REVIEW OF DIACONAL STUDIES: LIVED THEOLOGY FOR THE CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America.
Edited by Craig L. Nessan and Darryl W. Stephens.
Regnum Books International, 300 pp.

Historically, diaconal studies in North America have been neither ecumenical nor intercultural. Denominations focus specifically on their own faith traditions, church histories, and theologies in training deacons for ministry. This inward focus has limited the possibilities for broader research studies in the diaconate as an academic discipline. Craig L. Nessan and Darryl W. Stephens help to remedy some of these issues, urging a rejection of parochialism in support of expanded diaconal studies. Inspired by John N. Collins’ Diakonia Studies: Critical Issues in Ministry (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), this valuable collection of essays reflects a newer generation of diaconal studies drawing upon ecumenical and intercultural perspectives to promote a reenvisioned diaconate.

The volume includes several essays that should be of interest to those with an interest in deacons in the Episcopal Church. These essays demonstrate the importance of research and writing on the history of the diaconate insofar as they explain policies in the past that have influenced its understanding of the ministry. Although inclusive orthodoxy is a current trend in the church, the diaconate’s earlier heritages in exclusion laid the foundation for the challenges the ministry faces today.

The modern-day diaconate, grounded in a nineteenth-century model of servant leadership and humble service, provides justification for “inferiority and subservience of deacons in the life of the church” (2). These limitations are reinforced when deacons are expected to serve without compensation, and class differences among those who serve highlight important tensions. Daphne B. Noyes’ study, “Reclaiming the Lessons and Legacies of the Earliest Episcopal Deaconess” (173), uses Adeline Blanchard Tyler (1805-1875) as an exemplar of a woman whose attempts to bridge the gap between privilege and ministry led her to become the first deaconess in the Episcopal Church. Upon becoming widowed, she was “released from the day-to-day care of her husband during her marriage, now with sharply focused dedication and more time to offer” (177). Deaconesses like her could devote more of their time to “nursing, social work, advocacy, teaching, fundraising, counselling, and material and spiritual support” (174).

Just as the diaconate could exacerbate class divisions and keep ministry out of reach for those with less means, it could also stand in the way of equitable race relations in ministry, with “systemic use of the inferior order of the diaconate” used “to constrain Black men’s ministries” (246). Thus, Peter Williams Casey, “an abolitionist, educator, church planter, and rector of several churches” (246), could be ordained a deacon in 1863. However, he “sought priestly ordination but was rejected in three dioceses for overtly racist reasons, despite Episcopal support” (246). These inequities persisted, even though several African American men had been ordained as priests in earlier generations, namely Abasalom Jones in 1802 and Alexander Crummell in 1844, as per Lesser Feasts and Fasts (New York: Church Publishing, 2024).

Valerie Bailey’s essay “Women Shaping Diaconal Theology in the Episcopal Church,” (159), explains the 1970 Deacons’ canon that merged the order of deaconesses into that of deacons. Thenceforth, both men and women could be ordained deacons, and deaconesses would no longer be an order of women serving in ministries among the poor, the sick, and the needy. Instead, all deacons—men and women—engaged in outreach ministries. The women who became deaconesses prior to 1970 wanted to remain deacons, wondering how ordination would affect their ministry. But the women who were ordained after 1970 saw the diaconate as a transitional order. They wanted to become priests and thus had no interest in a theology of the vocational diaconate.

These different perspectives on the diaconate contributed to parallel diaconal tracts in the Episcopal Church—vocational deacons as compared to transitional deacons who will become priests after a brief period of diaconal ministry. These distinctions have arguably contributed to the marginalization of vocational deacons as being less than priests and not members of an equal but different order of ministry. Lori Mills-Curran, a former director of the Association of Episcopal Deacons, noted in her chapter, “Investment in Diaconal Flourishing in The Episcopal Church,” (239), that specific church policies enabled vocational deacons’ marginalization in the mid-twentieth-century. Only priests could receive benefits through the Church Pension Fund, and most deacons were transitional. Permanent deacons trained in parishes and served there exclusively. The Church “adopted a canon that required perpetual deacon candidates to vow that they would not seek priesthood and would support themselves from personal wealth or secular employment” (241).

One possibility for enabling a more inclusive diaconate can be found in accessible, affordable, and flexible diaconal formation programs for candidates at all stages of life. The Deacons Formation Collaborative at Bexley Seabury is one option for dioceses to consider: “While most bishops say they want to attract younger people to diaconal ministry, traditional models of preparation are not conducive to millennials and gen-z lifestyles,” (251). Formation takes place locally at the diocesan level and through distance learning. The curriculum draws upon the competencies developed by the Association for Episcopal Deacons. The students’ learning experiences are grounded in their local contexts and are personalized to meet their needs and interests. They learn independently with the support of mentors at the seminary and in their diocese. Dioceses participating in the collaborative include California, Los Angeles, Washington, Minnesota, Southern Virginia, Upper South Carolina, Atlanta, and Georgia.

Diaconal Studies includes important histories of the diaconate in the Episcopal Church. The writers explain the tensions within the church’s current theology of the diaconate. In addition, they discuss the hierarchies of class, race, and gender that have underpinned this diaconate and provide suggestions for resolving them. This book would be of great interest to deacons, formation directors, and members of diocesan Commissions on Ministry.