The Bishop and his Deacons

This is the first in a series of articles about deacons in the church. In order to avoid any confusion at the outset, deacon as described herein is about the Order of Deacons as so structured in the so-called catholic churches. Catholic churches are those whose ordained orders of ministry follow that of the apostles – those who claim to be in the apostolic tradition or apostolic succession: generally speaking, Roman Catholic; Eastern Orthodox; and Anglican.

The three orders of ordained ministry are Bishops (over-seers); Presbyters (priests); and Deacons (servants). Historically the church ordains a candidate to the diaconate; six months later, or more, that “transitional” deacon is ordained into the presbyterate or the priesthood. Bishops are elected or appointed variously according to the canons and constitutions of their particular tradition. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, it is the Pope who appoints bishops. The Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions have differing methods of election within their own structures. But they all have deacons.

This series of articles proposes to articulate the relationship between the bishop and his deacons. In order to understand this special relationship and the many ministries it produces, it is necessary to document the genesis of the Order of Deacons and the nature of structured ministry.

In Acts 6:1-6 we are told:

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. ² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

Many biblical scholars identify this passage in the Acts of the Apostles as the creation and identification of the first deacons in the early church. The charge for deacon ministry, as we read, differed from that of the apostles. The church’s expanding ministries, not only the preaching but the acting out of the Gospel, are represented in the appointment of these seven deacons. The original apostles are considered the church’s first bishops.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was a deacon.

Paul in his greeting to the church in Philippi wrote:  Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons … (Philippians 1:3). Note that Paul, an apostle, refers to himself and Timothy both as servants.

After first listing qualifications for overseers, qualifications for deacons in the early church were then spelled out by Paul: ⁸ Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. ⁹ They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. ¹⁰ And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. ¹¹ Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. ¹² Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. ¹³ For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 3:8-13).

This first article is intended to show that the Order of Deacons existed in the early church and by way of analysis any organization – including the organized church – is a social entity composed of real human beings. The church’s fundamental nature is social and organic. In order to exist as a life of its own the church must therefore be ordered (Barnett: The Diaconate – A Full and Equal Order, 1979, 1995). In order to work out its calling, the church must be ordered. Chaos in the church is not an option.

The fundamental character of the church is service – service to God and service within God’s creation. Therefore the ordered structure of the church – lay, deacon, presbyter, bishop – is diaconally constituted. All members of the church – lay or ordained – minister in service.

A College Administrator with Guts

The president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University "tells it like it is."

Back atcha, student "victims"

"Pathways to Union with Jesus," a new book by William Wilson

Book: Pathways to Union with Jesus

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

A Faux Taxonomy Economy

A Faux Taxonomy Economy

Sticks and stones hurt or kill,

One transitory; one ending.

For good? No, but for ill,

Enlightenment hubris placed nature pending.

Orientation rests on an ever-shifting surface

With no rock and no stable ground

In support of its changing purpose.

It has no basis, nothing in nature sound.

Nothing in nature is beyond the “he and she.”

Yet a propaganda of Inclination

Purports to be

The gravel of Orientation.

There is no gay, there is no straight,

Neither occurs in nature.

The faux categories in debate,

Have categorized persons with incorrect nomenclature.

If gay is right,

Then straight must be wrong.

If so, which opposite holds the insight

To make it the superior and the strong?

Late 19^th century science was enlightened

Such that it re-categorized an act into a person,

Necessitating the creation of its opposite,

Causing humanity to worsen.

Without any thought the bifurcation was accepted

By billions who bought into deal,

Even though natural law rested

On male and female as the demonstrable real.

Taking more than a century to develop,

Both confusion and fear eventually took control

Leaving critical thinking unprotected and enveloped

By a subtle hysteria of the whole.

 Enlightenment science dealt humanity the harsh edict

Creating confusion through its false and ungrounded authority.

It created a sodomite out of sodomy

And gave Orientation priority.

No one is either gay or straight,

No Orientation occurs in human life.

It is sin, that human-carrying freight

When left un-repented increases our strife.

The sticks and stones of gay and straight

Have corrupted many lives through battles.

Had it not been for that concept Orientation,

Minds and lives would not have been so rattled.

Christ forgives all who earnestly repent,

He sees no Orientation.

Christ sees only the human person

Needing salvation into His nation.

Archdeacon Books Publications 4Q2015 and 1Q2016

The Evolution of Decision Making

To be released mid-November, 2015

Kairos Prison Ministry

Available on Amazon dot Com

The End of Orphan Care

To be released 1Q2016

William Jelks Cabaniss, Jr.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic

Available at all online booksellers

From My Father's House

Available on Amazon dot Com

Pathways to Union With Jesus

To be released by mid-December, 2015

O Am Aros

O Am Aros

I claim that I shall always sing

Praises to You.

But many times my singing rings

Much differently, as You know I do.

My mind, however, knows Your crystal fountain,

And my heart drinks from its healing flow.

When at times I cannot climb earth’s rugged mountain

Life seems as slippery as on fresh-fallen snow.

But when I tread the verge of my own sinful river,

With confession and repentance at my side,

And an abundance of forgiveness in my God-filled quiver,

My anxious fears subside.

Songs of praises! Songs of Praises!

I will ever sing to Thee,

I will ever sing to Thee.

O, am aros! O, am aros!

Yn Ei gariad ddyddiau f'oes.

Yn Ei gariad ddyddiau f'oes.

Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer (cwm rhondda)

ACNA Archbishop and The Russian Orthodox Church

ACNA ARCHBISHOP AND THE RUSSIAN CHURCH

“I have desired to see a restoration of Christian fellowship between the separated portions of Apostolic Christianity. It would be a great benefit to Christ and the extension of Christ's Kingdom if the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Western ones, the Latin and the Anglican, could cease their warfare and work harmoniously together. Nor should we of the Anglican Communion withhold our sympathy from those sectarian bodies that have gone out from us, but pray that the breaches may be healed.”

Charles Chapman Grafton, the second bishop of the (ECUSA now TEC) Diocese of Fond du Lac (Wisconsin), made this statement in 1903.

The Most Reverend Foley Beach, the senior bishop or primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), has become a world traveler since his election to that office in 2014. His Christian witness no doubt is his strategic driver but building relationships undergirds his tactics. One of those relationships under construction is his highly visible engagement with the Russian Orthodox Church. Does this budding relationship matter in the grand scheme of things?

Adherents of biblical orthodoxy whether Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican or Protestant, should want to work together to be seen by the world (secular and religious) in a shared Christian witness. In this regard relationship talks with the Russian Orthodox Church are not a waste of time, though perhaps ecclesial relationship discussions run secondary to initial or primary and personal witness to Christ. Leaders of the Church Militant should never shy from efforts at church unity. Talks with the Russian Church, however, are not new.

Before there was an ACNA, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh (who would become the first Archbishop of the ACNA province) wrote to the Moscow-based Russian Church Metropolitan Kirill in 2006 in response to an initiative by the Metropolitan. At that time other leaders within Episcopal Church dioceses sought alternative provincial oversight (APO) outside the Episcopal Church. In retrospect some will say that this was the beginning of the Anglican Realignment.

The 2003 consecration of the bishop of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, an avowed and active homosexual man, created problems for orthodox Episcopalians. That 2003 event prompted APO discussions not only with the Russian Church but with Anglican provinces in South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The point noted here is that historically Russian Church leaders have always been willing to talk substantively with orthodox American Anglicans.

In 1867 the Russian government sold Alaska to the United States of America. As a result most residents of Alaska returned to Russia. Those who remained were approximately 12,000 Russian Orthodox Christians in nine parishes. As a missionary diocese of the Russian Church, its headquarters or episcopal seat eventually was moved from Alaska to San Francisco.

In 1898 a young, 33 year old bishop named Tikhon Bellavin, arrived from Moscow. Tikhon had the vision to expand the Russian missionary diocese into an American Church and he formed new dioceses not only of Russian ethnicity, but Arab, Serbian, Greek and Romanian. Shortly after Tikhon’s arrival in America be was befriended by Charles Chapman Grafton, the Episcopal Church bishop of Fond du Lac.

When the Diocese of Fond du Lac elected its bishop coadjutor in 1900, Grafton invited not only the Russian bishop of Alaska and America, but a bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church to participate in the service of consecration. After the service a picture was taken of all the bishops attending the consecration. The gathering depicts American Episcopal bishops donning copes and mitres, a high church or Anglo-Catholic image highly irregular to most low-church Episcopalians. The picture so appalled evangelical Episcopalians it was subsequently referred to as the “Fond du Lac Circus.” The reaction to the picture is interesting, but not the point.

The point is that Episcopal Bishop Grafton and Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon were engaged in and worked together on visible Christian unity. Dialogues between the two churches took hold over the next century but came to a sudden halt in 2003 when the Russian Orthodox Church withdrew from their official dialogue with the Episcopal Church.

Given the long-term willingness of the Russian Orthodox Church to remain in dialogue with Anglicans in North America – orthodox Anglicans in particular – it is evident that Archbishop Foley Beach will continue with a Russian-North American dialogue.