Ash Wednesday stops us in our tracks. No excuses, no distractions—just the blunt truth: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. It is not a threat. It is a calling. A call to step away from all that numbs us and return to the One who made us, the One who loves us.
Category: Blog
Deacons are sent as ambassadors to shine the light of Christ in places which risk being plunged into darkness. The sheer scale of today’s port makes the calling to ‘reach into the forgotten corners of the world, that the love of God may be made visible’ even more important. As seafarers are often “out of sight, out of mind”, it is the role of the port chaplain to go into those invisible corners of the world, to thank seafarers for what they do, and to remind them that they are loved by God, to know that they are not alone or forgotten.
What might the diaconate contribute to the contemporary discussion of church unity? Firstly, it might draw inspiration from the young deacon Athanasius, who, with Arius, is one of the two protagonists in the Nicene Creed story.
My time at St Martin's gave me a chance to see, touch and inhabit the heartfelt words that God silently and gently places in my heart.
Beginning here we glimpse the Three-in-One;
The river runs, the clouds are torn apart,
The Father speaks, the Spirit and the Son
Reveal to us the single loving heart
That beats behind the being of all things
And calls and keeps and kindles us to light.
It might have been just someone else’s story,
Some chosen people get a special king.
We leave them to their own peculiar glory,
We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing.
How will we know when we have enough deacons?
The example of Stephen reminds us that service and proclamation were never intended to be understood apart. Proclaiming Christ as servant is the very substance of an apostolic ministry, in which preaching and servant-hearted ministry are fully integrated by word and action.
When the floor is knee-deep
in discarded wrapping paper
and the new books are open at page one
and the new toys are already broken,
behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Feedback from the national distinctive deacons’ conference (02/11/24) was overwhelmingly positive. Many appreciated the presence of recently appointed champion +Pete Wilcox, who addressed the conference about the importance of the diaconate and encouraged DDs to persevere in the face of challenges and misconceptions about their distinctive ministries
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 