Supporting the Vocational Deacon Process:
The challenge for parishes to support those aspiring to be vocational deacons in the Episcopal Church.
by the Very Rev. William Lane, Dean, The Cathedral Church of Saint John
March, 2010
Recently I, along with Marsali Hansen and Bill Kauffman, attended a Diocesan meeting about the Vocational Deaconate. Marsali is in the process of discerning whether or not she is called to the ordained ministry of Deacon. Bill and I attended in our roles as Vestry member and Dean.
Saint John’s already has raised up Cecily Sawyer Harmon as a Vocational Deacon, and she is serving liturgically at the Cathedral Church of Saint John for the next several months as well as Chaplain for the Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Delaware.
There are presently two approaches to the Deaconate in the Church.
One, the most familiar, can best be called transitional. The person ordained is not meant to exercise the ministry of Deacon very long. He or she will be ordained to the Priesthood and the Deaconate is just a necessary pass through.
The second approach is vocational. The person ordained will exercise the ministry of Deacon. She or he is not passing through; they are committed to the servant hood ministry of the Deacon. This is the ministry of the Church in the world, serving the poor, the homeless, the marginal. The Deacon leads the Church into the world in service. The Deacon is the reminder to us all that Christ calls us to go into the world, and that in serving others we serve Christ.
The Deacon also has certain liturgical roles. These include: reading the Gospel, involvement with the prayers of the people, preparing the holy table/altar, assisting with the administration of Holy Communion, and dismissing the people into the world.
In the Diocese of Delaware, the local congregation has an active role in the Vocational Deaconate process.
The Rector of the parish must be supportive of a person entering into the discernment process during which she/he seeks to confirm whether or not there is a call to ordained ministry. The Rector and a member of the Vestry must attend the Diocesan information meeting about the Deaconate. The Vestry must, on behalf of the parish, agree to support the person in the process. Such support is financial as well as spiritual.
The Rector and Vestry engage the parish in becoming a Diaconal Congregation. Such a congregation is committed to supporting and following the Deacon into service in its community and in the world.
During the first year of the process, a discernment committee works with and supports the aspirant in discerning whether or not there is a Call to the Deaconate. This committee is made up of two members of the parish and four to six members of other parishes. The selection of the members of the committee is made by the aspirant and the Rector of the parish. Also, during this first year, the aspirant will plan and engage the parish in servant hood ministry in the community.
If the discernment process reveals that there is a Call to the Deaconate on the part of the aspirant, the next step is for the Bishop to accept that person as a Postulant (one who is seeking holy orders). Then an arduous period of preparation begins. This includes Clinical Pastoral Education and theological education. If the Postulant continues on, eventually he/she will seek the endorsement of the Rector and Vestry for admission by the Bishop as a Candidate for Holy Orders. When and if all qualifications are met, the Candidate will seek endorsement from the Rector and Vestry for ordination to the Deaconate.
The process leading to one entering the Vocational Deaconate is by intention not an easy one.
No one seeking that office should take it lightly, nor should those who support that person. While he or she must make the commitment on his or her own, they do so in the midst of a fellowship of love and support. Hopefully, both the Deacon and the congregation will have grown in faithfulness to service in and for Christ, and have experienced spiritual renewal because of what they have been through together.