Orders of Ordained Ministers in the Episcopal Church

By Don Palmer

There are three orders of ordained ministers in the Episcopal Church:  bishops, priests, and deacons. Nothing new there. In curiosity, let’s look a bit farther.

Bishop. That word, and the word “episcopal”, both come from the Greek “epi”, over, and “scopos”, to see.  The overseer.  (Overseeing, not overlooking!) Priest. From the Latin “prester”, elder, and “presbyter”, old man. (I didn’t say that.)

Deacon.  Now there’s a word for us, and a history richer than is generally known.  From the Greek diakonia, to serve.  As the church in the earliest days was rapidly growing among both Hebrews and Greeks, the Greeks complained that the Greek widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. (Early Mid East crisis.)  The twelve Apostles said (Acts 6:2, NRSV) that they “shouldn’t neglect the word of God to wait on tables.”  So they asked the disciples to select seven men “of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom”,…. “while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and serving the word.” Thus were the first deacons chosen, among whom the first was Stephen, later to be martyred. They were ordained by the Apostles by the laying on of hands.  This was the earliest ordained order of ministry.

Diakonia—service—is central to Christianity.  Christ said, “I am among you as one who serves.”  Not a bad role model.  The early deacons served, first at tables, in order to ensure just distribution of food, and then they served generally the community of believers.  For the next several centuries, as Christianity spread, the diaconate flourished.  They oversaw the church’s social service.  They served as the eyes and ears for the bishops, through making known the concerns of the community.  Deacons had roles in the liturgy, including assisting in the administration of communion, and led the first “confirmation classes”, which then lasted for three years of preparation.

Although for most the diaconate was lifelong, increasingly deacons became priests (presbyters), and even bishops. Gradually, the role of deacon became almost altogether transitional—simply a stepping stone, perhaps a probationary period, prior to entering the priesthood.  The vocational deacon faded from existence.  Even the concept of diakonia, or service, withered, to be kept alive mostly in the religious orders.  The most notable champion of diakonia was Francis of Assisi, who remained a deacon during his life as a friar.

The concept of minimization of the diaconate is even revealed in our 1928 Book of  Common Prayer, in which the service of ordination of deacons refers to it as “an inferior office.”

The Lutherans rebirthed the importance of the servant ministry, but we’ve gotten hard at work on it.  There has been a  “phenomenal resurgence” in the order of deacons, one of the three “full and equal orders of the ministry”.  The deacon stands at the edge of the community as a bridge to the world, “and shows Christ’s people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself.”  Many work in hospitals, prisons and other institutions; some work directly with bishops; many participate in the liturgy. This differs from simply a transitional stage. Many are choosing it as a permanent vocation.

There are schools for deacons, training earnest candidates to interpret to the church the needs of the world, and to restore the early church’s understanding of diakonia. The servant ministry.