare, Zimbabwe, was ordained Deaconess Angelic in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa (the Orthodox Church in the continent of Africa). This is a giant stride for The Orthodox Church, and is inevitably controversial.
God is asking Philip to leave the success story, and move on to something new. We might not have a mighty success story to tell, but it is part of our call as deacons, to be ready to move, ready to change, ready to go at God’s command.
Our life had no hope of eternal happiness before You redeemed us.
The deacon is entrusted with the great sign of the risen Christ: the Easter Candle, as the minister most often associated with Christ in early Christian literature.
Sinne is that presse and vice, which forceth pain To hunt his cruell food through ev’ry vein.
The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune.
I am undeniably a wounded healer, and these meditations serve as a personal aspiration, urging me to more authentically and completely embody this calling in my life.
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 