Saint Philip's deacons
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of three articles about clergy who are active at Saint Philip’s. This week, Deacon Leah Sandwell-Weiss discusses the deacons—a group of clergy who participate in the College of Clergy (introduced last week).
Saint Philip’s is blessed to currently have five deacons who serve the congregation: (from left to right) Susan Erickson, Ruthie Hooper, Tom Lindell, Anne Strong, and me, Leah Sandwell-Weiss.
But what are deacons and what do they do?
Part of the answer comes from the ordination of a deacon where the Bishop says the following:
God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. . . . You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world. . . . At all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself. BCP, p. 543
At the end of worship, deacons dismiss the People to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Deacons hold up the needs of the world while they encourage and guide the people of God to live out the promises made in the Baptismal covenant, thereby transforming the world through works of mercy and justice.
Deacons also have liturgical responsibilities which include proclaiming the Gospel, preparing the table, and dismissing the congregation into the world to exercise their individual ministries. Deacons’ ministries vary based on their individual gifts and may vary throughout the lifetime of their calling.
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) identifies four orders of distinct but equal ministries. The three ordained orders are bishops, priests, and deacons each with a particular role and responsible to one another in different ways. The fourth order identified by the BCP is that of the laity who offer the majority of the Church’s work and witness in the world.
Deacons serve under the direct authority of the bishop and are assigned to congregations by the bishop of their diocese. In the Diocese of Arizona, most deacons are assigned to the parish where they were raised up.
Historically, the order of deacons preceded the order of priests by well over one hundred years. In Acts 6, the apostles and other leaders were so busy preaching and teaching that some members of the burgeoning community were not getting the daily distribution of food, primarily the widows of Greek converts. So the leadership looked for people who could serve food to these women and others in the community, people “of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” Act 6:3. They selected seven individuals, including Stephen, who became the first martyr.
Deacons flourished in numbers and in importance in the first millennium of Christianity. They oversaw the pastoral care of the church, administered church charities, and were assistants to the bishops of the church. Deacons often succeeded the bishops they assisted and had a major role in the liturgies of the church.
But Christianity evolved and grew, leading to greater complexity and an increased civic role for deacons. With these changes came the decline of the diaconate as a separate and distinct order, often viewed as inferior to the other orders. The justice-seeking and community-ministering role of deacons was reduced to that of ecclesial assistants and “priests in waiting” at the bottom of the clerical hierarchy until its relevance virtually disappeared altogether.
In the late 1960s, the leadership of the Anglican Communion realized that the order needed to be restored as an equal order to that of the priesthood and bishops. Over the past 50 years deacons emerged as “servant leaders” tasked with ministering to the social and pastoral needs of their parishes.
Deacons are called to bring the world to the church and the church to the world. At Saint Philip’s, deacons do this in many ways, including teaching children and adults about our faith, the Bible, gun violence, and anti-racism; working as hospice chaplains and comforting parishioners through pastoral care; supporting people with mental illness; leading efforts to understand and support immigration reform and taking care of migrants at the border; and recognizing and working with differently-abled people.
If the diaconate sounds like a ministry you would like to explore or join, please contact any of the deacons at Saint Philip’s:
The Rev’d Susan Erickson, susanerickson27@gmail.com
The Rev’d Ruthie Hooper, ruthhooper08@comcast.net
The Rev’d Tom Lindell, tlindell@email.arizona.edu
The Rev’d Anne Strong, revranne@gmail.com
The Rev’d Leah Sandwell-Weiss, lsandwellweiss@gmail.com
Thank you to Deacon Wendy Guyton at Christ the King Episcopal Church for some of the ideas contained in this article. She has recently written three articles about the Diaconate for the Arizona Episcopalian. These articles will be posted soon at https://azdiocese.org/deacons-and-the-diaconate/, the Arizona Diocese’s webpage with information about the diaconate.