Leadership in the church takes many forms. Some are highly visible—like the rostered ministers—and some lead with very little public recognition. This series, which first appeared in Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church’s weekly newsletter, gives an overview of many kinds of leaders in the church.
The office of deacon is being reinvigorated in our church after centuries of neglect. While Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church benefited from over a decade of fantastic diaconal leadership, most people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America aren’t familiar with these leaders.
Ministers of Word and Service
The role of deacons is to connect the church to the wider world through the ministry of service. They are authorized to preach the word of God and, because they are clergy, they can also be authorized by the state to solemnize marriages. They can be called by individual congregations to work in that congregation, or by the synod as a whole to work among congregations and in the community. They are particularly called to advocacy on behalf of those who are poor and oppressed.
In the early church, which spoke Greek, deacons (which means “servants”) were actually the first office of the church established by the apostles. At the very beginning of the church, when it was still figuring out how to live together in this new community, a dispute arose over the distribution of food. Not every ethnic group in the church was being treated equally, and those who were ignored complained to the apostles. In response, the apostles, who knew they couldn’t be responsible for everything in the church, asked the community to select a number of honorable and trustworthy people who would be responsible for making sure everyone had enough. These first seven “servants” ordained by the apostles to “wait at tables”, are traditionally considered the first deacons: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas (no, not that Saint Nick). The only other person named as deacon in the New Testament is Phoebe, a “deacon of the church in Cenchreae”, who brought Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. While scholars debate whether Phoebe held the office of deacon or was simply a servant of the church, historical records unambiguously show that men and women served the church as deacons/deaconesses for the first few hundred years.
Stories of only two of these deacons are recorded in the Bible–specifically, in the Acts of the Apostles. Philip, who is also called an evangelist (from Greek euaggelion, or “good news”; a preacher, a “bringer of good news”), meets and baptizes an Ethiopian eunuch, performs miracles in Samaria, and is the father of four daughters known to be prophetesses. Stephen is arguably the more famous deacon however. He has the honor of being the first martyr (from Greek martus, “witness”), the first person murdered because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
As the church grew, the deacons developed into the “servants” of the bishop (compared to the presbyters, the bishop’s “representatives”), taking on more responsibilities while staying true to their calling as servants of the needy. They assisted in administering Holy Baptism, collected offerings, and were in charge of distributing the money and gifts of the church to those in need. They kept the records of the church and were the eyes and ears in the community, bringing the needs of the people to the bishop’s attention. Over time, the office of priest grew in importance and the office of deacon all but died out in the Roman Catholic church and the churches descended from it; in Lutheran churches, the only office that mattered was that of pastor (bishops/presidents were just pastors elected to a specific role of oversight). Deacons practically ceased to exist. Thankfully, beginning in the twentieth century, churches are remembering how important deacons are to the life of the church.
The churches that became the ELCA didn’t have ordained deacons, but they did recognize that some people were called to special roles of service in the community. When the ELCA formed, it inherited and condensed all of these roles into three rosters of Word and Service for consecrated/commissioned lay people. Associates in Ministry served often in administrative and teaching positions. Diaconal ministers were called to lives of service in the community. Deaconesses were similar to diaconal ministers, but had a different history (see a later article for more) and lived in intentional community; only women could be deaconesses. In 2019, the ELCA combined these three rosters into one, “deacons”, and reclassified them as clergy.
While the role of a pastor in the church is very well-defined, the roles of deacons are as numerous as the deacons themselves. A pastor is almost always the spiritual and administrative head of a congregation, but a deacon can be anything, minister anywhere, in any walk of life. They are lawyers and political advocates. They run feeding ministries and do environmental work. They coordinate mission trips and form the faith of youth. They organize communities on the grassroots level and lead colleges and universities. They are hospital chaplains, nurses, and doctors. They sit on governing boards of ministries and teach in classrooms. Wherever there is need in the world, deacons are called to the front lines, blazing trails for the rest of the church to follow.
Marks of Office
Being clergy, deacons can choose to wear the same clerical clothing as pastors, namely clerical collars or, if they wanted to, cassocks (see Part I). Because their work often takes them into places where clerical clothing may be a societal or even physical hindrance, many deacons choose to wear clothing more suited to their specific calling.
In our church, deacons don’t have specific liturgical roles in worship. If they choose to serve in worship, they can make use of symbols historically associated with the diaconal office. Like pastors, deacons can wear a cassock and surplice or alb with a stole. Unlike pastors, deacons don’t wear their stoles around their neck and hanging down in front. Instead, deacons wear their stoles over their left shoulder and fastened at their right hip.
Though this garment is basically unheard of in our church, the deacon’s analogue to the pastor’s chasuble is the dalmatic. Unlike the chasuble, the dalmatic has closed sleeves, and usually bears distinctive vertical and horizontal stripes.
Another common symbol of diaconal ministry is a towel and basin, representing the call to serve and care for those in need, recalling the washing of the disciples’ feet.
Featured Image: The Reverend Deacon Sue E. Rothmeyer is installed as the Secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the Reverend Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA.
Images of vestments adapted from images created by Tom Lemmens, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
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