Praying with Hope for the Margins: interceding for a wounded world Following a calling to the distinctive diaconate can sometimes be a lonely endeavour - this Conference offers a rare opportunity for Distinctive Deacons, Ordinands and Enquirers from across the country to meet together for teaching, fellowship and the sheer encouragement of being with others … Continue reading CENDD National Conference 2026 – don’t miss it!
Category: Blog
This prayer speaks of a gentle and tender transformation into a new year. It offers no dramatic idealistic resolutions which will last less than week. It acknowledges God as a gentle and all powerful Creator of all that is beautiful in the world.
Pray it slowly and ponder.
This, surely, is the true life, my brothers, a life in which Paul feels no shame because of Stephen’s death, and Stephen delights in Paul’s companionship, for love fills them both with joy
Although Christmas was not a major celebration in the early church, “Hymn on the Nativity IV,” one in a series of early Syriac poems by Ephrem (d. 373), a deacon of the church in Asia, has survived, and it points to the paradoxes, reversals, and symbolism that became an important part of Christmas poetry
Perhaps inclusion today requires reclaiming that vocation — to be keepers of the threshold, not its guards. To open the doors wider, yes, but also to honour the courage of those who cross them.
To be a Doula-Deacon is to walk with others as God creates new life, weaves hope from endings, and remains ever present in the thresholds and mysteries of this world.
The poems, all available free online (https://www.cruciformjustice.com/) and in his recent book, Lament and Hope, covered topics such as “the slow burn miracle of love”, how “Jesus is a Litmus Test for Orthodoxy” and “how love does not equate to a handout culture”.
The deacon journeys with seekers,
hungry for faith they cannot name.
Walk beside them,
until they find their rest in Him.
The deacon is to be a bridge
between people and God,
between suffering and hope.
Take the world seriously.
Take God seriously.
And help the Church
hold them together in prayer.”
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 