Not “Just” a Deacon

This article by Deacon Erin Moriz for Anglican Compass wrestles with a number of issues all-too-familiar to #distinctivedeacons in the Church of England.  Deacon Erin grew up in the Southern Baptists, but is ordained into the Anglican Church of North America. 

‘Yet here am I among you like a waiter’: John N Collins

Disciples are to call down from the Jesus in their midst what they have the courage to open themselves to in his self-giving. For deacons this message may well be especially meaningful, but deacons do not take their name from here. They take that from another kind of diakonia. We see this clearly in what the later writer, Ignatius of Antioch, had to comment about the deacons among the Trallians: ‘they are not deacons (diakonoi) of food and drink but are officers (hypēretai) of the Church of God.’