Distinctive Deacons

What do Distinctive Deacons do?

A Distinctive Deacon’s ministry is marked by mission through service. Distinctive Deacons are:

• Outward moving and community minded.
• Often radical in their outlook and ready to try new ways of serving God in the community.
• Have a particular concern for poverty and justice, seeking to be the voice of the voiceless, advocating for those on the margins, and loving those in need.
• Ambassadors, taking the gospel into the community, bringing its needs back to the church for intercession and practical action.

In worship Distinctive Deacons may read the Gospel, assist the Priest, encourage intercession, and send out the congregation, going with them as we all play our part in God’s mission.

More information is available from the Network of Distinctive Deacons website.

Real life stories

Alice

I’m Alice and I’ve been ordained as a Deacon since September 2022. Ever since I came to faith as a teenager, I’ve been involved in some way in church leadership and particularly youth ministry.

I currently work for Youthscape, leading our Launchpad programme, which works through Dioceses, with clergy and church leaders, helping to see new youth work start across the country. I’m married to Andy, who is ordained as a Priest, and we live in suburban Essex with our two teenage children.

Why did you feel called to the Distinctive Diaconate?

I’ve spent most of my adult life around the church in some way – in paid employment and later Diocesan roles, then lecturing Christian youth workers, volunteering in my home parish and latterly as a clergy spouse.

Lots of people suggested I should get ordained, meaning ‘as a priest’, at various points in that time. I considered it and prayed a lot, but always had a clear sense that God wasn’t calling me to lead a church in the way that a Vicar primarily would – up front, preaching, presiding at the Eucharist etc. I was much more drawn to the back row, preferring to hang around the door to chat with those who left super quickly after the service!

Nobody that suggested ordination to me had ever highlighted that ordained ministry wasn’t automatically as a priest or encouraged me to consider remaining a deacon. I recognised that God was drawing me into work in places that were often hidden or on the fringes for most churches - with homeless young women, those experiencing poverty, young people.

So, following 3 different conversations with a Bishop, a colleague and my husband over the course of a month or so in 2019, I sat and read the ordinal more fully than I had ever done. In the end, my clarity of calling emerged from a place of obedience to God and to the wider church, acknowledging that I was already ‘Deacon-shaped’ and that the next steps were to offer that to the church in an ordained capacity.

How did you become a Distinctive Deacon?

Speaking out the words – “I think I might be called to be ordained” – was the first and slightly scary step! I had several conversations with the Associate Priest in my parish and he referred me on to the Diocesan Director of Ordinands (DDOs). I did a lot of research, connecting with the Church of England Network of Distinctive Deacons, meeting with and talking to other deacons (I’d never met another Distinctive Deacon until 2019!) and trying to understand more fully what I was getting into and how it might work!

By this point, we were in Covid lockdowns, so all my DDO meetings and selection panel were online. I trained for ordination at St Mellitus Chelmsford. From an outside perspective, my pathway didn’t look very different to those training for the priesthood, until the point, one year in, where my fellow deacons were ordained as Priests and I wasn’t. For me, it was here that the ‘distinctiveness’ of my calling became more visible.

Can you describe a day in the life of a Distinctive Deacon?

I work for Youthscape (most distinctive deacons are ‘self supporting’ clergy) so my weekly pattern usually involves travelling to Luton to our base there on 1 or 2 days a week. Other days may include wider travel around England, working with my brilliant team as we partner with Dioceses to help them to implement Launchpad and see churches start new youth work. In some of my work, I wear a collar, in other spaces, I don’t!

When I’m not in my paid role, I currently offer around 10 hours a week in my parish. Primarily this involves oversight of our youth and children’s work, leading our women’s community, some pastoral care and baptism visits and regularly deaconing the Eucharist on a Sunday. So much of what I do as a deacon, in both my work and my parish role, is with others, in a team. For me, this collaboration is at the heart of a Deacon’s ministry. Deacon as servant and Deacon as bridge builder and ambassador, working alongside Priests, Bishops and people, calling the whole church to attend to the margins and join in with God’s mission.

James

James was ordained as a Distinctive Deacon in Carlisle Diocese in 2021. He shares his faith journey:

I have lived in Cumbria all my life and am now retired after a career of over forty years at Sellafield. I’ve been married to Lynn for over 36 years and we have a son, daughter and grandson.

Following conversations with my mother and nudging from the Holy Spirit, I came to faith relatively late in life. I started attending my local church and initially felt a little left behind all those people, who had been attending church from a very young age.

I took a series of courses all of which deepened my faith and was commissioned as a Local Lay Minister. Looking forward to a rest from courses for a while, I was approached by a local Priest, who suggested I attend one more “effortless” course. I agreed and found myself on the path to ordination as a Distinctive Deacon. I was ordained in September 2021.

I never courted ordination, all I ever started to do was to help, “Here am I, send me”. The Diaconate calling came through others recognising in me that which I could never see in myself. When my church was without a vicar, I took on a number of roles including leading a Bible study group which has now been going for eight years.  The path to ordination all stemmed from there, others seeing in me that which I don’t see in myself… the helping hand, the willing volunteer, the servant minister.

So, the courses I attended and engaged with helped me to discern my path to the Diaconate. But it was through the prompting of others that I followed the path to ordination, the diaconate seeming to be the most suited to my calling to the servant ministry.

I enrolled on the ordinands’ course, undertook the training and since being ordained Distinctive Deacon, I have been serving in the benefice of Kells and the mission community of Whitehaven.

The day in the life of a Distinctive Deacon can be different for each person and for each day, dependant on the benefice and the personal calling. It can range from pastoral visiting, the distribution of home communion, helping food and medicine distribution, running a café church to administration, leading church services, funerals, confirmation preparation, running Sunday school and baptisms.

In a broad sense, I liken it to the five marks of mission;

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.
• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers.
• To respond to human need by loving service.
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation.
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.