Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 September 2011 13:12:45
The tail end of last week was spent at a conference on what it means to be a deacon and what it means for the wider world and wider church. It was an academic conference but it was also a practitioners conference in many ways - needless to say I found it facinating. It was interesting and useful but I did find it interesting that the Baptist use of the term, (i.e. what it means to those denominations who use the term but do not have a fixed order, rather use it for a group of lay people who fulfil a temporary role) was not discussed. I find the Baptist thing interesting because they have a hidden order which closed in the mid twentieth century - I grew up Baptist and was within that church tradition for 25 years but did not know this bit of thier history.
The Methodist Diaconal Order have a discipline which contains the following:
"be sensitive to the needs of those close to us, our families, dependents and friends." and "order the rhythm of each day, month and year, to allow for study and relaxation, weekly day off, regular holiday."
In the discussion of what a deacon is it became clear why it is so important for these to be in the discipline. Being a deacon, I would argue, is something ontological rather than functional. That means those called to be deacons do so because they recognise themselves and their essence in the discription of what type of people become deacons and what it involves. These types of people are very giving to others, particularly the communities they find themselves in - we can be workaholics. In this situation it is sometimes very possible to lose sight of what we need to give to our families and ourselves in terms of time to recharge, relax and grow.
Personally, in looking at the order it is this aspect of the discipline that I find most daunting, if I am accepted. I know what I am like - these areas I find challenging. The looking at the Order and other recent events have shown though that they are important for me to take on board whether I am sucessful in candidating or not. Sometimes we have to be prepared to let stuff go or learn to say no - we are not machines we are people.