From Archdeacon S. Jane Griesbach

“Move the Door!” The Rev. Deacon Tracie Middleton, President of the Association for Episcopal Deacons and a talented young deacon in the Diocese of Texas, said on a recent webinar “move the door”. We cannot wait for people to open the door and walk into our church buildings. We need to move the door. That’s what flexible deacons are especially good at! That’s what deacons continued to do throughout the pandemic! We changed how we did things, and carried on. We continued to bring the love of Christ to marginalized people in the world.

Deacons in the 21^st century seek to empower all the baptized for diaconal ministry – connecting the church and the world. I think of the phrase from ‘Arch’, the late Desmond Tutu “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world”.  That has become my battle cry and it shows up in almost every sermon in one way or another. I see several things we face as deacons in the future. Younger people face issues while working full time and perhaps raising a family. We need to make training and formation available to non-English speaking people or those with learning disabilities. We need to move the door to break down barriers to these people. Province One School for Deacons is currently working through those issues. I see at least limited access to the pension fund as one way to attract younger deacons as well as involvement with the values of social justice, love, and equity. 'Loving the Questions’ is another way. Bishop Fisher calls it changing the culture to ‘holy curiosity’ – ‘holy questioning’. The Loving the Questions program assists people to discern what God might be calling them to. The program has grown over the years with up to 25 participants in any one class. Toward the end of that program, Canon to the Ordinary Rich Simpson and I lead four evenings of discernment to holy orders for people praying about that call. Wondering what God might be calling you to? Register for Loving the Questions!

We now have 12 active deacons in our diocese with three others in the formation/training process. God is good! Deacon Ann Wood retired and Deacon Donna Kingman transferred to the Diocese of N.H. We thank them for their years of faithful service. The Community of Deacons remains strong. Two of our strong deacons, Michael and Pat, offer their thoughts here. 

From Deacon Michael Hamilton

Into your country I long to go.

Thank you God, my trusted guide. 

So, thank you Diocese of Western Mass for welcoming me along the path that you are on as we wander together spreading the good news along the way.  

At the inaugural gathering of the Province One School for Deacons in 2015, four bishops, from the three dioceses participating at the time, were present to set the tone and express their collective expectation that 21^st century deacons have a passion for social justice. It was understood that discipleship would be at the core of the diaconate. Bishop Doug Fisher described an ascending order of responses to discipleship: charity, service, advocacy and, at the top, justice. Bishop Rob Hirschfeld quoted Leonardo da Vinci as he exhorted us, the aspiring deacons: “Learn to see and look for the connection in all things”. I feel certain that within the heart of every deacon is intentionality about seeing and looking for the connection in all things. That intentionality is fired by a passion for social justice.

In 2016 I wrote an article in which I stated that a deacon is someone who is called by God to be God’s voice in the church--an advocate for God’s mercy, hope and compassion in the world, particularly in the community where the deacon lives and works. I said that deacons are first of all called to be one with God. Their prayer life animates all that they are and all that they do. Deacons bring the world to that prayer life, to their relationship with God, and God’s abiding love sends them forth. I understood then how prayer unites us and makes us whole. I believed that my job was to love God as God has loved me, and that being in relationship with God, with one another, and with the world meant being with one person at a time, one moment at a time.

In 2019, my wife’s ascending incapacitation due to Alzheimer’s brought a new understanding to my adopted practice of seeing and looking for the connection in all things, while maintaining a deacon heart for social justice. My diaconal response had to be to step back from the world and the church as I knew it, to embrace the more contemplative side of the diaconate as I had detailed it in 2016. I literally was being called to be with one person at a time, one moment at a time. It presented as an opportunity for me as a deacon to witness to how a life of prayer can animate all that we are and all that we do—to practice mercy, hope, and compassion within the community that for me was also my home—to be one with God, with the one person who at that time needed me most, my wife--the only right, just, and diaconal response.