It is very important to describe the role of Distinctive Deacons in terms of what they are and what they do: and not in terms of ‘status’ or what they can’t do.
Category: Resource
Let me be to You, as a brush is to a painter, worthless without You, but capable of transforming the human heart by the power of Your mercy.
Diakonia is ‘an integral part of the church’s being and mission’. There is no church without diakonia, and no diakonia without ‘the distinctiveness of its faith-based action’.
Diaconic aspects in the Epistle of James video
we at last have the ability and opportunity to offer information about online courses available to distinctive deacons, which can be accessed from anywhere in the country.
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.’
Canon Dr Anne Tomlinson is Principal of the Scottish Episcopal Institute. She is also a deacon, and oversees Scottish Episcopal Church deacons through their training. Here's a fascinating video of her conversation with two deacon ordinands regarding their experiences of discernment and formation.
place of the diaconate in the diocese.
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black We watch him as he labours to draw breath He takes our breath away to give it back, Return it to its birth through his slow death.
The overlooking of the particular ministry of deacons is
almost certainly due to a particular kind of clericalism – the
association of ‘priesthood’ with ‘leadership’, and the propensity
to collapse general talk of vocation into the particular calling
to the ordained ministry of priest.
CofE Network of Distinctive Deacons 