ARE DEACONS THE ANSWER? An evolving ministry
Baker, Thomas
Thomas Baker The restored diaconate is still so new that we deacons are thrilled whenever anyone writes about us-even when, as in Richard Gaillardetz's article, it ends up mostly being about what...
...For my part, though, I'm hoping this isn't what it comes to-the diaconate as a way of backing into a married pastorate...
...Still, I'd like to think deacons can help by bringing an ordained presence and identity to unusual places, and by bringing some elements of real life and speech into preaching and ministry...
...Thomas Baker, a married deacon, is a media consultant in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.New Jersey...
...Here, I'm not looking to Gaillardetz's call for us deacons to be "living icons of Christ the servant...
...I'm hoping to see things change...
...others focus on community organizing, or on an approach to preaching that clearly reflects the reality of secular lives...
...I know some deacons who would be great pastors, but right now, at least, I don't want the job...
...I'm more excited about that than I am about being an icon...
...I'm hoping for something a little less grand, and perhaps more concrete...
...Yes, in some cases, deacons are also taking some leadership roles that laypeo-ple should have...
...So, frankly, is the unspoken reality that for the church, deacons are a bargain...
...Somehow, our role must be to move back and forth among these spheres in some creative way...
...I'm not sure we've even begun to see the many ways in which this in-betweenness might emerge-and that's partly because of the parish-centric way in which deacons are recruited and assigned...
...We work in secular careers, not just for the church...
...Either we're all of us, all baptized Christians, called to be living icons of Christ the servant, or none of us is...
...The key lies in the distinctive day-to-day reality and world-liness of deacons' lives...
...That's one rationale, I hope, for continuing to use deacons as parish liturgical ministers and sacramental presiders...
...My experience as a deacon for the past eight years confirms his news report: Many deacons are, in fact, serving as part-time de facto associate pastors, handling the baptisms, weddings, and parish meetings that associate priests used to and that solo pastors no longer can...
...To me, the great thing about being a deacon is that we are somewhere between the church and the world...
...One reason I'm still a Christian is that I've never had to work in a parish office...
...Still, the reason you see so many deacons in parish liturgical and sacramental leadership isn't clerical ambition, it is simply that the work needs to be done, parishes need the help, and deacons are often the only ordained ministers around to fill the gap...
...Who can blame some bishops for looking to deacons first when there are parishes to fill...
...One ancient metaphor considers deacons to be "the bishop's eyes and ears"-observing up close the needs and realities of the community and interpreting them for the church, and perhaps also interpreting the church and its hopes to the world...
...In spite of that, some deacons are being creative, developing unusual and innovative workplace ministries...
...Thomas Baker The restored diaconate is still so new that we deacons are thrilled whenever anyone writes about us-even when, as in Richard Gaillardetz's article, it ends up mostly being about what we shouldn't be doing, rather than what we might...
...The vast majority of us don't draw any salary or benefits from our ministry at all, and those deacons retired from secular careers but working in a parish setting are doing so far below a living or market wage...
...Seeing the diaconate this way, as its own distinctive ministry and not a steppingstone to the priesthood or a make-do substitute, means there's less justification (if there was any) for continuing to exclude women from it...
...I think it'd be a shame if, as Gaillardetz suggests, we were to put aside our work as baptiz-ers, ministers of marriage, and homilists...
...The demographics of the priesthood are now a powerful force shaping the diaconate...
...In the meantime, we have plenty of other issues with the diaconate to work out-but please, let's allow it to be a bit of an experimental mess for a while longer...
...I am well aware of the historical connection between deacons and service (di-akonia), but to me, this is the kind of ambitious, heavily symbolic language about the ordained that hasn't helped preserve the priesthood and won't straighten out the diaconate, either...
...It probably wasn't supposed to turn out this way for deacons, even though one of the explicit reasons for restoring the permanent diaconate in the 1960s was to provide ordained people for places where priests were not available...
...Instead, I'm hoping there are some entirely new settings and assignments, outside the parish and the rectory, where bishops will start sending deacons, and where people will come to expect them...
...If we're doing it right, it should be a plus for the church, not a minus...
...History, the new needs of the church, and the Spirit will ultimately shape it into what it needs to be, if we let them...
...we live in neighborhoods, not in a rectory...
...Yes, laypeople are the principal ministers to transform the secular sphere...
...The idea of "worker priests" didn't quite work out- but "worker deacons" are now out there everywhere...
Vol. 130 • August 2003 • No. 14
