“You’ll spend plenty of time outside— on estates, in care homes, with those forgotten. But you are also called inside. To serve the covenant community with tenderness in private, and with leadership in public worship.”
Category: Blog
Very very good news! Focused diaconal training is a huge gap in the CofE vocational resources. Some time ago we started to put resources on the national church support hub, and Deacon Jonathan Halliwell has just sent this cheering update. PLEASE DO ALERT YOUR DDOs, TRAINING INCUMBENTS AND TUTORS TO THESE RESOURCES. They are unlikely to know, unless we inform them.
“The deacon is like a rescue ship.
Not tied in safe harbour,
but out in storm seas.
Searching for the battered,
the bruised,
those close to the rocks.
It is not reckless,
but it is risky.
For that is the way of Christ.”
Though truth be told—
we’re all forgeries.
Imperfect copies.
But God uses us still.
Remember this:
the stole placed crosswise,
diagonal over the heart—
that sign is never taken off.
“The gospel is not opinion. It is news. The news that Jesus— crucified, yet risen— is King. The one who brings peace.”
Save the Date:
CENDD 2026 Conference In person & Online:
Saturday April 25th 2026
at the Royal Foundation of St Katherine’s (RFSK) in Limehouse, East London.
Keynote speaker: Revd Canon Rosalind Brown.
“Deacons are heralds of Christ’s kingdom,”
he begins, almost whispering.
“Not masters.
Not architects.
Heralds.
James remained in Northumbria, living mainly at a village near Catterick (now in North Yorkshire) and took an active part in the preaching of the gospel and baptising throughout the region. James represented Christianity in the face of hostility from Penda of Mercia, ensuring the survival of Roman Christianity in the region. Preaching the gospel under a pagan ruler was a risky occupation, and James was often in danger of his own life.
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is
“We need heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who know the depths of the human heart, who can share the joys, the hopes, the agonies, the distress of people today, but who are, at the same time, contemplatives who have fallen in love with God.”
Pope John Paul II
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 