The diverse and contested diaconate: Why understanding this ministry is crucial to the future of the Church
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Andrew Orton
Abstract
The diaconate has attracted widespread renewed interest in the contemporary context, whilst being the focus of considerable international ecumenical, social and theological debate. This article shows how the deacon’s role embodies many of the pressing issues facing churches across the world today, particularly through its position as a ministry at the interface between church and wider society. These issues include debates over the nature of ministry, the relationship between different lay and ordained ministries, issues of gender, status and power, and how churches should relate to wider society. To explore these issues, the article draws on research into the diaconate in one particular denomination, the Methodist Church in Britain, and sets this in a wider comparative ecumenical and historical context. The resulting analysis shows how it is crucially important for churches to reflect internationally on diverse experiences and understandings of deacons’ ministry, and own collectively the inherent challenges that this ministry can present. Deacons are shown to have a liminal ministry that through its very existence and practice can challenge understandings of status and power that can exist between different groups such as those who are lay and ordained, those in the church and those in the wider community. Reflecting on this liminal ministry can help churches as they seek to make connections between worship, mission and service, by enabling the whole Church to put their faith into practice in their everyday lives as they engage with wider society. This is especially important in terms of reflecting carefully on the Church’s response to those who are suffering, disadvantaged or marginalised.
Zusammenfassung
Das Diakonat erfreut sich gegenwärtig wieder einem breiten Interesse und steht im Zentrum ökumenischer, sozialer und theologischer Debatten. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, inwieweit viele der derzeitigen Probleme der Kirche in der Rolle des Diakons in besonderer Weise sichtbar werden, besonders aufgrund seiner Stellung zwischen Kirche und Gesellschaft. Der Artikel untersucht das Diakonat der Methodist Church of Great Britain und analysiert dieses in einen breiteren vergleichenden ökumenischen und historischen Zusammenhang. Am Ende steht das Ergebnis, dass es für Kirchen von höchster Wichtigkeit ist, die verschiedenen Erfahrungen und Verständnisse von diakonischem Amt zu bedenken und gemeinsam die diesem Amt innewohnenden Herausforderungen anzugehen.
About the author
© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Promising approaches to catechesis in church communities: towards a research framework
- Ethische Predigt
- Spirituality, Administration, and Normativity in Current Church Organization
- Practical theology for the privileged: a starting point for pedagogies of conversion
- The diverse and contested diaconate: Why understanding this ministry is crucial to the future of the Church
- Prayer and Practical Theology
- Toward a Commons of religious experience: Theological education and the practice of theology
- Church, State and Secularism in Asia: The Public Nature of the Church in Timor-Leste
- Religion – Alter – Demenz
- Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Promising approaches to catechesis in church communities: towards a research framework
- Ethische Predigt
- Spirituality, Administration, and Normativity in Current Church Organization
- Practical theology for the privileged: a starting point for pedagogies of conversion
- The diverse and contested diaconate: Why understanding this ministry is crucial to the future of the Church
- Prayer and Practical Theology
- Toward a Commons of religious experience: Theological education and the practice of theology
- Church, State and Secularism in Asia: The Public Nature of the Church in Timor-Leste
- Religion – Alter – Demenz
- Reviews
