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EDITORIAL2 Deacons and the Afghan War

Ashley Beck and Tony Schmitz

DIACONAL SPIRITUALITY4 Marriage and the Permanent Deacon

Paul Chamberlain7 Marriage and diaconal formation when

children are in the formative stage: thoughts from the journeyJustin Harkin

DIACONIA OF WORD11 Contemplative Homiletics

James Keating14 Mark, suffering and that big question,

‘Who do they say I am?’Sean Loone

18 Review of ‘The Use and Abuse of the Bible’, by Henry Wansbrough OSBAshley Beck

DIACONIA OF ALTAR20 Review of ‘Deacons, Ministers of Christ

and of God’s Mysteries’, ed. Gearoid Dullea Justin Harkin

DIACONIA OF CARITAS22 Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens26 Deacons and the Euro (Part I)

Ashley Beck

THEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF DIACONATE34 The Perception of the Diaconate in Early Middle Ages:

Some Evidence from Canon Law (Part II) Thomas O’Loughlin

39 John N. Collins in dialogue with Klaus Kießling: For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ John N. Collins

44 Discovering St Ephraem, Deacon and Doctor of the ChurchBill Burleigh

DOCUMENTATION / RETRIEVING THE TRADITION53 International Theological Commission

Ministry of DeaconessesTony Schmitz

REPORT60 Assembly of Delegates of the International Diaconate

Centre, 14-16 September 2010

Issue 5 November 2010

If you have enjoyedour first four issuesand have not yettaken out a standingorder, pleaseremember to sendus a renewal of yoursubscription.

public support for the war people are reluc-tant to engage in public challenge for fearthat they might be seen to undermine ‘ourboys’ who are fighting in the name of ourcountries: this seems to have meant that thechurches have played hardly any role in amoral debate about what is happening. Evenwithin the Catholic community retired gen-erals seem to have more influence than the-ologians. Many of those involved with theNATO action are acting from good motives –for example, in relation to the rights andtreatment of women in Afghanistan – butsurely we are entitled to ask whether theaction has lived up to these ideals in terms ofeffectiveness and whether they outweigh themoral problems about the conflict.

Within our community there is an impor-tant group of people who espouse anabsolute pacifist position and whose witnessagainst the war has been very powerful.The witness of the Catholic Worker move-ment, founded nearly eighty years ago byDorothy Day and Peter Maurin, is impor-tant for the whole Church – their houses inEngland, the Netherlands, Belgium andGermany are beacons of resistance to theculture of war, and of resistance to this war.Most Catholics would probably not espousethis position and would claim rather to beguided by the Just War doctrine, very strin-gent conditions for waging war, originallyformulated by St Thomas Aquinas. Here isthe summary from the Catechism (2309):

‘The damage inflicted by the aggressor onthe nation or community of nations must belasting, grace and certain; All other meansof putting an end to it must have beenshown to be impractical or ineffective; theremust be serious prospects of success; theuse of arms must not produce evils and dis-orders graver than the evil to be eliminated.’

Many would say that the Afghan war doesnot succeed in fulfilling even one of theseconditions, let alone all four. At best themorality of this war is doubtful, and tradi-

tionally in Catholic moral theology doubtrequires us to be cautious. Deacons shouldfamiliarize themselves more with this doc-trine and teach others about it.

Deacons, like bishops, priests and laypeo-ple, should be leading a critique of this con-flict in Europe and North America. The realdanger is the extent to which governmentswhich engage in morally dubious wars lie topeople about what is going on, and do all intheir power to bolster support for what theyare doing behind the cloak of support forthe troops and to stifle those who questionthis fiasco. This subterfuge actually helpsthose who are intent on acts of terrorism, inAfghanistan, in Europe and in the rest ofthe world. People in parishes are beingtaken in by this: the Church’s ministersmust not be drawn into this flag-waving.

At the same time many of us from all overEurope have parishioners serving inAfghanistan and may have had to conductfuneral services for those who have beenkilled. At the very least, if we have publiclyopposed this war, we have to explain to thefaithful how we are the best supporters ofthose fighting there, in that we want themto be brought home. These are seriousissues faced by many deacons, priests andlaypeople in many of our countries. Howdo we square our pastoral responsibilitieswith our duty to witness to truth?

As we enter the third year of this journal’slife we continue to evaluate what we aredoing and we would welcome commentsfrom readers. We are working hard toincrease our base of subscribers and widenthe journal’s influence. We hope that asmany of you as possible will be able to cometo our first international conference, whichwill also be the regular assembly of deaconsin England and Wales, in Twickenham nextJune. The board continues to be grateful toIgnatius Kusiak and Michael Hayes, thepublisher and editor of The Pastoral Review,for their support and encouragement. �

Deacons are expected to have a spe-cialised knowledge of Catholic Social

Teaching – we are also told that they arecalled to ‘transform the world according tothe Christian order.’ At least since BlessedJohn XXIII’s great encyclical Pacem in Terris,written just before his death in 1963, socialteaching has very clearly included theChurch’s witness for peace and against war,reiterated by the teachings of Gaudium etSpes, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

At first sight it might seem as if deaconshave less to offer in terms of experience forthis area of social teaching than for others.The specialisation in social teaching stemspartly from their secular employment – sothey will know, for example, more thanmost priests do about employment law,wages, health and safety at work, TradesUnions and the world of business andfinance. At least in Europe, few deacons aremembers of the armed forces, althoughsome have been in the past and some areattached to military establishments in asupport role. Does this mean that deaconsshould avoid issues of war and peace?Many of those who pioneer the Church’swork for peace – for example, in Pax Christi– are members of religious orders or laypeo-ple rather than secular priests, let alonedeacons. Perhaps this reflects the outlook ofaffluent and politically conservative parish-es from which deacons are often drawn.

At the time of writing (August 2010) in someof the northern European countries servedby this journal the continuing NATO actionin Afghanistan is a major political issue,punctuated in Britain, for example, by anincreasing number of military casualties. Theleaks of US logs at the beginning of Augustshowed a dark and inept side of the war’sconduct – especially in relation to civiliancasualties. The contingent in Afghanistanfrom the Netherlands has just been with-drawn, after the issue had helped to bringdown the last Dutch government. Althoughaccording to opinion polls there is not much

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Editorial consultantsDr John N Collins (Australia)Rt Revd Gerard de Korte (Netherlands)Revd Dr William Ditewig (USA) Rt Revd Michael Evans (England)Revd Prof Dr Michael Hayes (England)Revd Prof Bart Koet (Netherlands), Rt Revd Vincent Logan (Scotland), Most Revd Sigitas Tamkevicius (Lithuania)

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Deacons and the Afghan War

ondary responsibility flowing from that is toprovide an income to support his family andto pursue his career in such a way as toensure stability. In third place is his ecclesi-astical or parish work. Unlike the priest, thedeacon is not supported financially by thediocese or parish although he should be paidany legitimate expenses his ministry incurs.

Whilst it is the deacon and not his wife whois ordained and mandated by the bishop, anddespite the fact that I know of some deacon’swives who have said to their husbands ‘It’syour ministry not mine, I’m happy for you todo it but don’t involve me’, the deacon’s wifeis inevitably caught up in her husband’s min-istry. After all, the diaconate is not a job, it isa sacrament and has configured the manwho has received it to Christ and specificallyas Christ the servant. This ‘diakonia’ is nowpart of ‘who’ this man is. This deacon and hiswife are ‘one flesh’ and their vocation as amarried couple is to forever seek a deeperunity with each other; this must inevitablymean for the deacon’s wife an ever deeperinvolvement with and understanding of hisdiaconal identity. She cannot be distant fromit without distancing herself from who herhusband is. A deacon’s wife therefore notonly consents to her husband’s ministry butshares in it by facilitating it, supporting it andshares with him in the inevitable sacrificesthat its exercise involves.

I remember one deacon’s wife saying to mewhen I first visited their home. “Since hisordination I’ve realised there are three ofus now in this marriage, my husband,myself and the Church and that has beenhard to come to terms with”. I had onlyrecently been appointed as Director whenthis happened and I realised later that this

In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church,marriage and Holy Orders together, until

recently was a no-go area. All who were inmajor orders were bound by the discipline ofcelibacy. With the advent of the PermanentDiaconate and the admission into theCatholic priesthood of married exAnglicanclergy, we have, after the second VaticanCouncil, entered into a whole new era as faras that important discipline is concerned.

The Council in calling for the re-establish-ment of the Permanent Diaconateapproached the issue of a married diaconaterather gingerly, so in the DogmaticConstitution on the Church article 29 weread: ‘Should the Roman Pontiff think fit, itwill be possible to confer this diaconal ordereven upon married men, provided they be ofmore mature age, and also on suitable youngmen, for whom however, the law of celibacymust remain in force.’ (Italics mine).

Clearly it was envisaged that there wouldbe single men who felt called to the dia-conate rather than the priesthood and whowould be bound by the law of celibacy as itwas recognised that a call to the diaconatewas of a specific nature different to that ofpriesthood. Indeed the experience hasbeen that there are many single men whohave come forward and been ordained asdeacons but the vast majority have been,and continue to be, married men.

Over the past thirty years or so, there hasbeen throughout the world, vast numbers of

to be ordained as a Permanent Deacon.Indeed, the overwhelming majority ofPermanent Deacons are married men.

Right from the start of his formation, theapplicant for permanent diaconate’s wifeis involved. She has to give her written andformal consent to her husband enteringthe formation programme; she is encour-aged to join him and be with him on theprogramme and she must give her formalwritten consent at the end of the pro-gramme before he can be ordained.

During the ordination ceremony it is myexperience that the wives of the ordinandsare often invited by the bishop to vest theirhusbands in the stole and dalmatic; mem-bers of their families take important roleswithin the liturgy including doing readingsand bringing up the Offertory gifts.

Again, right from the beginning, it is madeclear to the diaconal student and later thedeacon that his wife and family along withhis job, career or profession must take prior-ity over his ecclesiastical or parish work. Hereceived the sacrament of marriage beforehe received the sacrament of order, it is as amarried man in union with his wife that heis following Christ, it is from within that rela-tionship that he has heard the call of Christto the diaconate. So his primary responsibil-ity is to protect the relationship he has withhis wife and with his children. His sec-

married men within the Latin Rite who havebeen ordained as deacons. More recently,because of the provision made for convert-Anglican-clergy, many of them married, whowished to become Catholic priests, we nowhave a great number of men in SacredOrders who are married with families.

Initially it was feared that many of the laitywould not welcome the ordained ministry ofmarried men but the truth of the matter isthey have been welcomed with open armsby the vast majority of laity. I live in a parishwhere the Priest-in-charge is a marriedpriest and I can witness to the tremendousacceptance there is of this man’s ministry.

In my view it is time the Church tried toformally assess how well (or otherwise)married ministry is doing in the CatholicChurch. We need to ask the question howwell do Holy Orders and Marriage com-bine to produce an effective ministry forthose not called to celibacy, or is having awife and family an impediment to effectiveministry? What role does the priest or dea-con’s wife and family have within theirministry? Or are they to be hidden awayand hardly acknowledged in the sphere ofthe deacon or priest’s public ministry?

Whilst this article is specifically aboutMarriage and the Permanent Deacon,inevitably some of it will have relevance tothe situation of the married priest.

The first thing to be said is that whereas themarried man is ordained to the priesthoodby dispensation or by way of exception, eachcase invoking a special indult from Rome,there is no such a dispensation requiredfrom the law of celibacy for a married man

Paul Chamberlain


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A distinctive aspect of the ministry ofmost permanent deacons is that they aremarried. We will be including a number ofcontributions relating to this and in thisissue Fr Paul Chamberlain looks at theoverall picture. He is Director of thePermanent Diaconate for the Archdioceseof Birmingham and Vice-Chair of theConference of Diaconate Directors andDeacon Delegates in England and Wales

Marriage and the Permanent Diaconate

... his wife and family alongwith his job, career or professionmust take priority over hisecclesiastical or parish work

certain tensions persist in even the best ofmarriages (1 Cor 7:28; 1 Pet 1:6-8).

Today an excellent and growing body of lit-erature exists by way of offering insightinto the deacon’s diakonia of the liturgy, ofthe Gospel and of works of charity2. Anumber of inter-diocesan, national andinternational conferences have alsoexplored diaconal identity and spiritualityfrom the perspective of this threefoldmunera. There is also a significantincrease in the number of dioceses, who,in the light of contemporary experience,have deemed it prudent and beneficial tointroduce memorandums of understand-ing, covenant agreements and annualreviews involving married deacons, theirspouses, parish priests and bishops3.

There remains, however, a dearth ofresearch, sharing and theological reflec-tion concerning the lived experience ofmarriage, family life and diaconal ministry.Deacon William T. Ditewig identified therelated challenge very well last year whenhe highlighted that whilst there are cen-turies of scholarship on the relationshipbetween celibacy and ordained ministrythere is nothing comparable on the rela-tionship of matrimony and holy orders, i.e.with the exception of Chapter 5 ofMcCaslin & Lawler’s Sacrament of Service:A Vision of the Permanent Diaconate

Bernard Lonergan1

In an age characterised by an unholyactivism, diaconal students and wives

blessed with children, benefit from period-ically reviewing the leadership, as distinctfrom the management, they exert in thefamily. Centuries ago the prophet Amosposed the beautiful question: Do two peo-ple travel together unless they have agreedto do so? (Amos 3:3). The awesome trans-formative power of good communicationneeds no advocate. Factor in recognitionthat all of us, from time to time, contendwith major developments of and not of ourchoosing and the centrality of values-basednegotiated outcomes to family well-beingand contentment is plain-to-see. And yetperhaps it would be true to suggest that

lady probably had not been involved at all inher husband’s formation and so had notreally grown with him into the diaconate. Itmight be the husband who is ordained butin the case of a married deacon his wife toois exercising diakonia in sharing her hus-band with the community he is serving.

Deacon’s wives need to take care that theirhusbands do not forget the priorities Imentioned earlier in this article. She mustnot feel in the least bit guilty aboutreminding her husband that his first prior-ity must be to her and the family; indeedshe has a duty to do that otherwise resent-ment could destroy both his ministry andtheir marriage. Similarly with his job orcareer, it has to take precedence over anyecclesiastical or pastoral duties

Priests need to be sensitive to this; as celi-bates it’s easy to forget that the deacon hastwo other important and prior dimensionsto their lives, family and career. These takeprecedence over their ecclesiastical orchurch work. If the deacon was a celibateand single that would give him a com-pletely different set of priorities very simi-lar in terms of commitment to that of thepriest. But the married man has a God-given responsibility to have a different setof priorities and a parish priest and bishopmust never forget this.

We do not live in an ideal world so it isinevitable that there will be times of traumaand stress for the deacon in his ministry. Itmight be due to a difficult working relation-ship with the Parish Priest or it might flowfrom factional interests within the parish.These things happen. It is often the dea-con’s wife who feels these things more thanher husband. Personal interior struggles arepart of everyone’s spiritual journey, these donot disappear with ordination and these oftheir nature can affect one’s ministry asindeed they can impact upon married lifetoo. The deacon’s marriage is of crucialimportance to his ministry. Theirs is a

shared life what happens to one affects theother so what is happening in his wife’s lifewill impact upon his ministry.

Owen Cummins in his article ’Images of theDiaconate’ describes both the sacrament ofmarriage and the diaconate as sacraments ofself-giving and emphasises their dynamicnature. Both are lived sacraments in thesense that the rite bestows a relationship thatnow has to be lived out. Looking at the ritesof marriage and diaconal ordination hepoints out that ‘both are sacraments ofenrichment and strengthening; both aresacraments of self-donation, to one’s spouseand to the local church through the bishop;both sacraments are permanent; both haveexternal signs of fidelity and of the pledgemade.’ He points out too that whilst ‘no-onewould question that the sacrament of HolyOrder invites and enables the ordinand toencounter and engagement with God inChrist’ some might see the sacrament ofmarriage ‘as not quite equal in this regard;’yet St. Paul spoke of Christian Marriage assignifying the mystery of Christ’s relationshipwith the Church! We in this new era in the

Latin Rite where many in ordained ministryboth diaconal and sacerdotal are marriedneed to ask these men and their wives toreflect more on what these sacraments con-tribute to each other in the life of the Church.

Certainly in England the Church can only begrateful to the many wives and families whohave been generous enough to allow theirhusbands and fathers to serve the Church inthis way. This generosity needs to be morefully but sensitively acknowledged, its signifi-cance more deeply reflected upon. �


Justin HarkinMarriage and the Permanent Diaconate – Paul Chamberlain

... the married man has a God-given responsibility to havea different set of priorities and aparish priest and bishop mustnever forget this

1 From Frederick E. Crowe (ed) Collection: papers by Bernard Lonergan (2nd Edition) Darton,Longman & Todd, 1993, p. 220.

2 e.g. James Keating (ed) The Deacon Reader, Paulist Press, 2006; Gearoid Dullea (ed)Deacons: Ministers of Christ and of God’s Mysteries, Veritas, 2010, Tony Schmitz & AshleyBeck (ed)s, New Diaconal Review, IDC-NEC, 2008 – & Kenan B. Osborne The PermanentDiaconate: its history and place in the Sacrament of Orders, Paulist Press, 2007.

3 For example, e.g. Westminster, Aberdeen and Birmingham.

Justin Harkin is Director of PastoralDevelopment for the diocese of Elphinin the west of Ireland. He has recentlycompleted the Scottish diaconalformation programme

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Marriage and diaconal formation whenchildren are in the formative stage:thoughts from the journey

In the main it is not byintrospection but by reflectingon our living in common withothers that we come to knowourselves. What is revealed? It is an original creation. Freely the subject makes himselfwhat he is, never in this life isthe making finished, always itis in process, always it is aprecarious achievement that can slip and fall and shatter.

chetical session to find a rather large pho-tograph of myself on the ledge in our hall-way. Seven years of marriage told meFiona, my wife, was trying to tell me some-thing I was not hearing in conversation.Her smile indicated her pleasure on hav-ing discerned a new way of getting myattention. Always in awe of her ingenuity, Itried over the coming days, to work outwhat was being said through this photo-graph. Our children had no idea. Then afriend dropped in. My embarrassment inrelation to the august visibility of the photoexceeded my pride! I humbly asked why itwas there.

“Oh, that’s easy to answer”, Fiona replied.“I want our children to know what youlook like!” She proceeded with gentleness

and characteristic humour to draw atten-tion to my increased absences and disen-gagement as I engaged more fully in thecatechetical work. In that moment I alsobecame aware of how tired she was. Itwasn’t just the children who stood in needof my presence and engagement.

This experience has been a great gift andis one I am learning from still.

Other husbands have shared similarmoments of revelation, in one instancearising from work deemed essential to anew business venture and another arisingfrom a man’s passion for supporting thedevelopment of young people throughsport. We were fortunate that the nobilityof our pursuits was not called into ques-tion. Had it been we may not have heardthe invitation to reconsider how we were

responding to our other responsibilities.We were fortunate too in the people weconfided in, people who supported usexplore the inner forces we are respondingto. Furthermore the fact that we werechallenged, which was essential to thewell-being of our marriages and families,paved the way for deeper and ultimatelyliberating truths to have their rightfulplace.

Slow learners like myself, and others whodesire to be generous with their time vis-à-vis ministry, need to be open to regularlyreviewing the consequence of our out-of-home commitment, even when it’s workrelated. Entry into formation and ordina-tion do not alter the developmental stageschildren pass through, ideally accompa-nied by their parents. Parent readers willappreciate when I say related requests are“little” things that carry huge significance.For example, it’s often while kicking a foot-ball that one hears about the current trulydevelopmental facets of school life.Through such engagements we come toknow, experience and appreciate theirworld and sense of reality more profound-ly and herein rest the insights that caninform our Christian parenting.

The Catechism teaches: “The permanentdiaconate, which can be conferred onmarried men, constitutes an importantenrichment for the Church’s mission.Indeed it is appropriate and useful thatmen who carry out a truly diaconal min-istry in the Church … be strengthened bythe imposition of hands ... and their min-istry ... made more fruitful through thesacramental grace of the diaconate” (CCC1571 quoting AG 16 § 6). When it comesto how the diaconate will constitute animportant enrichment of the domesticChurch we should also take seriouslyanother Vatican II teaching, i.e. “The well-being of the individual person and of bothhuman and Christian society is closelybound up with the healthy state of conju-

New Diaconal Review Issue 5 9

Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage – Justin Harkin

Today4. Shift the focus to the years of dia-conal formation and you will find even lessand, given the pressure of studies and pas-toral placements etc. possibly even lesstime for married diaconal students andtheir wives to comfortably contextualisethis sacred calling vis-à-vis their marriage,family, extended-family and communitylife5.

In fact, there can be a real temptation toavoid or postpone such an exploration,particularly if the developmental stages ofchildren are making significant emotionaland psychological demands, if other un-addressed tensions or compromises areinfluencing the marital relationship and ifformation programmes or diaconal stu-dents fail to recognise their holistic spiritu-al formation as the centre of their acade-mic studies.6

Entry into a diaconal formation pro-gramme marks a major development inthe life of any marriage and family.Potential blessings and risks abound7,bringing with them opportunities forgrowth and additional joy. Once again acouple enters a period of transition andreadjustment. The two-tiered nature ofChristian marriage can in some instances,become the focus of conscious attention,i.e. the proclamation, making real and

ongoing celebration of the mutual union ofa specific man and woman and the cou-ple’s proclamation, making real and cele-brating in representation (domesticallyand publicly) the union between Christand the Church8. In countries where cate-chesis in relation to submission to oneanother in Christ is uncommon the path-way to a new consensus, as distinct froman accommodation, can call spouses to adeeper level of communication and at atime when assignments etc. also seekattention. Hopefully, however, marital andpre-marital experience has brought homethe importance of tending to concernsbefore they become major frustrations.Here the insight and ingenuity of wivescan be a powerful force for good.

A short story that precedes my entry intoformation illuminates. I entered theemployment of the Church in May 2000and my work quickly evolved to include asignificant volume of evening pastoraldevelopment and catechetical work.Simultaneously my wife was working full-time and pouring huge energy into theholistic development of our two youngchildren. Come the weekend we bothtended to be tired. It was also the time theysought more of our attention.

One night I returned home from a cate-

New Diaconal Review Issue 58


... it’s often while kicking a football that one hears about the current trulydevelopmental facets of school life

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4 William T. Ditewig “Married and Ordained” in America: The National Catholic Weekly, July20th 2009. Available online athttp://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11771

5 This is not to suggest that major difficulties and problems go un-addressed. Many formationteams, theologically grounded spiritual directors, bishops and experienced pastors remainhighly sensitive to the marital and familial vocation. The bottom line, however, is that no onecan do the work of another person in this area.

6 Here I draw upon the vision of the US Bishops that spiritual formation become the heart ofseminary academics (USCCB Program for Priestly Formation (2006) n. 115). An excellentvision of where such a spiritual formation can take us is communicated in James Keating’s ADeacon’s Retreat, Paulist Press, 2010.

7 See Patrick McCaslin & Michael G. Lawler, Sacrament of Service: a vision of the permanentdiaconate today, Paulist Press, 1986. See Dottie Mraz, Ministry and the family of thepermanent deacon (2nd edition), Alt Publishing Wisconsin, 1997 &

8 For further development of this point see McCaslin & Lawler pp 77 – 79

Over the past decade of my diaconate Ihave experimented with various forms

of preaching. I have discovered, however,only one form that truly impresses itselfupon the consciences of the people and har-monizes with the nature of the Eucharisticmystery itself. I call it contemplative homilet-ics. Its public manifestation appears in thisway: it is brief, it is not read, it is more akinto prayer than to teaching, it carries healing,people receive it eagerly. I believe such a wayof preaching could actually allow us to betterconnect the people to the mystery of Christ’slove and His overwhelming desire to healthem and console them, as well as embold-en them to evangelize. We all know, howev-er, that preaching is as much gift as task.After being in priestly formation for almost20 years now I am convinced that knowledgeof communication techniques, public speak-ing and theology do not in themselves createeffective preachers in our clergy. I do believe,however, that expertise in these skills andstudies once sublated into a contemplativelife will unleash a new power within Catholicpreaching.

Ideally any approach to preaching that iscontemplative (an integrated beholding ofthe Beauty of Christ living within a mindthat has become concentrated in the heart)should stem from a formation in contem-plative theology: one that serves the purpos-es of love imbued truth.2 This type of theol-ogy is founded not upon an individual’squest for discursive information about Godbut upon an ecclesially based desire for holi-ness, upon an integration of knowledge and

love. Theology is knowledge that when leftunobstructed by academic ideology races tocompletion in contemplation; knowledgethat yields learning and savouring. It is aknowledge given as a response to Christ’surgent longing to abide with us and we withHim (John 15). When we live in Him andHe lives in us He makes our thinking aboutHis truth and beauty a holy activity. “Weshould dispose ourselves to go into God so asto love Him with our whole mind, heart, andour whole soul….In this consists…Christian Wisdom. (Bonaventure, Soul’sJourney Into God, 1.4).”

With the desire for holiness comes the con-comitant desire for ongoing repentance. Forhomilies to be occasions for prayer we needto purify vain thinking in our preaching andin its source, our theological musings. Herewe enter the deep water of crying for theHoly Spirit, and the puzzling reality ofpreaching being both gift and task. If weimmerse ourselves in prayer, allowing it topurify us and set us on the road to loving themystery of the Eucharist then soon such amystery will dwell in us. We will becomegifted to preach within the parameters ofhow well we have worked at becoming vul-nerable to the message of the Gospel. Whenthis indwelling occurs we then can speak,preach and pray out of such abiding.

Analogically, this is like the growth that hap-pens in the early stages of marriage. In sucha stage the husband may not yet wish to leave


James Keating

gal and family life” (CCC 1603, cf.Gaudium et Spes 47 § 1).

Care must be taken too not to pin everymarital or familial challenge and possiblepang of spiritual growth on the demands ofdiaconal formation and ministry. As earlyas 60AD St. Paul recognised that marriedcouples have their troubles (1 Cor 7:28)while St. Peter reminded all the faithfulthat they could anticipate all sorts of trialsso that the worth of their faith would beproven (1 Pet. 1:6-8). We know too thatAbraham (and Sarah) became thefriend(s) of God after many trials (James2:23) and that the life of Our Ladyinvolved much hardship and suffering (Lk2:5-8; Mt 2:18, Lk 2:34-35, Mk 3:20-21,

Lk 22 & 23). Moreover, and I believe this isknown in every family where someoneaspires to truly live the gospel, we haveChrist’s prophetic word: “Do not supposethat I have come to bring peace to theearth … No one who prefers father ormother to me is worthy of me. No one whoprefers son or daughter to me is worthy ofme. … Anyone who loses his life for mysake with find it” (Mt 10: 34 – 39).

Looking back over my years in formation Isee more readily how the journey hasbrought to consciousness the operative the-ologies of marriage my wife and I were andare living. I can also perceive God’s fidelityto us more clearly. When we got marriedcertain prayers of blessing invoked God’sblessing on both of us, and more specifical-ly on Fiona, as bride. Through the grace ofthe sacrament those prayers bear fruit

everyday but it is only recently I have cometo give thanks for this daily spring of grace.During the celebration of our marriage wehad received the Holy Spirit as the com-munion of love of Christ and the Church(cf. Eph 5:32). Graciously remaining theseal of our marriage covenant (CCC 1624)He continues, with each passing year, to bethe source of our love and the strength ofour fidelity. In the instance outlined earlierHe spoke through the ingenuity and calm ofa very unselfish wife and the period of won-dering that ensued prepared the ground forthe fresh seed of conversion (Lk 8:8).Conversion, nevertheless, remains a verygradual business for most of us.

If we agree with the opening quotationfrom Lonergan, and particularly thephrase “Freely the subject makes himselfwhat he is”, the need to ensure that thedomain of private prayer and personal the-ological reflection expands rather thancontracts, merits further consideration.Our God-given desire to be the best ofspouses and parents will be forever sup-ported by Christ. However, as my bishop,+ Christopher Jones, reminds me fromtime to time, He does not do for us whatwe can do for ourselves!

Whatever our status in relation to a dia-conal formation programme, we need toplay our part in ensuring that study andpastoral placement engagements augmentrather than cloud out opportunities toprayerfully explore the element of divinegift in diaconal students changed andchanging circumstance. This is likely toremain an ongoing challenge, particularlyfor formation teams (and not just spiritualdirectors) in dioceses that accept fathersof young children. Hopefully too membersof diaconal communities will offer furtherautobiographical insights and we will seethe publication of more qualitativeresearch concerning the relationshipbetween marriage and diaconal formationin New Diaconal Review. �



ContemplativeHomiletics1

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1 Andre Guitton, Peter Julian Eymard, “Preaching is praying out loud”, 1996. 3282 “A progressively scholastic approach to theology …slowly eroded the patristic, medieval sense

of the interconnectedness of theology, wisdom and love. …This growing sense of distancebetween what knowledge can achieve and what is achieved by love…drives a wedge betweenthe Psalmist’s ‘taste’ and his ‘see’, between what is tasted (sapida) and what is known (scien-tia). David Ford, Christian Wisdom, p269.

He spoke through the ingenuityand calm of a very unselfishwife and the period ofwondering that ensued prepared the ground for thefresh seed of conversion

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D, Institute for Priestly Formation, Creighton University,Omaha, Nebraska, USA

message and brevity in length guaranteesthat at least some of the words spoken willbe held in the hearts of the congregation asagents of healing and purification.

There is a necessity for longer meditationsbearing more fulsome doctrinal content.For these occasions one can offer the tra-ditional adult faith formation evening or aforum after the Eucharist has concluded.Another option would be to designate thelast Sunday of the month as a catecheticalSunday, at which time the masses wouldinclude a longer catechetical sermon.

5. Become attuned to time in your preach-ing. When the energy dissipates and drainsout of your message this is the time to stop.It is not the time to rev the engines againand go off in another direction. Do not beafraid of brief homilies that are based uponyour contemplation of the beauty of Christ.As you are speaking discern with Him whenthe power is draining out. Also, you willknow when to go a little longer, if necessary.To continue a little longer you will noticeyour words and affect connecting with asilent eagerness on the congregation’sfaces. This connection will be different thanthe energy you feel when you tell a goodjoke and it feels like people wantmore…more jokes. No, this connecting isnot an affirmation of our gift to be enter-taining, it is the result of your heart andmind searching for the activity of the Spirit.The Spirit comes in silence and power toheal. Is healing going on?? Then go on.

6. Before you begin to preach contempla-tively on a regular basis prepare the congre-gation to receive such. Invite them into thelonger silences at Mass after the homily andafter the reception of Holy Communion.This is vital because longer silences at Masswill necessarily accompany contemplativehomilies. Teach them what to do with andin the silence. Instruct them on how toreceive the healing that comes frompreaching, or instruct them to deepen an

already mature love of the Paschal Mystery.

7. 5 minute homilies spoken from out of theintimacy the preacher shares with theTrinity and ordered by a life of ‘thinking withthe Church” will be most effective. It is bet-ter to release yourself from reading homiliesas soon as you begin to feel comfortable. Theprolonged habit of reading homilies simplydelays a preacher’s familiarity with interior-ity and slows his capacity to trust the Spiritduring the prayerful preparation period.Also, it is a fact that people listen and receivehomilies more readily when spoken out ofthe homilist’s place of interior communionwith Christ. The homily should then be fol-lowed by 3 minutes of silence. The homilysets up the healing that flows through thesilence that follows it. The silence is thetime of healing. Silence is not elective,silence is the cause of effective homiliesonce the congregation has been instructedon what to do within it.

8. To preach from a contemplative fount isto speak from the communion you havewith Christ. He uses each one of our per-sonalities in His effort to reach the parish-ioner. The contemplative homiletic wayendeavors to integrate with your own styleand personality, it is not to be a source ofartificiality giving rise to anxiety or worry.

As you complete your homily and invite thepeople into prolonged silence it can be help-ful to give them a point for further prayer orto raise up a theme that you want them toappropriate intentionally, thus assistingthem with fruitfulness of the silence.

In the end such a way of preaching willmove the congregation to anticipate ahealing of the affect and an elevation ofthe intellect in its capacity to marvel overthe Mystery of Christ’s own love. Fromsuch a result will flow a parish thatbelieves more deeply that Christ is aliveand not simply that our memory and ourknowledge about Him keeps Him so. �


the safety of his “bachelor” identity, clingingto its comfort and wells of affirmation. He isnot ready to die to self. The wife, however,calls out to him to let her define his place ofliving now. She is insecure until the husband“pays attention” to her and she can internal-ize his presence thus setting both free to bewho they said they wanted to be “united inlove.” Since he is now one with his spouse hebegins to think and speak and act like a hus-band. He doesn’t cling to some past “script”of his life since his spouse lives in him and hein her and the language of knowing and lov-ing simply flows out of them freely. And so itis with those who have been “obedient” to theGospel…it lives in them and they in it. Fromsuch intimacy flow homilies that carry thegrace of union with God for all in the congre-gation. And, powerfully, the preacher’s ownintimacy with God deepens every time hepreaches, not from a place of stored data, butfrom a place of intimate communion.

The goal of contemplative homiletics is toallow the truths of the text to silence andpurify the hearts of the listeners. In otherwords, preaching is to be the occasion forthe Holy Spirit’s power of healing, ratherthan vainly thinking that our arrangementof words causes such healing. To be thecause of such activity is, of course, impossi-ble. But our unpurified egos may think thatthe more we labor with words and study andrhetoric the more power will be released.Instead the more you point to God in yourhomilies the more His power of love will bereceived by the congregation. This would beakin to what happens in contemplative spir-itual direction. In such direction the direc-tor leans to one side allowing the directee toglimpse the eyes of God. The director simplyfacilitates this mystic beholding. In homiliesthis too is all we want; at a homily’s conclu-sion people ought to be more beguiled byGod’s love and assured of His presence intheir lives. What facilitates the Holy Spirit’s

power to silence and purify the listener istheir own suffering of the integration of theirlove for Him and knowledge of Him.

How might one prepare acontemplative homily?:1. Receive the rationale for such a method:During the course of a week parishionersare being filled with intellectual content inthe form of information, data, and distract-ing ideologies. To some extent they may beshutting down intellectually during mass.We do not want to give them another roundof data in the midst of the Mysteries. We dowant to refresh them with the Word, con-spiring with the Spirit to heal them andoffer them rest in the truth that theyencounter in the Eucharist. This rest isreceived by their eager vulnerability to thetruth proclaimed in the Gospel and in theSacrifice of Christ within which they are allnow immersed. We also want to build onthe work of the Spirit who has been com-ing to them from within the very fabric oftheir lives during the week, subtle but sure.

2. As you prepare your homily sit with thetext and behold the beauty of love thatemerges. Let the Spirit raise up theBeauty, do not search for it as a task.

3. Allow the love that is stirred in your soulover this beauty to be felt and appropriat-ed. Let this love take you…receive thislove and abide with Christ in and with andover the text. Enter whatever level ofprayer He wants to gift you with.

4. Ask Christ to deliver to you the image orword or affection3 He wants you to ponderin the text… the one that bears beauty. Thisis what you share with the congregation.This should be a simple message, not one ofgreat theological complexity or dense dis-course. Preaching is one of the least effec-tive forms of communication. Simplicity in


Contemplative Homiletics – James Keating Contemplative Homiletics – James Keating

3 By affection I mean those feelings that arise as a result of the mind being united to the objectivetruth of doctrine and scripture, not a free floating emotion unmoored from salvific truth.

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ing. In other words knowledge by itself isinsufficient in comprehending the truenature of Christ. The same can be said forfamiliarity. His teaching in the synagogueonly produces skepticism (3:21-3, 31-35),the local people remember him as a car-penter and know his family; as a result

both his wisdom and miracles cannot beaccounted for. This means that there hasbeen no faith response to his ministry andtherefore a total lack of understanding asto his true identity (6:7). This failure tobring about faith is also extended to hisdisciples as we have already seen. That isnot to say, however, that many people werenot enthused by his miracles because theywere (6: 53-56). However, what we aremaintaining is that this is not necessarilyfaith. As we come to the critical chapter 8in Mark the point is made again about thelack of understanding as to who Jesus is.After the second feeding of the multitude(8: 1-10) the Pharisees still demand a signfrom heaven to prove who Jesus is. His

response is to tell them that no such signon demand will be given to this generation,‘Do you still not understand, still not real-ize? Are your minds closed? Have you eyesand do not see, ears and do not hear?’ (8:17-18). Words such as these to his disci-ples clearly make the point that even theyafter seeing the multitudes fed twice stillfail to understand who Jesus really is andwhat this means. The teaching, parablesand even the miracles by themselves arenot enough. Jesus himself realises this andnow his life must take another course.Perhaps the healing of the blind man (8:22-26) becomes an indicator for us as heonly comes to sight through stages. Withthis miracle the first stage of Jesus’ min-istry is complete, now the disciples will bebrought to true faith and a true under-standing of who he is and how his life fullyreveals the nature of God only through hissuffering, death and resurrection.

There comes a point in Mark’s Gospelwhen Jesus, perhaps, appears to admit tohimself that miracles alone will fail to leadthe disciples to a true understanding offaith. That moment occurs in Mark 8: 27-33. Peter is right in professing that Jesus is‘The Christ,’ but there is no reference tohis suffering which in turn for Our Lordindicates a profound lack of real under-standing. As a result Jesus makes it clearthat he must suffer and die with his firstprediction of his passion (8: 31). As wehave already noted Peter rejects this andin so doing Jesus links his understandingof him with that of Satan. As we move onthrough the Gospel, however, no matterwhat form miracles take they still fail toinspire a true understanding of Jesus. Takethe transfiguration for example. Here


Suffering, whether it be physical, emo-tional, mental or spiritual is part of

being human. It is a fundamental part ofour nature. Yet most of the time we runaway from it, failing to come to terms withit and therefore failing to understand it. Inthis article we will examine the role of suf-fering in the life of Jesus as portrayed inthe Gospel of Mark. Our aim will be toillustrate that suffering is not somethingthat we should run away from replacing itwith a romantic, idealized fantasy that thegoal of human existence is to ‘be’ withoutsuffering. However, neither is it somethingthat we should actively seek thereby turn-ing it into some kind of virtue. But suffer-ing is something that we should attempt tounderstand, to make sense out of becauseit played such a fundamental role in thelife of Jesus and his revelation of thenature of God.

When Peter replied to Jesus, ‘You are theChrist,’ (Mark 8:30) did he really under-stand what he was saying or did he stillimagine the Messiah as a Davidic, glorifiedking returned in triumph that would liber-ate the people of God militarily? It is nocoincidence that at this moment, the turn-ing point in Mark’s Gospel, that Jesusbegins to teach the disciples that he mustsuffer and die. Peter’s response is torebuke him; showing his complete lack ofunderstanding in a suffering Messiah letalone a crucified God. Whilst at the sametime Jesus drives home the point thatPeter is, in fact, thinking like a man andnot God (8: 33). Here then we have thefirst clear insight into Jesus and his revela-tion of the true nature and being of God.That if he, his ministry and his mission isto be understood, suffering must be seen

as a fundamental part of it. As if to drivethe message home even further, at thispoint, Jesus also makes it clear that suffer-ing is also a condition of discipleship (8:34-38).

In our short journey through Mark we willnow see how from this point on in theGospel Jesus continues to confront andchallenge his disciples, the people and thereligious authorities with the true natureof God and the Messiah through suffering.It will become clear that time and timeagain everyone failed to understand whatwas being revealed and how in the endonly his own suffering, death and resur-rection could make everything clear. In thefirst half of the Gospel and up to theproclamation of faith by Peter Jesus hasbeen misunderstood and this despite all of

his teaching and miracles. From now onthe number of miracles rapidly declines asJesus makes it clear that such signs canonly ever be really understood when theyare intimately linked to his victory overdeath through suffering.

It is interesting to note that although thedemons recognise who Jesus is (see Mark1: 34) there is no link at all to understand-


Sean Loone

Mark, suffering and that big question, ‘Who do people say I am?’Deacon Sean Loone works in the

parish of Our Lady of Wayside, Shirley,in the Archdiocese of Birmingham

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It is interesting to notethat although thedemons recognise whoJesus is, there is no linkat all to understanding.In other wordsknowledge by itself isinsufficient incomprehending the truenature of Christ

Jesus makes it clear thatsuch signs can only everbe really understoodwhen they are intimatelylinked to his victory overdeath through suffering

mate name Jesus uses for his Father, Abba,an Aramaic word, which suggests a famil-iar, family relationship. Now on the crossand speaking for the first and only timeJesus cries out, ‘My God, my God, whyhave you forsaken me?’ (15: 34). At thispoint Mark drops the word Abba and

replaces it with God. Here, perhaps, wesee the full revelation of Jesus Christ, theSon of God, in pain and suffering for allhumanity to look upon for all time. Nolonger would Jesus just teach about thetrue nature and being of God now hewould fully reveal it through suffering.This is what the disciples and all whowould follow him must understand. Thusin full communion with God and with thewhole human race Jesus actually feels for-saken, abandoned and alone and as aresult cannot use the intimate family term‘Abba,’ instead he is reduced to using anaddress common to all human beings, ‘MyGod.’ Yet still there appears to be noanswer before Jesus dies. How utterlypointless it must have all seemed to thedisciples. Jesus the one they had left every-thing to follow had suffered and died justas he said he would but none of it had anymeaning, none of it made any sense; howcould it?

What comes next is equally astounding.Early on the third day after his burial threewomen, expecting to find a corpse, maketheir way to the tomb to anoint the body ofJesus. However, to their astonishment thetomb is, in fact, empty. They encounter ayoung man who informs them that, ‘Hehas been raised ... he is going before you toGalilee where you will see him, just as hetold you.’ (Mark 16: 7) Yet the women pro-ceed to disobey the young man’s commandto go and tell the disciples and Peter whatthey have seen and heard. Instead they, ineffect, run away out of fear and say noth-ing to anyone. Yet we should not be sur-prised by this in that Mark’s theology hasbeen consistent throughout his Gospelthat even a proclamation of the resurrec-tion does not by itself produce faith with-out those who hear it experiencing a per-sonal encounter with suffering.

This in effect is where our journey beganand will also end. The women fled in fearfrom the tomb just as we are tempted torun away, in fear and through a lack ofunderstanding, from suffering. Jesus bidsus to stay and trust him. Perhaps for thisreason when we revisit Mark’s Gospel webegin to see things a little differently inthat those who are suffering are very oftenthose who are more open to the GoodNews. Suffering is by its very nature part

of our universal human condition. Yet it isstrange that the more we refuse to under-stand it the less open to God we become.Is it any wonder that those who are literal-ly stripped of everything therefore are veryoften those are more open to God? Is itbecause in a suffering and crucified Godwe also see ourselves? �


Mark, Suffering and that big question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ – Sean Loone

Jesus appears with both Moses and Elijahin all his glory. The disciples do not knowwhat to say other than to offer to buildthree tabernacles as in Exodus 25-27; 36-38. However, they do take the opportunityto question Jesus about the return of

Elijah. Yet, once again, Jesus in reply talksabout his own suffering and links Elijahwith the now dead John the Baptist. In sodoing Jesus appears to be taking the oppor-tunity to point to the potential fate for allthose who would bear witness to him (9: 1-8). Lack of faith and understanding istaken up by Jesus again when in responseto the disciples’ inability to drive out ademon he says, ‘Faithless generation, howmuch longer must I be among you? (9:19). By the time we reach Mark 9:30-32Jesus makes a second predication abouthis passion which ends with the state-ment, ‘But they did not understand whathe said and were afraid to ask him’ (9: 32).

The third passion prophecy is the mostdetailed of all as the events Jesus describesare getting closer. By now James and Johnare ready to ask Jesus about their place inthe kingdom of Heaven but Jesus chal-lenges them about imitating the course hemust take which is one of suffering (10:32-40). At the same time he also makes itclear that in the kingdom of Heaven ser-vice is the only sign of greatness, ‘For theSon of man himself came not to be servedbut to serve, and to give his life as a ran-som for many’ (10: 45). Once again Jesusis trying to teach the disciples about histrue nature and mission but is only metwith a failure to understand. As Jesusenters Jerusalem on a colt (Zech 9: 9) andis proclaimed king in the line of David Ps118: 26 this may have been a great honour

but once again shows a complete and totallack of understanding about Jesus and histrue being.

As we enter the garden of Gethsemane(Mark 14:26-52) we finally come to thecentral suffering element of the wholeGospel. Jesus predicts that the discipleswill abandon him and that Peter will rejecthim. Mark is setting a tragic tone of loneli-ness, isolation and suffering; the fruition ofeverything that Jesus has said about him-self. More than any other Gospel there is afeeling of total abandonment and failure asthe drama unfolds. Jesus will now faceeverything alone. He is condemned by theSanhedrin and mocked while outsidePeter denies him. During the Roman trialhe is handed over to be crucified by Pilateand once again mocked. The continuedtheme of mocking only serves to remindthe reader that everyone fails to recognisewho Jesus is. After all despite everythingJesus had taught his disciples about hisfate how was such a thing possible for‘The Christ?’ (8: 30).

Jesus would literally have to show them ifthey were to understand. Thus from theninth hour three groups of people were tomock him on the cross; passersby, chiefpriests and those who were crucified withhim. Once again this illustrates a completelack of understanding in a crucified God.Mark actually began his passion accountwith the prayer of Jesus, ‘Abba, Father ……take this cup away from me …. ‘ (14: 36).Here we should take note of the very inti-


Mark, Suffering and that big question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ – Sean Loone

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No longer would Jesusjust teach about the truenature and being of Godnow he would fullyreveal it throughsuffering

Mark’s theology has beenconsistent throughout hisGospel that even aproclamation of theresurrection does not byitself produce faithwithout those who hearit experiencing apersonal encounter withsuffering

More than any other Gospelthere is a feeling of totalabandonment and failure asthe drama unfolds

... those who are suffering arevery often those who are moreopen to the Good News

entered the culture of Protestant countriesin ways from which Catholics were largelyexcluded, and this would be true all overnorthern Europe. In the British Isles itmeans that most Catholics (unless they areconverts) would know next to nothing ofthe influence and importance of the KingJames version of the Bible, and of thepreaching and poetry in the 18th centuryof the founders of what we now callMethodism, John and Charles Wesley.Wansbrough approaches the brothers withgreat warmth and sympathy, and does agreat service by quoting poetry which is noteasily accessible elsewhere – he gives in fullCharles Wesley’s beautiful ‘Come, O ThouTraveller unknown’ based on the strugglebetween Jacob and the angel of the Lord inGenesis 32:23-33 (pp. 135-8). ForCatholics and many other Christians theway the Bible is used in Wesley’s thousandsof hymns is something we have never beenmade aware of.

This issue of our journal is being pub-lished a few weeks after Pope Benedict’sbeatification in Birmingham of John HenryNewman, so Wansbrough’s chapter on him

is particularly welcome, the only post-Reformation Catholic writer (and a con-vert) to be covered, significantly. He focus-es on the way Newman views the Bible inhis great Essay on the Development ofChristian Doctrine – the problem withJudaism as we see it from the scriptures,for example, in its inability to develop.Wansbrough’s title is ‘The Use and Abuseof the Bible’ and he illustrates abuse mosttrenchantly in chapter 12, ‘The Bible andthe State of Israel’. Drawing on Dr NurMasalha’s important work The Bible andZionism he dissects the sloppy use of theOld Testament by early Zionists – and theuncritical acceptance of this by BritishGovernment in the 1917 BalfourDeclaration. Bad biblical history has beenused to bolster aggression and the oppres-sion of the Palestinian people and alsomoulded the work of scholars and archae-ologists; Wansbrough’s conclusion is thatthe building of the modern secular state ofIsrael on this abuse of the Bible and of his-tory is ‘a falling away, a diversion’ from thevocation of the Jewish people (p. 166). Inspite of the appeals of Christians in theHoly Land of charities which supportthem, many Catholics in northern Europeare woefully ignorant about the history ofIsrael and Palestine, largely because of pro-Israeli sentiments in much of the press, sothis chapter is particularly welcome.

The last chapter deals with theBenedictine tradition of lectio divina,increasingly being used now in parish andother groups1. The present Holy Fatherconstantly urges us in his writings to drawon different parts of our tradition in ourreading of the scriptures: based on good his-torical study this book is a good way to beginto do this. It is perhaps too easy for review-ers in this journal to claim that a good bookshould be on every formation reading list –but this one should certainly be read byevery diaconate student and deacon.

Ashley Beck


The Use and Abuse of the Bible A Brief History of BiblicalInterpretation

Author: Henry Wansbrough OSB ISBN: 978-0-567-09057-7Date: 2010Price: £14.99Publisher: Continuum, London

In diaconate formation programmes thestudy of sacred scripture is expected, natu-rally, to be a large element, partly becauseof a deacon’s responsibility to preach theWord of God. As most programmes arepart-time it is hard to do as much as wewould like, so Dom Henry Wansbrough’snew history of aspects of biblical interpre-tation is very welcome. He is the foremostCatholic biblical scholar alive in Britaintoday, largely responsible for the 1985English edition of the New Jerusalem Bibleand the recent CTS Catholic Bible. FrWansbrough writes in an easy style accessi-ble to those studying the Bible for the firsttime and for laypeople in general. Hisopening chapter looks at the ways in whichthe Jesus and St Paul in the NewTestament make use of the Jewish scrip-tures, and he goes on to look at early patris-tic biblical scholarship, concentrating onMelito of Sardis, Irenaeus and Origen.There is substantial treatment of Jerome –while the author has a deep knowledge ofhis work, he in not blind to his faults, par-ticularly his infamous rudeness: ‘ToAugustine’s polite suggestion that he isready to accept from Jerome any correctionof scriptural interpretations, Jerome repliesthat he has never read Augustine’s workswith attention...’ (p. 63) While recognisingthe enormous value of Jerome’s Vulgate,Wansbrough candidly points out that hispreference for the Hebrew text of the OldTestament prepared the ground for MartinLuther’s rejection of the deuterocanonicalbooks at the Reformation, leading to a divi-sion among Christians about the Biblewhich prevails today.

For those who are English the VenerableBede occupies a special place in Christian

history, and Wansbrough gives due weightto his great volume of work of biblical inter-pretation, recognised in his being a Doctorof the Church and the use of his work inthe Divine Office. In the medieval periodthe author concentrates initially onBernard and Thomas Aquinas, and thendevotes a chapter to ‘two Norfolk ladies’who are easily overlooked, Julian ofNorwich and Margery Kempe. One of thisbook’s many strong points is the way inwhich Wansbrough constantly breaks downthe artificial barriers between scholars andspiritual writers which exists in our ownage, and his examination of the way theseremarkable women of medieval Englanduse the Bible is an example of that. Histreatment also exposes the falsehood oftenrepeated that laypeople in medievalEurope were unfamiliar with the Word ofGod.

Today the study of the scriptures is a fieldof theological activity which is moremarked by ecumenical co-operation thanany other. This has only been possiblebecause we are able to look candidly at thecontexts of past disputes about the Bible,and this is shown in Wansbrough’s treat-ment of Martin Luther; he draws on thework of Anglican scholars and refers thereader to them (e.g. MacCullogh, OwenChadwick and McGrath). Wansbrough isdrawn to the treatment of the Bible in hisearly work (‘a racy and hard-hitting quali-ty’), but shows how his obsession with see-ing the Church as irredeemably in errorgradually takes over and affects all hisjudgements, with tragic results. As he putsit, ‘Brilliant, witty and down-to-earth asLuther’s argumentation on the Scriptureoften is, sundered from the deep trust inthe tradition of the Church, to the Catholicit has a strange maverick quality whichtaints the whole and radically reduces itsvalue.’ (p. 119)

It is often claimed, and rightly, thatCatholics are less conversant with the Biblethan other Christians. Many are likely to beeven less aware of the way the Bible has


Review

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1 See Sean Murphy New Diaconal Review 1 (2008)

have with him”. Thirdly, and not unlike St.Paul, stylistically he is provocative for thesake of the Gospel, both in terms of thecomplementary strands of his eucharisticmeditations and the searching questionsand prayer considerations placed beforereaders.

When Deacon Tony Schmitz invited meto review this book I anticipated a leisurelyafternoon in a favoured armchair readingand making a few notes that would latershape this review. Engagement with theopening pages, however, indicated that thisbook offers a grace-filled means to everyordained minister and diaconal aspirant torevisit their vocation. In good hands thisbook has the power of a prescriptive medi-cine that quickly and effectively counter-acts human tendencies and ailments thatrender men inept in relating with Christ orless than Christ desires them to be.

If you have been plodding along, don’t besurprised that you experience this book as

a wake-up call. If you feel you are doingwell and that you are as Christ the ServantKing wants you to be, take up this book andsee what word the Spirit speaks to yourheart. Be assured it may well be one of confirmation.

A final word to diaconal students and for-mation team members. Yes, this is a veryworthwhile book, one you may choose toreturn to time and again. It offers an excel-lent answer to the question: “what is a dea-con?” Whilst the deacon’s role during Massis Keating’s setting, his deliberations, coreteachings and invitations, might best besummarised in John 10:10: “I have comethat they may have life and have it to thefull” and the deacon’s part in fulfilling thisword. It also offers a valuable synopsis ofwhat it is for deacons to proclaim the gospeland preside at the liturgy of charity … fun-damentals of every deacon’s ministry.

Justin Harkin, Director of PastoralDevelopment (Diocese of Elphin)


A Deacon’s RetreatAuthor: Deacon James KeatingISBN: 978-0-8091-4644-4Date: 2010Price: £7.50Publisher: Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, Pages: 75

Whether an ordained minister or diaconalstudent takes a week, a day, or an occa-sional hour to reflect upon his life and min-istry, he is guaranteed to encounterencouragement, nourishment, confirma-tion and a deep call to conversion withinthese pages. Through eight short medita-tions structured around the role of the dea-con during Mass and offered as a retreat(but open to many other possibilities),Keating takes his readers on an adeptlyfocussed reflective spiritual journey.

In light of this the core question under-pinning this review must be, how effectivelydoes Keating do this? Exceptionally well inthe opinion of this reviewer, not least owingto Keating’s forthright engagement, where-by he judiciously and expediently engageshis reader’s heart. In fact, this short bookhas the hallmarks of a spiritual classic with-in deacon literature. Throughout oneencounters a lived theology of Eucharist,beautifully articulated without flinching orside-stepping the tensions characteristic ofliving a Eucharistic spirituality today.

This theology is enfolded in Keating’sillumination of the richness of the mysteryof Jesus’ own self-gift through the Mass,communicated via contemporary imagesthat lend towards easy comprehension.Indeed some insights could be redevelopedand presented in homilies or in a catech-esis on the Eucharist with relative ease.Overall the content interweaves graciouslywith the general thrust of this book, i.e.Keating’s desire to encourage true conver-sion. Every page is infused with a Spirit-inspired desire to support deacon readerstoward “the beginning or deepening of aradical availability to the mystery ofChrist”.

Moreover these meditations distil muchof the wisdom Keating has accruedthrough pondering his own ministry as adeacon, his presentation and facilitation ofmany workshops etc., his thirteen yearsteaching moral and spiritual theology inthe School of Theology at the PontificalCollege Josephinum in Ohio, his currentministry as Director of TheologicalFormation in the Institute for PriestlyFormation at Creighton University inOmaha, Nebraska, his writing and editingof other books (e.g.Spirituality and MoralTheology: essays from a pastoral perspec-tive (2000) and The Way of Mystery: theEucharist and Moral Living (2006) and hiscommitment to promoting the vision of theUS Bishops that spiritual formationbecome the heart of seminary academics(USCCB Program for Priestly Formation(2006) n. 115).

Keating’s wonderful achievement, in thisinstance, is threefold. Firstly he establishesand maintains a meaningful and easilypenetrable Christo-centric prayer contextfor his engaging reader. Secondly, in theformative power of true prayer he appealsto the character of his reader, i.e. to be aman who “no longer lets the occupations ofthe day become a pretext for denying toChrist the interior intimacy he desires to


Review

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Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:And then besides that, you wanted to bea deacon as well. Why?

Hans van Beumel: This has grown gradu-ally through my social involvement. Mynovice master, Friar van de Reijken, knew

that my heart was with underprivilegedpeople and he started to put me on the dia-conate trail. Eventually I opted for the dia-conate formation course in the Archdioceseof Utrecht, because there I found, besidestheoretical training a practical formationincluding service opportunities. And in viewof my age, I preferred a concrete formation.I did not want to waste too much time!During my novitiate, amongst other things,I trained in Brussels at Pagasa, at a centrefor victims of trafficking, which was a mov-ing experience. Equally important at thatperiod was the supervision which gave me abetter insight into how I functioned.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:Who else has inspired you?

Hans van Beumel: Johny de Mot, a priestin the centre of Brussels, is to me a greatinspiration in the field of diaconia (Churchsocial welfare work); in his social work, inthe way he deals with people, in the links hemakes between diaconia and liturgy which

by nature belong together. His approach isthe one I followed in my future work.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:And then you were ordained deacon at theend of 2002 and appointed to work in theCity of Delft. How did this come about?

Hans van Beumel: I became a member ofthe pastoral team with a special assignmentgiven by the Bishop of Rotterdam to increasethe diaconal awareness in Delft and to do soif at all possible in ecumenical co-operationwith the various Protestant ecclesial com-munities. At Christmas in 2003 we had ourfirst celebration for homeless people and thechurch was packed. After that our commit-tee organised a monthly liturgy, followed by ameal. Altogether there have been about ahundred and twenty such services. Whenhomeless people went to hospital I visitedthem. Sometimes they would be wrestlingwith a huge feeling of guilt. I then prayedwith them for mutual forgiveness and I triedto trace relatives or children so that contactcould be made before the moment of death.Afterwards we would hold special servicesfor them in church.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:Which diaconal committees did you start?

Hans van Beumel: Following the exampleof Johny de Mot, I think it is important not tostart personal initiatives but to do so as groupinitiatives. In Delft we now have a group thatprepares the liturgy and meals for the home-less; a group that organises liturgy for peoplewith a mental handicap; a group which visitselderly people in a nursing home; a groupwhich plays with handicapped children; anda ‘foodbank’ where parcels with food are got


Surrounded by the flowers in the ‘Hofvan Lof’ (Garden of Praise), the beau-

tiful garden belonging to the friary of theFranciscans in Megen (Noord-Brabantprovince, Netherlands) I speak with Hansvan Bemmel, Franciscan and deacon.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:Can you tell us something about yourvocation?

Hans van Beumel: Actually I have beeninvolved in my faith all my life, albeit withvarying degrees of intensity at different times.As a boy I went to the Franciscan junior sem-inary. I wanted to become a priest, I foundthe liturgy – as well as the Franciscan habit –beautiful. At a certain moment, however, Inevertheless left the seminary and went offin a different direction. I ended up workingfor the Hema, a Dutch warehouse chain,eventually in management. Yet faith did notabandon me. Whilst walking one day I wasstruck by the text on a building: God is love.Later, in the car, I heard Gregorian chantingthat really moved me. In 1983 Hema trans-ferred me to Utrecht. There I met a studentwho attended the Ariënsconvict, the dioce-san formation centre for future priests andhe invited me to drop by some day. Later onI visited the Benedictine Abbey ofChevetogne in Belgium. Benedictine spiritu-ality quite appealed to me but I did not (yet)take the step towards the monastery. Then in1993 a message appeared on a Catholic web-site: Would you like to become a temporaryFranciscan? Both my mother and a priestbrought this to my attention. It turned out tobe an invitation to live and work for a year ina Franciscan community. At the end of thatyear, one would be free to leave. My employ-er gave me the opportunity to take a year off.

It was a turning point in my life. The questionforcefully imposed itself: What do I want todo with the rest of my life? It was a questionabout meaning, a search for God. And itbrought a certain fear as well. If I were to takesuch a step, I would have to let go of manythings – my job, my house, my car, etc. But Iwanted to meet the challenge.

Whilst living in the Franciscan community inHeerlen, I made my first contact with home-less folk, which was a far-reaching experi-ence. Twice a week I worked with them andat the same time I pursued courses at theUniversity for Theology and Pastoral Ministryin Heerlen. After six months I wondered: DoI have to return at some point to my job withHema? I was advised to speak with the broth-er in charge of vocations, because, after all, itwas a major turning point in my life. Thisbrother said: ‘Try it, surrender!’ So I decidedto enter the Franciscans first as a postulantand then as a novice.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:Why the Francsicans after all and not theBenedictines or the Dominicans?

Hans van Beumel: The social involvementof the Franciscans appealed to me. Thestory of the conversion of St Francisthrough his meeting the leper touched meat a profound level. The confrontation withthe homeless was a similarly deep experi-ence. After Francis, St Augustine has alsobeen a special source of inspiration. Thesearch for God, the mystery, all the thingsthat are beyond our reasoning, fascinateme in Augustine, as in the famous story ofthe child with the little bucket at the beach.And of course my patron saint St. John theEvangelist is a source of inspiration.


Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens

Interview with Hans van Beumel OFMThis is the text of an interview withwhich took place at Megen in theNetherlands on 1 June 2010.

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The story of the conversion of St Francis through his meeting the leper touched me at a profound level. Theconfrontation with the homelesswas a similarly deep experience

with the local council, I also benefit frommy employment experience. From this Iknow that it is very important not tobecome emotional, even when you totallydisagree with another. The importantthing is to remain in touch, to keep thelines of communication open.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:So, Franciscan and manager?

Hans van Beumel: Sometimes it merges,but in the midst of all the organising andmanaging it is important to remain aware ofthe centre and source from which you liveas a Franciscan. For me everything beginswith God: God is love. This love I may passon. The upbringing I have received hasbeen very important for my formation in

life. I have had the good fortune to receiveso many good things in my life! Always

look for the mystery of God. Thatkeeps you sharp and is the source

from which I live. �

Translated by Paul Wennekesand Gail Schmitz

Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM – Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens

together for people of slender means.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:How do you manage to find so many volunteers for such diaconal work?

Hans van Beumel: We now have about ahundred and fifty volunteers in Delft. Thespirituality of St. Francis fascinates peopleand they freely and happily volunteer. In myhomilies I attend a great deal to diaconia andpeople are touched by this. It is importantnot to overburden volunteers, not to givethem too many different responsibilities.Therefore I always look for new volunteersfor every new project and I try to have morevolunteers than I actually need. And I sharemy activities (a new kind of diaconia, whichis exciting!). And by making the eveningscosy and comfortable, you create a snowballeffect and new people will join all the time. Itis very important to be interested in the per-sonal well being of the volunteers. Visit themwhen they are sick, see them as a deaconwhen they are working on their project. Forinstance I participate in the work of the food-bank every Thursday. It is all about mutualfidelity. The group of volunteers is a sort offamily that enjoys seeing one another.

(Remark by NWS: On account of his greatdiaconal involvement Hans van Bemmelwas in 2009 declared Delft’s Best-knownCitizen, quite something in this age of sec-ularisation!).

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:Looking back on your time in Delft, whatwere the highlights?

Hans van Beumel: That we have been ableto transform a middle class parish into a dia-conal church community. In the past thehomeless were for example not very wel-come in church. Now they are beingembraced. They feel that they are part ofthe community. You may be homeless butyou are never ‘cityless’. Everybody has anequal right to the city. Another highlight is

the way the volunteers have grown in theirinteraction with people who are in danger of‘falling out of society’. Then next, there wasthe contact with local politicians. Therewere difficult moments, for instance inrespect of the food bank. There was a battleto be fought with the local alderman. For adeacon here we had a clear task: exposing asocial unjustice. As a cleric I had the advan-tage of easier access to the townhall. Butmake sure that you know your business andthat you know your facts. Have clear casesand figures which illustrate people’s needs.The central idea is that justice must bedone. You must be ‘a louse in the fur’ as wesay in Dutch. In the end a so-called Pactagainst Poverty was established in whichseventy different organisations (churches,political parties, social organisations, evenshops) committed themselves to an ‘anti-poverty policy’. They meet four times a yearand a lot of networking happens in this pact.Once a problem is identified, one can easilyfind the right people to solve the issue.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:And of course there is M25…

Hans van Beumel: It was our ardent desireto involve young people in the diaconal work.We were helped by the fact that several dia-conal groups were already working well. Oneday we had a group of post-Confirmationyoungsters and we read the text of Matthew,chapter 25. One of the youngsters who vol-unteered suggested the name of M25. Theystarted helping in the services for the home-less and with the meals afterwards. Theygradually became involved in all the otheractivities. The youngsters’ group in Delftnow has twenty-two members. Following inDelft’s footsteps, we now have twelve M25groups in the Diocese of Rotterdam andother dioceses are also most interested.

Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens:One question intrigues me: how did yourformer job as a manager influence yourwork in the diaconate?


Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM – Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens

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Following the exampleof Johny de Mot, I thinkit is important not tostart personal initiativesbut to do so as group initiatives

Hans van Bemmel OFM,

(pictured here).

Image used by permission: © 2010, Johan G Willems

Hans van Beumel: First of all in the wayyou deal with people, how you direct them,how you compliment them, but also howyou criticise them in a positive way. Andthen in the way I organize my work. I knowI have to prioritise tasks every day. I makea detailed plan each week. In my contacts

quest for a single currency is a terrible out-rage and infringement of national inde-pendence. These articles seek to show thatsince the European ‘enterprise’ and grow-ing European unity are the natural appli-cation of the social doctrine of our Church,Catholics in the whole of the EU – insideand outside the present ‘eurozone’ –should be enthusiastic supporters of thesingle currency; and since deacons arecalled to be specialists in social doctrine3,they should be in the vanguard of thosesupporting it, particularly in this period offinancial crisis. If they are working incountries that have not adopted the Eurothey should be campaigning for them to do so.

It is perhaps useful to recall how inconve-nient life was before the Euro was intro-duced: shortly before it was I travelled bytrain in one day from London to Salzburgfor the IDC International Study confer-ence in March 2001: simply to buy coffeeand food for a single day one neededBelgian francs, deutschemarks andschillings – what was needed evenchanged while one stayed on the sametrain. All that is history now.

In countries such as Britain which havenot joined the Euro this issue is very divi-sive and emotional4. I have found in parishministry that when I expressed a view

about this in a parish newsletter I got amore negative reaction than I have doneabout any other issue; this suggests, dis-turbingly, that nothing matters more topeople than money. In the run-up to the2001 General Election in the UnitedKingdom, when the main opposition partybased its whole campaign on the alleged

need to ‘save the pound’ there was consid-erable pressure on the Church in that itwas thought that in the event of a referen-dum on the issue (at present a very remoteprospect) the Catholic Bishops wouldencourage Catholics to vote in favour ofBritain joining the Euro. Right wingCatholics were disturbed about this: thebishops were attacked by the CatholicHerald, which at that time was virtually asupplement to the xenophobic DailyTelegraph, a paper read by many Catholics.

The arguments advanced in this article


IntroductionThe key figures who helped to establishthe European Common Market in the1950s were strongly influenced byCatholic social teaching, Robert Schuman,Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasparri and,to a lesser degree, Jean Monnet. The keyconcepts of solidarity and subsidiarityhelped to form structures in which nationswere expected to co-operate rather thancompete; the countries agreed to sharetheir sovereignty and move to ever closerunity and integration of structures1.Economic integration and a free market ofgoods across national boundaries makesno sense if there are not common financialstructures – so the development since the1970s of a shared exchanged rate mecha-nism, leading first to the EuropeanMonetary System (EMS) which fixed theexchange rates between European curren-cies, and then to a single currency2 is anatural form of development. For thosesuspicious of the whole enterprise ofEuropean unity – such as much of thepress and political establishment inBritain, and many in Scandinavia – this


Ashley Beck

Most of the states in the European Unionhave been part of a single currency forover ten years, and for those which arenot – such as the United Kingdom, muchof Scandinavia and most of the countrieswhich joined the EU in 2004 and sincethen – the way in which the Eurooperates is important. Part of the originalinspiration of common Europeaninstitutions was the social teaching of theCatholic Church, of which deacons areexpected by the Church to have aspecialist knowledge – so what viewshould deacons take about the Euro?How is the Euro affected by the currenteconomic crisis in Europe? Fr Ashley Beck is co-editor of the NewDiaconal Review and the representativeof the Catholic Bishops Conference ofEngland and Wales on the Committee ofManagement of Faith in Europe, anecumenical research body in associationwith Churches Together in Britain andIreland. This body has recently publisheda booklet by the author, Christians andthe Euro, advertised elsewhere in thisissue. In the first of two articles he looksat the background to the single currency:in our next issue he will link this withCatholic social teaching.

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Deacons and the Euro (Part I)

1 See Ashley Beck, ‘Why the Church must help Europe recover its soul’, Catholic Herald 14March 2004, ‘Faith in Europe’, The Pastoral Review November/December 2006, Europe’sSoul and Her Patron Saints (London: CTS [Do 758], 2007), pp. 11-22, René Lejeune, RobertSchuman Une âme pour l’Europe (Paris: Saint-Paul, 1986) and Charles Williams KonradAdenauer: The Father of a New Germany (New York: John Wiley, 2000).

2 The single currency formally came into existence at the beginning of 1999 and became avisible currency in early 2002. Established EU states outside the zone are Britain, Denmarkand Sweden. The ‘accession states’ which joined in 2004 and later are committed by treaty tojoining the zone when their economies converge – Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta and Estonia havenow done so. In addition, three small states not in the EU or formally part of the zone (andtherefore not represented on the Central Bank board) have reached agreements to be able touse it – San Marino, Monaco and the Vatican City State (coins bearing the Holy Father’s headare therefore legal tender throughout the eurozone). Three other states also use it informally:Andorra, Montenegro and Kosovo.

3 Congregation for Catholic Education, Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons(London: CTS 1998), 81 (e), p. 66, ‘Christian morality, in its personal and social dimensions,and, in particular, the social doctrine of the Church.’

4 In Britain the issue is not even going to be considered in the lifetime of the new coalitiongovernment, and Gordon Brown’s Labour government, in spite of the more positive attitudein the early Blair administrations, had effectively shelved the issue. In the Scandinaviancountries there are signs that the possibility of joining is greater.

Catholic Bishops wouldencourage Catholics to vote in favour of Britainjoining the Euro. Rightwing Catholics weredisturbed about this

an ‘independent’ currency, since in the1970s it simply switched from being tied tothe pound sterling to membership of theEuropean Monetary System. Do Irish peo-ple love their country any the less? Thestates which have joined the EU since2004 have in many cases only regainedtheir ‘own’ currencies in the last twentyyears, but eventually they will have to jointhe eurozone – out will go the litas, thetolar and the rest.

Why the single currencyhappened and why itmakes senseThis is not the place for a lengthy historyof currency fluctuation and policies in the20th century, but a brief sketch is neces-sary. Following the international economicturmoil of the 1920s and 1930s, towardsthe end of the Second World War, therewas a widespread feeling that somethinghad to be done to prevent the world fromreturning to the chaos which had becomethe seed bed of fascism; as the Englisheconomist and Chief Executive of theWork Foundation Will Hutton puts it in hisbook The World We’re In:

… World trade and finance werehenceforth to be conducted within aframework of universal rules thatfavoured economic openness andinternationally agreed responses toindividual economies’ difficulties. 6

This was the origin of the agreementsigned at Bretton Woods in NewHampshire, a system was established forpegging currencies to the dollar andthrough that to the price of gold. TheInternational Monetary Fund and theWorld Bank were set up at the same timeto advance transitional loans and specialaid to support third world development.There is no doubt that these arrange-ments, coupled with the gradual lowering

of tariffs through GATT, played a crucialrole in helping post-war economic recov-ery. At this stage, American policy, underthe influence of John Maynard Keynes,was committed to collaboration with othercountries and proper controls on the market.

The problem with the system was that thedollar had to hold its value against gold,and that the United States became theworld’s ‘banker of last resort’ – by the early1970s it was not sustainable, and followingadditional pressures (for example, theVietnam War) between 1971 and 1974President Nixon broke the dollar’s fixedlinkage with gold and presided over thedismemberment of the Bretton Woods sys-tem. This provides the key background formoves in Europe in the 1970s to form aco-ordinated monetary policy – in theseyears, the mark had to revalue, the franchad to devalue – this sort of instabilitythreatened to undermine the wholeprogress towards integration in the EEC.In 1970 the Werner committee’s recom-mendations were accepted by the EEC(before Britain and Ireland had joined)that the only way to protect the CommonMarket from competitive devaluations wasto set up a European economic and mone-tary union. The plans could not developbecause Germany and France were unableto agree about the right way to link EECcurrencies together in relation to the dol-lar – the collapse of the Werner plan led tostagnation in the pace of European inte-gration, alongside high unemployment,high inflation and low growth, coupledwith external pressures such as the sharp rise in oil prices after the 1973 YomKippur war.

It was in this atmosphere that theEuropean Monetary System (EMS) waseventually established in the late 1970s.Much of the credit of it should go to the


Deacons and the Euro (Part I) – Ashley Beck

and the one which will follow it are impor-tant for the three groups of nations fromwhich our readers are mainly drawn –countries in the eurozone, where peopleneed to have their confidence restored andstrengthened in what they have done inthe last decade; the ‘accession states’,where the ways in which the currentfinancial crisis causing far more damagethan in western Europe need to be seen inthe context of these countries joining theeuro in due course (as they are bound toby treaty); and Britain, Sweden andDenmark which have chosen to remainoutside the zone.

Health warningSomething which should, of course, makeus hesitate about examining this questionis the repeated reminders of our pastors,and indeed the Catholic founding fathersof modern Europe, that the EU shouldn’tprimarily be about money or economics. Ithas taken a long time for Europe to movetowards integration in spheres other thanthe purely economic – and in some eco-nomic areas (such as parts of fiscal andtaxation policy) it has still not happened:are we not falling into this trap again byfocussing on currency? But it is clear thatthe integration at the heart of theEuropean vision really does need stabilityand common economic management tosucceed – and that, as so often in the past,the original vision of what is meant by asingle currency has been stymied andweakened by national governments reluc-tant to give up power.

But we should be careful, because for theChristian money is at best only means toan end. Jesus tells us to use money, ‘tainted as it is’ to win friends; a few yearsago (in 2002) Pope John Paul II in his Lent

message quoted the famous words from1Timothy (6:10):

The love of money is the root of all evilsand there are some, who, pursuing it,have wandered away from the faith andso given their souls any number of fatalwounds.

Turning any sort of currency into an idol,exaggerating its importance, is a danger-ous temptation for both sides in thisdebate – but in Britain it has been a fargreater temptation for those fighting tokeep the pound, and one they have largelyfailed to resist. The rather disturbing cam-paign in the BRITAIN a few years ago, ledby the Conservative party, to ‘save thepound’5 is guilty of a kind of idolatry, withits ridiculous badges (which some peopleeven wore to church, and are still wear-ing)– the currency seems to be an end initself. We always need to be looking at whatwe want to achieve for the peoples ofEurope in relation to the question of a cur-rency – it must only be a means to an end.

By contrast most EU states readily graspedthat a currency is simply a means to anend, and have not mourned the disap-pearance of the franc, lire ordeutschemark. They have very little antiq-uity in themselves – the franc only datesfrom the French Revolution. From theGermans one might have expected moreresistance: as a result of the terrible hyper-inflation the strength and stability of thedeutschemark has been a bedrock sincethe foundation of the Federal Republic;but Germany is at the heart of the euro-zone. We only need to look at Ireland,whose struggle for national self-determina-tion is so recent in European terms: no-one mourns the punt. In fact it was never



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5 The slogan of William Hague (now the British Foreign Secretary) in the last week of the 2001General Election, ‘Seven days left to save the pound’, was even more melodramatic. In viewof how little actually happened one was tempted to respond ‘Chance would have been a finething.’ 6 London: Time Warner, 2002, p. 185.

The House that Jacques BuiltThis is all part of the background of thedevelopment of the single market from the1980s, and part of the vision of theEuropean Commission President JacquesDelors, the bête noir of British tabloid cul-ture in the 1980s and of Margaret Thatcher.Like the founding fathers of post-warEurope, Delors was a committed Catholic,influenced from an early age by Catholicsocial teaching – he was a member of theCatholic workers’ group, the JOC, from theage of 13. Even in his youth in rural Francegoing to Mass was largely female activity –Jacques was one of the few men in the vil-lage who went. When he and his family laterlived in Paris he remained committed to thechurch, and his wife Marie was involved inwelfare work in the parish, visiting the elder-ly and teaching immigrant sot read andwrite in French. Delors was a socialist, anda committed Catholic in a traditionally anti-clerical party – his Catholicism got him thenickname of le grenouille du bénitier (‘thefrog from the font’) His simple lifestyle wasstriking – he once asked on French TVwhether it was necessary for each family tohave 3 cars or 4 TVs. His vision and pushingfor integration, including monetary unionshould be seen in the light of Catholic teach-ing: but (as with Monnet and Schuman inthe 1950s) much of what he wanted wasstymied by national governments – an inte-grated tax system is still far off. In terms ofCatholic teaching it is only if monetaryunion is accompanied by financial and fiscalsystem which promote the common goodand the interests of the poor that it will servethe wider vision.

The euro offers stability, shelter from turbu-lence. This stability supports long-term

investment in the whole of Europe, and isthe only practical response to the way theworld economy has developed. The sadlydefunct pressure group Britain in Europeon their website a few years ago showed howbeing out of the euro zone negatively affect-ed jobs in Britain, because the pound wasovervalued against the euro – and most ofBritain’s trading is with the euro zone. Evennow, when the pound has lost so much of itsvalue against the euro it still, as a mediumsize currency, has to float against threegiants, the dollar, the euro and the yen.

Hutton has shown in more recent writ-ings10 how the current financial crisismakes the economic case for joining evengreater than it was when things in theexchange markets were so different. In thefirst place he shows how the size of arecovery plan for British banks, on the USmodel, really depends on a European per-spective for it to be big enough.11 Second,the fall in the pound’s value has shownhow weak it is against the ‘big players’. Ashe wrote in November 2008:

Importantly, at the moment, the five testsfor entry by Gordon Brown are all met100 per cent. Britain and Europe’seconomies are in perfect synch as weenter recession simultaneously. Thelabour market is flexible. Entry wouldattract much-needed inward investment,and save the City. It would boost growth.In economic and political terms it wouldbe a masterstroke. Britain would becomea member of a reserve currency zone ata competitive level, offering us a key rolein the emergent debate about ehgovernance of globalisation and theinternational financial system. We wouldremain prosperous and we would matter.12



late Lord Jenkins, then President of theEuropean Commission, who realised thatit would give a new impetus to the com-munity, and to the leaders of France andGermany, Valery Giscard d’Estaign andHelmut Schmidt. This EMS went on tobecome the EMU and the euro. The keyrealisation was that in the free-for-all afterBretton Woods, and as capital controlsbetween countries were gradually beinglifted, it was the only way to establish sov-ereignty over the foreign exchange mar-kets. As Hutton puts it: ‘In a world whereneither floating nor fixed exchange ratesoffered sovereignty, the only course was toestablish a single European currency.’ 7

Jenkins describes in his memoirs howfrom the very beginning Britain’s leaderswere suspicious of the enterprise, firstCallaghan and then Thatcher.8 This didBritain no good, as Hutton says:

In the early 1980s the unstoppable andcrazy rise in the pound was the chiefcause of the deep recession, and overthe 19080s the Tory government tried avariety of ploys to stop the same thinghappening again – finally joining theEMS in 1990 at to high a rate in adesperate last effort to achieve somecurrency stability. The speculation thatforced sterling out of the EMS in 1992was mountainous, reaching $20 billionon ‘Black Wednesday’ alone … the gainin relative value and consequent loss ofcompetitiveness, measured in realterms, is stunning …

Modern economies face a complex dilem-ma – whether countries wish to fix theircurrency against a group of currencies(such as the old EMS) or an anchor onelike the dollar prior to the 1970s, withinterest rates that support this rate; orwhether they want to fix interest rates for

domestic economic or political purposes –either way, they are now subject to thecaprice of the international financial mar-kets because of the vast volumes of cur-rency which flow freely in the markets:

Currencies can be valued high or low inrelation to their underlying value foryears, with episodic bouts of frenzy thattypically culminate in a final sell-off orburst of enthusiasm that defines the endof the trend. The one thing we havelearned about markets is that they are notstable. That in turn forces adjustment ofthe interest rate to relieve the pressure atsome stage in the process – so that againthe country has controlled neither itsinterest rates nor its exchange rate …

The beauty of the single currency is thatit solves these dilemmas at a stroke. Itallows member countries to choose theinterest rate they want for the economicarea as a whole and stick to it. 9

Moreover, the interest rate is not fixedaccording to the needs of the ‘anchor’ cur-rency (as it has often been with both thedollar and the deutschemark under previ-ous system) but according to the needs ofthe area as a whole. That is why membercountries have to have broadly synchro-nised in terms of inflation and growth rates– the basis of the ‘economic tests’ whichdetermine when the British governmentmight judge the time right to seek entry,and the convergence required of the‘accession states’. There are problems, ofcourse. Enthusiasts for the euro recog-nised long ago that a single currencywould need to be accompanied by an inte-grated financial and fiscal system, involv-ing harmonised tax regime; this is a longway off because of the intransigence ofnational governments in the EU.



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7 P. 327.8 A Life at the Centre (New York: Ransom 1991) chapter 26. 9 Hutton, op. cit., p. 329.

10 ‘Dithering Britain needs its own plan, and it may hinge on joining the euro’, The Guardian, 1 October 2008, and ‘It might be politically toxic – but we must join the euro now’, The Observer, 16 November 2008.

11 ‘The UK is a medium-sized economy – but has giant banks’, Guardian article.12 Observer article.

system in late 2008 it has entered intonegotiations with the EU and other institu-tions, and is now actively seeking to join theEU and the euro simply to save its economyfrom total meltdown. As some have pointedout14, its position is worse than that ofGreece. Although the Greek crisis has (atthe time of the writing of this article) helpedto bolster anti-euro feeling in Iceland, it isobvious that the country cannot continue inisolation. The Greek crisis is instructive:while in terms of Catholic teaching one canquestion the morality of austerity measureswhich may well damage the poorest in soci-ety (as in Britain, with far less justification)what we can see by the measures whichother EU countries have taken (albeitreluctantly, particularly in the case ofGermany) the virtue of solidarity. Countrieshave had to rally round. Of course, no onewho believes in the Euro would defend theway in which Greek governments haveapparently been less than open or deceitfulabout their economic situation in order toenter the Euro in the first place. There areother examples which show the strength ofthe Euro in the current crisis: it seems as ifMalta, for example, which adopted theEuro in 2008, would have been muchworse off it had not done so then15.

The original theorists of a common cur-rency rightly saw that this would only workif European countries adopted convergingand ultimately common fiscal and eco-nomic policies. From the angle of greaterEuropean integration, one unintendedside effect of the current crisis is that theimpetus for this will increase, particularlyfrom the countries in the EU which havethe strongest economies such as Germany.

Having lost a lot of the idealism of earlierleaders, necessity may well be the motherof invention. The problem is that this maywell create a ‘two tier’ Europe, with thestronger economies able to adopt a clearfiscal regime. Furthermore, the economicorthodoxy which has led many EU coun-tries to adopt very austere policies inresponse to the crisis is very questionablein terms of Catholic social teaching. Whilethe theory and practice of a common cur-rency demands a measure of regulation forbanks and other institutions – in manyways it is the only way in which democrat-ic states can exercise some control overthem and other multinational companies –social teaching suggests that there needsto be a lot more regulation. Just as the cur-rent political leaders of the EU lack a com-mon European vision and sense of ideal-ism, so also they lack the political will tobring the banks and speculators to heel.Thus the opportunity created by the eurois being lost. Indeed, the current crisis haseven led some of these speculators – andhostile elements in the Britain – to foretellthe demise of the common currency itself.

Much of this article has drawn on thedebate in Britain – I know less of the con-text in Denmark and Sweden, although Iimagine many of the arguments are simi-lar. In the second of these articles I willlook at why Catholic social teachingdemands a positive response to the euro;such a response means that Catholics ineuro zone countries should work for itsstrengthening in line with our teaching,and those in EU states outside the zoneshould work for their countries to join it assoon as possible. �



Sadly, as Hutton points out, it is not likelyto happen; in the recent British generalelection one of the things which boundGordon Brown and David Camerontogether was a fanatical resistance to theidea of Britain joining the euro, and it is atragedy that the Liberal Democrat partyabandoned its commitment to the euro onjoining the new coalition government.What are the responses to those who sayBritain should not join? The euro-scepticarguments take many forms, and drawspeople from both left and right (like thepro-euro movement). One argumentwhich was put at the time when the eurowas set up was the restraint which being inthe zone would put on Britain’s economicautonomy. The Growth and stability pactwhich was adopted after the Maastrichttreaty demands low interest and inflationrates around a very low average – and eco-nomic policy should be tightly controlledafter entry – countries should not run abudget deficit greater than 3% of GDP,except in certain circumstances. In addi-tion to this lack of freedom, critics claimthat the European Central Bank is notaccountable to democratic structures. Torespond it has to be pointed out thatincreasingly few nations in the world havethe economic independence which somany crave: there has to be some restrainton sovereignty, and better that it should bewithin an overall community than at thewhim of the markets, or indeed ofAmerican policy. Moreover flaws in theway the bank works do not negate the pol-icy: Hutton and other apologists for theeuro have specific proposals, in line withDelors’ original plan (and Catholic teach-ing) which would meet many of the criti-cisms. So much of the opposition is not somuch economic as romantic – at gut level,and in spite of decimalisation, many peo-ple associate the pound with Britain’simperial past, with a largely imaginaryworld role. Hutton showed in his earlier

work that the Treasury critics of the eurowere the failed men of yesterday who havebeen wrong so often in the past aboutBritain in Europe:

What the British sceptics are doing isthrowing up reasons for not joiningbecause at root they do not believe thatthey are European, that they sharecommon values with other Europeansand that they can benefit from makingcommon cause with other Europeans,Thus the core position of even ex-Treasury knights: the euro will lead to asuperstate and therefore it is bad. It is thesame reluctance and misdiagnosis thathave afflicted Britain from the time whenthe Treaty of Rome was being drafted.13

The Euro and the currenteconomic crisis in EuropetodayHis words are even more apposite in the cur-rent economic crisis in Europe and the restof the world. The crisis caused by irresponsi-ble lending by financial institutions and insome cases the running of nationaleconomies on a similarly threadbare basis –that is, by running up enormous debts tofinance unrealistic levels of spending (as inGreece) – has undermined all financialstructures throughout the world. A largemultinational currency such as the Euro,and the ECB which supports it, was boundto be put under pressure, particularly byspeculators who helped to create the originalcrisis. Unfortunately in times of crisis peo-ple’s instinct is to look inwards, to ‘pull upthe drawbridge’, to wave their national flags.

The need for the support which commonEuropean institutions can give at this timeis illustrated by the case of Iceland. Thiscountry is only in the EFTA and EEA andhas never seriously considered joining theEU (possibly under the influence ofNorway); since the collapse of its banking



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13 The World We’re In pp. 42-3.

14 Dan Roberts, ‘Better Greece than Iceland’ Guardian 10 February 2010.15 ‘..Two years on from adopting the euro as its currency in January 2008, the whole country is

breathing a sigh of relief at having done so – if it had not, it would have suffered severely inthe economic downturn of 2008-09. Instead, being in the Euro Zone has led to a flood offoreign investment, and Malta’s economy has suffered relatively little compared with the restof Europe, with property prices falling by no more than 3%.’ Neil Wilson, Malta and Gozo(Victoria: Lonely Planet publications 2010), p.11.

tions, and read the gospel. While conse-cration belongs to the priest, to the deaconbelongs the dispensing of the sacrament;while priests pray, deacons sing; priestsanctify the offerings, deacons dispensethe sanctified; and priests are allowed totake the Lord’s cup from the table, but itshould be handed to them by the deacon.And while in the Old Law the Levite hadto be over twenty-five years of age beforehe could have care of the sacred vessels, soin the New Law the deacons can serve thechurches until venerable old age! Whatthe users of the Collectio made of this jumble of details we cannot ascertain, but

there is widespread agreement among themanuscripts which usually indicates insuch cases that it was not the subject ofclose argument. In all likelihood this lackof concern is the result of the fact thatdeacons did in the liturgy whatever wascustomary in any particular place, and thiswas not a matter of controversy.

The next heading is also liturgical, decree-ing that when taking part in the Eucharist

(tempore oblationis) they are to wear awhile garment. This is presented as relat-ed to their desire that they have heavenlylife, and that they are approaching theimmaculate Victim.4 This final sententiafrom the Statuta contains an echo of theEucharistic Prayer of the Roman rite: hos-tiam puram … immaculatam.5

The compilers were also aware of fourother pieces of legislation, canons fromsynods, relating to deacons; and, there-fore, they incorporated each under a head-ing which acts as an interpretation of eachcanon’s purpose. These acts of interpreta-tion were necessary in all four casesbecause the synod had in mind a liturgicalsituation which no longer had currency inthe time of the Collectio, but since the lawstood, it had to be given some context andvalue. A deacon is subject to both a pres-byter and a bishop in his service.6 This reg-ulation from the Statuta thought of as asynod was originally wholly liturgical, adeacon could help either a priest or a bish-op,7 is now presented in terms of whosecanonical subject the deacon is: he mustsee himself as servant to both the higherorders. Can a deacon distribute theEucharist (eucharistia) to the people, if apriest is present? Yes, if it is thought nec-essary.8 And can he preach (praedicatio) if


The next heading in the Collectioncanonum hiberniensis, ‘Regarding how

deacons should behave with due care’ (dediligentia diaconorum), is unusual as itdoes not answer a question about statusnor does it either permit or prohibit any-thing. It seems more like a piece of goodadvice rather than law. The first sententiaunder the heading is a citation of 1 Tim3:8-10:

Deacons likewise must be serious andchaste (pudicos), not double-tongued(bilingues), not indulging in much wine(non multo uino deditos), not greedy formoney (non turpe lucrum sectantes); theymust hold fast to the mystery of the faithwith a clear conscience. And let them firstbe tested; then, if they prove themselvesblameless, let them serve as deacons.

The second sententia under this headingis a glossing exegesis on four phrases fromthis passage by Isidore of Seville in his Deecclesiasticis officiis.1 Isidore commentsthat pudicos means that they should beabstainers from sexual desire;2 bilinguesmeans they should not be disturbers ofpeaceful people; non multo uino deditos

because where there is drunkennessdesire and fury rule; and they should benon turpe lucrum sectantes lest they wouldseek earthly reward for heavenly service!

Here the inclusion of the material in thecollection is explained not by there being alegal need for this information, but thepossession of an apostolic text which,because it made practical demands, had tolocated somewhere in the Collectio. Itsinclusion does not tell us anything abouttheir understanding of deacons withintheir actual situation, but rather abouttheir attitude towards Scripture: if there isa text that could be seen as a precedent,then it should be included. It is a reminderof the limitations of trying to ascertainactual conditions from what the law per-mits, condemns, or even simply reports.

The remaining six headings are all con-cerned with the liturgical functions of thedeacon and stress the liturgical differ-ences and distance between the diaconateand the priesthood. The fifth heading isentitled ‘the distance between the serviceof the priest (sacerdos) and the deacon’and contains a rather confused quotationfrom Isidore.3 In effect, the difference liesin that deacons are to announce whenpeople are to pray or to kneel, make peti-


Thomas O’Loughlin

Little academic work has been done onthe place of deacons in Canon law. HereTom Loughlin, Professor of HistoricalTheology in the University of Nottingham,continues his examination of deacons inearly medieval Irish canons

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1 De ecclesiasticis officiis 2,8,5 (Patrologia Latina 83, 790).2 There is a textual variation in the Latin text of 1 Tim used in the Collectio. As we edit the

Vulgate the text reads simply diaconos similiter pudicos, with pudicus (honourable in thesense of being chaste) rendering the Greek word semnos, a word that can also mean‘honourable in the sense of serious’ (hence most modern translations). The Collectio’s textreads ‘graues esse et pudicos’ taking both senses into account.

3 De ecclesiasticis officiis 2,8,3-4 (Patrologia Latina 83, 789); my concern here is not withwhat Isidore said, but with what the Collectio records as his opinion for it was in that formthat it became influential in western canon law.

4 III,6,a and b.5 Statuta, n. 60 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 176).6 III,7.7 Statuta, n. 57 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 175).8 III,8 using canon 16 from the Council of Arles of 314 (Corpus Chrstianorum, Series Latina

148, p. 12) which supposes an urban church at a time just before Christianity became alawful religion; while the Collectio imagines a far more formalised liturgy in a monasticchurch: at no time in its history did the liturgy in the west change more than between theopening years of the fourth century and the closing years of the seventh.

The Perception of the Diaconatein the Early Middle Ages –

Some Evidence from Canon law (Part II)

... deacons did in the liturgywhatever was customary inany particular place

The Christ took on himself the grade ofdoorkeeper when he opened the entrancesof the underworld (see, for example,16 Mt16:18 and Apoc 1:18);17 he became anexorcist when he ejected seven demonsfrom Mary Magdalene (cf. Mk 16:9 and Lk8:2); he became a lector when he openedthe Book of Isaiah (cf. Lk 4:17); hebecame a subdeacon when he made winefrom water at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-11); hebecame a deacon when he washed the feetof his disciples (cf. Jn 13:4-12), he becamea priest (sacerdos) when to took a loaf andbroke and blessed (cf. 1 Cor 11:23-4 andMt 26:26);18 and he became a bishop whenhe lifted his hands to heaven and blessedhis apostles (cf. Lk 24:50-1).

This text makes its appearance in theCollectio as ‘recapitulatio’:19 a gatheringtogether so that the ‘big picture’ can beseen after all the details. All ministries areexpressions of Christ’s ministry and so,just as they find their origin in his acts, sothey finds their interconnection and unityin him. In the case of the event of the dia-conate, the washing of the disciples’ feet,the event is a careful harmonisation of theevent in John and the a debate on which ofthem was greater in Lk 22, the connectionwith the diaconate being that Jesus in Lk22:27 replies that he is among them as onewho serves (ego autem in medio uestrumsum sicut qui ministrat) which is imag-ined as demonstrated in the pedilauium inJohn.20 The link with the diaconate beingthat Jesus acted as a minister which, as wehave noted, was the Latin for deacon.

However, there is another aspect to therecapitulation approach: in seeing everyministry formed in the life of the Christ ashe acted towards the disciples/ followers/believers, it creates a binary vision of theChurch. On one side is the agent, theChrist, the clergy; and on the other therecipients, those who are the laity, i.e., thenon-clergy. In imagining the clergy stand-ing in place of the Christ the church ismade into two sections with the same dis-tinctiveness as that of Jesus and his follow-ers. This paradigm, which still has enor-mous popularity in parts of the Churchtoday, makes the notion of Christ sharinghis priesthood with his people in baptism,where ministry is the performance ofSpirit-given skills by and for Church, anirrelevance. Moreover, it makes the incar-nation, viewed as the Christ gathering apeople who with, through, and in himbless the Father – the fundamental in-builttheology of the liturgy all these clerics werecelebrating – almost invisible, or, at least,reduces ‘the sharing of our humanity’ to asoteriological exemplarism. In short, wehave paid, and are still paying, a heavy,long-term price for the approach to min-istry that is manifested in those ‘ordinals.’

The operative theology of ministryThe compilers and users of the Collectiocanonum hibernensis had an elaboratememory of the diaconate. It began in thegreat desert ceremonial of the ark and thetabernacle, continued in the ceremoniesof the temple. It was then exemplified and


The Perception of the Diaconate in the Early Middle Ages (Part II) – Thomas O’Loughlin

a presbyter is present? Apparently, becausethere is an earlier law that stated that thedeacon in the sight of the priests can givevoice to the ‘interrogatus.’9 We need toavoid the, quite natural for us, tendency, toinquire what that canon meant ‘originally’ –because that enquiry supposed our histori-cal awareness and empirical attitudetowards the acquisition of knowledge.Rather, we must note the different episte-mology of the compilers: a canon exists; itmust make sense; here is a situation inwhich is makes sense; here, therefore, liesits legislative force.10 Finally, they had acanon from Nicaea that the deacons werenot to be given precedence over the pres-byters nor were they to sit in their presence,which they interpreted as ‘that the deaconwas not to occupy the presbyter’s chair.11

There is one other mention of deaconsthat merits attention. In the book dealingwith bishops there is a section on the ageand experience needed before a man canbe ordained a bishop.12 It assumes threedifferent backgrounds. Firstly, if the man isa celibate from youth, he can be ordainedlector or exorcist at twenty, porter and sub-deacon at twenty-four, deacon at twenty-five, presbyter at thirty, and bishop atforty.13 Secondly, in the case of a youngman who is ‘married to one wife’ (1 Tim3:2): thirty for exorcist, thirty-four for sub-deacon, thirty-five for deacon, forty forpriest, and fifty for bishop. Thirdly, in thecase of elderly layman: he should spendtwo years as a lector, then after five yearshe can become a subdeacon, after ten a

deacon, and after twelve years he can beasked to become either a presbyter or abishop.

The vision of the lawOne of the most significant developmentsthat took place, almost unnoticed, with thedevelopment of the systematic collectionwas that the law no longer dealt only withcases, but could enshrine a vision of a legalideal in the very arrangement of the law:something we are only too familiar withtoday with many countries, and indeed thechurch, having codified law. We see thislarger ecclesial vision of the compilers ofthe Collectio in the arrangement of books,but we also see it in a summary book on

the various grades of holy order whichshows how the Christ contains within him-self each of the orders and therefore sur-passes all of them, while each of themexist in him. These ‘summaries’ – all ofwhich are quite similar – of the grades oforder have been labelled ‘the Ordinal ofChrist’ by Roger Reynolds, and there isone in the Collectio.14

Here is the ‘ordinal’ from the Collectio:15



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16 The biblical texts being cited here are token texts as this is a study of the diaconate, in astudy of the ordinal, qua tale, one would need to relate the ordinal with far greater precision.

17 See T. O’Loughlin, ‘“The Gates of Hell”: From Metaphor to Fact,’ Milltown Studies38(1996)98-114.

18 See T. O’Loughlin, ‘The Praxis and Explanations of Eucharistic Fraction in the NinthCentury: the Insular Evidence,’ Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 45(2003)1-20; and idem,‘Translating Panis in a Eucharistic Context: A Problem of Language and Theology,’ Worship78(2004)226-35.

19 The title of book VIII is de recapitulatione septem graduum.20 A full study of the scriptural background to these ‘Ordinals’ is long overdue.

9 III,9 using Statuta, n. 61 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 176).10 See Kuttner, already cited, for an exposition of this ever-present hodie of the law.11 III,10 citing the fourteenth canon of Nicaea (325).12 I,11.13 There is some corruption in the text at this point, but it does not affect what the Collectio

says about the diaconate.14 R.E. Reynolds, The Ordinals of Christ from their Origins to the Twelfth Century (Berlin,

1978) which contains editions and commentary; and see also: J. Crehan, ‘The Seven Ordersof Christ,’ Theological Studies 19(1958)81-93.

15 VIII,1.

All ministries are expressions of Christ’s ministry and so, just as they find their origin in his acts, so they finds theirinterconnection and unity in him

Dr Kießling’s reflections on deacons andthe Greek term diakonia (NDR May

2010) were a circuit breaker, and I am verygrateful to him. As president of theInternational Diaconate Centre inRottenburg am Neckar and editor of thecentre’s journal Diaconia Christi, DrKießling is a significant voice. It is now 35years since I first attempted a consideredexchange of views with the IDC on con-nections between diakonia and the thenbrand-new Roman Catholic diaconate. Isee Dr Kießling’s recent reflections as aninvitation to join him in the point andcounterpoint of developing new theologi-cal possibilities in what we both probablyconsider to be a rather confused area. Inany case I suspect deacons themselveswould be expecting to hear somethingfrom me in response to his exploratorypaper.

Pervasive ‘Diakonie’As Dr Kießling advised readers in his open-ing footnote, the Greek word diakonia haslong resonated within the German lan-guage under the guise of the loanwordDiakonie. Throughout the EKD (theEvangelical Churches of the many Germanstates, what we tend misleadingly to call theGerman Lutheran Church) nearly half amillion professional employees and nearlythat number again of volunteers carry outChristian social work under the name ofDiakonie. The Christian dimension of thisdesignation is paramount: a random web-page dated 9 November 2009 announces,‘Die Diakonie: Gelebte Nächstenliebe[Diakonie: Lived love of our neighbour]’.

Such public currency of ‘Diakonie’ anddiakonia (and its related words with their

100 instances in the New Testament)inevitably creates legitimacy for the notionthat diakonia means loving service. Thisperception began in heroic circumstanceswithin the Lutheran tradition in the1840s. Roman Catholics have also beenunavoidably exposed to the concept andhave not remained deaf to the terminologyor immune to the challenging ethicalstance it supports.

Among themselves, however, GermanCatholics did not incorporate the termi-nology into institutional forms of social ser-vice, choosing instead, as has happenedalso outside Germany, the Latin term car-itas (charity or love). This choice perhapsreflected a desire to avoid any suggestionof the direct Protestant link betweendiakonia and deacons. Until well after the

Second Vatican Council deacons did notexist as a separate order within the RomanCatholic Church; being ordained a deaconwas simply a prerequisite for beingordained a priest.

Catholic diakonic valuesBy the beginning of the Vatican Council,however, the diakonic values so deeplycherished within Protestant church life inGermany and other north European cul-tures were permeating Catholic thinkingin relation to pastoral renewal in the


John N. Collins

John N. Collins in dialogue with Klaus Kießling

For deacons it’s not a matterof ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’

embraced by Jesus at the Last Supper, andthen burst forth in the choosing of theseven in the apostolic gathering inJerusalem, and gained its great patron andmodel in the death of Stephen,21 one oftheir number, whose memory as the proto-martyr is recalled each year next to thebirth of Jesus.22 However, their operativetheology, the understanding that informedtheir day-to-day praxis, was rather different.

The clergy formed a clear group apart, andthis group was stratified into two major lay-ers: those with the power of the sacerdotiumas the superior part, and those who did nothave it as the inferior part. Deacons whileforming the highest stratum of the inferiorpart, were still very distant from the nextstep: the presbyterate. It was already seen asa stepping stone to ‘greater things’ and thistransitional status even had times attacheddepending on the canonical status of theperson making the journey through theorders. In itself, it was only conceived of interms of a supporting liturgical role carryingout specific tasks that were already beingthought of, from the way the questions aboutpreaching and distribution the Eucharist areposed, as tasks more normally belonging tothe presbyterate. Moreover, with the growingpractice of monk-priests celebrating missaepriuatae, even this auxiliary role was becom-ing more ceremonial: adding solemnity, andprobably being reserved to the more signifi-cant moments within liturgical time.

Further investigationsThis study, which is by its nature prelimi-nary, has restricted itself to one kind of evi-dence, indeed to just one document. Thefull significance of that document, and ofthe role of the diaconate in the period, willonly become clear when this study is

incorporated in a larger study that wouldinclude the following. First, an analysis ofthe evidence for the use of deacons in theliturgical texts from the period. Second, astudy of the place assigned to the dia-conate in that other source of legal guid-ance from this period: the penitentials.Third, a study of passing references to dea-cons in the narrative literature of the peri-od, and this, in large measure, means astudy of deacons who are mentioned ordescribed in hagiography. And, finally, astudy of the exegesis that was produced atthe time of those passages in Scripturethat were seen (as exhibited in works likethe Collectio) as having a bearing on thediaconate such as Numbers, Acts, and 1Timothy. There is no shortage of work forwilling hands with the right theologicaland historical skills!

ConclusionBut why should we bother to investigatethis obscure period, which has neither thesplendour of the earlier patristic period nor,apparently, the theological meatiness of thescholastics? The answer lies in the placethis period had in the minds of the thosewho formed the canon law of the Latinchurch in the twelfth century: when theysought out ‘ancient practice’ and ‘ancienttradition’ on any number of issues it wasnot to the documents of the early centuriesof the Church that they turned, but whatthey thought was the expression of thoseearly centuries in the form of the canonicallegislation of the Carolingian era. In so faras the work of Gratian and his colleaguesstill gives shape to the Latin church – andCodex Iuris Canonici of 1917 merely codi-fied that legal inheritance – this obscureperiod is still exercising influence on us. Itsurely merits more study. �



21 Gildas imagines Stephen as the model for his own ministry.22 See the place of Stephen’s memorial in such texts as the Félire Oengusso where his

‘luminous name is like a fair sun that warms thousands’ (W. Stokes ed., The Martyrology ofOengus the Culdee (London 1905, p. 254); and see P. Ó Riain, Feastdays of the Saints: AHistory of Irish Martyrologies (Brussels, 2006), chs 1-5, for the context.

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John N. Collins is the author of manyimportant works on the diaconate. Inthis article he continues dialogue with DrKlaus Kiessling following our last issue

Until well after the SecondVatican Council deacons didnot exist as a separate orderwithin the Roman CatholicChurch

church. A vivid illustration of this impactremains in the urgency underlying HansKüng’s exposition on ‘Church Office asMinistry’ in his international best-sellerThe Church (1967). The English ‘ministry’in that phrase is the German Dienst, ‘ser-vice’, the preferred German translation ofdiakonia.

Thomas O’Meara is a more recent notedwriter on ministry whose Theology ofMinistry (1985, second ed. 1999) developsaround a concept of a ‘ministerial pleroma’– we are to think of this as a ‘diakonic full-ness’, and we are to understand that in thechurch every member is called at baptismto embody the loving service that Jesusexemplified in his own diakonia (1999, p.222; see elsewhere, e. g. , 48,62-65).

The same concept imbues a large section ofPope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical God islove. A main contributor to the formulationof this document was the German CardinalPaul Cordes, then president of the PontificalCouncil Cor Unum. This council had beenestablished in 1971 by Paul VI for the pur-pose of expressing ‘the care of the CatholicChurch for the needy’. In that same yearPaul Cordes had defended his doctoral the-sis in Mainz on priesthood as a ‘Sendungzum Dienst’ (Missioned for Service). Inaccord with this lifelong theological vision,in May 2008 Cordes was addressing thebishops of England and Wales on God islove, and at a critical juncture expressedhimself in the following diakonic terms:

Service to our neighbours ... makesdemands ... in the very rational decision todesire the best for the other person, evenat the price of self-abnegation. Whoeverdedicates himself to diakonia thus takeson the opposite of reputation, power, andrank that leaders and political entitiesclaim for themselves. http://www.zenit.org/article-22486?l=english

Supporting this, Cordes cited Benedict

XVI’s encyclical (no. 34):

My deep personal sharing in the needs andsufferings of others becomes a sharing ofmy very self with them... I must give toothers not only something that is my own,but my very self; I must be personally pre-sent in my gift.

From here, Cordes proceeded to express hisown evaluation of the nature of diakonia:

Diakonia is the antithesis of the egocentricsociety; Jesus with his self-oblation for the‘ransom of many’ [Mark 10:45] is its modeland prototype.

In the encyclical Benedict XVI had pre-sented diakonia – described as ‘the min-istry of charity exercised in a communitar-ian, orderly way’ – as ‘part of the funda-mental structure of the Church’ (no. 21),A little later he demonstrated this convic-tion by endorsing the classical trilogy ofvalues that has been the hallmark of eccle-

siology since the eve of the Second VaticanCouncil (no. 25):

The Church’s deepest nature is expressedin her three-fold responsibility: of pro-claiming the word of God (kerygma-mar-tyria), celebrating the sacraments (lei-tourgia), and exercising the ministry ofcharity (diakonia).

The last of these, he goes on to say, is ‘apart of her nature, an indispensableexpression of her very being.’


For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ – John N. Collins

German provenanceSuch conceptualisations of diakonia arevintage Brandt-Beyer, as alluded to by DrKießling (p. 36). In a doctoral monograph of1931, Service and Serving in the NewTestament, Wilhelm Brandt had laid downa diakonic template still in use 80 yearslater. Service as diakonia is not just a ful-filling of one’s obligations within one’s socialgroup (i.e., the Christian community) butconsists of ‘a wholly personal offering ofone’s self to one’s neighbours’ (p. 85).

This is the measure of diakonia asdescribed by the lexicographer H.W. Beyerin Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of theNew Testament (German edition 1935).And diakonia so envisaged had an imme-

diate appeal to theologians writing in lan-guages like German that lacked the ‘min-istry’ words that English inherited fromLatin. Broad as the meaning of the term‘ministry’ might be, it mirrored the termministerium which the Latin bible hadmostly used in translating diakonia.

Theologians using northern European lan-guages lacked the versatility of the ‘min-istry’ words, and in writing about diako-nia/ministerium had originally felt con-strained to turn to terms meaning ‘office’(the German Amt, and similarly else-where). In addition to the limited seman-tic range and strong bureaucratic ring ofthis term , ‘office’ also brought with it intotheology heavy sociological baggage thatover the post-Reformation centuries had astrong tendency to smother – even to dis-

tort – the ministerial character of roles andactivities reported among early Christiancommunities.

In the post-World War 2 era, by contrast,among theologians struggling to releasetheir churches from a morass of authori-tarianism, self-righteousness andestrangement from social realities, theattraction of a re-thinking of ‘office’ as ‘ser-vice’ (Dienst) on grounds of recent biblicalscholarship (1935) held out the possibilityof nothing short of a redemption for theirchurches.

And thus occurred the blossoming of thediakonic ecclesiological age. I have stronglyemphasised its German provenance andcurrent context because Dr Kießling writesfrom within that. Even the theologian I callthe whistle-blower, Hans-Jürgen Benedict.In a paper of 2000 Benedict exposed mis-conceptions underlying diakonic theology.In fact the title of his paper announced hischallenging theme from the start (in trans-lation): ’Do the German Lutheran claimsfor the concept of Diakonie rest on a mis-understanding? Collins’ research volumeDiakonia’ (Pastoraltheologie 89:343-64).Ironically, some years later, Benedict himselffelt obliged to concede that ‘Diakonie’, inspite of the misconceptions that brought itto birth, had the status of a ‘trademark’ andwas impossible to discard (Barmherzichkeitund Diakonie, 2008, pp. 132-33).

Disposing ofmisconceptionsWhat is the misunderstanding thatBenedict exposed? In 1971, as I began aresearch degree on the New Testament’scentral diakonic statement already men-tioned (Mark 10:45, ‘the Son of man hascome not to be served [diakon-] but toserve [diakon-] and give his life a ransomfor others’), the question confronting mewas why diakon- here needs to be under-stood as expressing what the dictionarycalled ‘the very essence of service, of being



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I must give to others notonly something that ismy own, but my very self; I must be personallypresent in my gift

Theologians using northernEuropean languages lackedthe versatility of the ‘ministry’words, and had originally feltconstrained to turn to termsmeaning ‘office’

The deacon’s identityWho then is the ‘deacon’? Our earliestindicators link ‘deacon’ and episkopos andpoint to a relationship of agency. Thenotion of table-service does not belong toany part of this basic ecclesial relationship.Ignatius of Antioch insisted that deacons‘are not diakonoi / waiters for food anddrink but are officers (hypÁretai) of thechurch of God’ (Trallians 2.3; seeDiakonia, pp. 240, 362; Deacons and theChurch, pp. 108, 127).

In Deacons and the Church (2002) Iattempted to develop a more detailed iden-tity kit. In reviewing my earlier Diakonia(1990) the late George Tavard said in rela-tion to deacons, ‘Had it been published atthe time of Vatican II, the present bookcould have provided a basis for the neededtheological reflection.’ (Worship, July1992) In reviewing Dr Hentschel’s

Diakonia im Neuen Testament SeanWinter concluded (JSNT, 30.5 2008):‘Hentschel’s work should finally put to restsuggestions that “deacons” in the earlychurch were those given lowly tasks with-in the community.’

The ecclesiological significance ofHentschel’s work has been noted also byher German-language reviewers(Anneliese Felber, JAC 2008:195-99;Andrea Taschl-Erber, ThRev [online],Munster 2009; Rajah Scheepers, H-Soz-u-Kult 28.08.2009).

Ecclesiology – and not just deacons – wasalso the theme on which I brought thebook Diakonia to a close. It would be help-ful to see IDC taking a lead in importingthe new diakonic values into the Germancontext so that we can start moving ontogether from there. �



for others’ (Beyer, TDNT 2.86) when thedictionary also says that diakon- has ‘theoriginal sense of “to wait at table”’ (Beyer,TDNT 2.84)? A perusal of the 100 pas-sages in the New Testament wherediakon- occurs provides no obvious clue.This situation led me to examine diakon-words in other Greek literary sources with-in 400 years either side of the NewTestament.

The evidence collected in Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources (1990,reprinted 2009) reveals that diakon-words do not in fact exhibit any ‘originalsense’. A diakon- word is not like the word‘meat’, for example. We might use thisword in the phrase ‘the meat of the argu-ment’, but we will be entitled to say thatthe ‘original sense’ of meat is edible flesh.In the case of diakon-, however, we canarrive at a meaning only from the contextin which it occurs. We have no troublerecognising a meaning like ‘waiting attable’ because its context immediatelymakes that sense recognisable. Most othercontexts are less helpful. On close exami-nation, however, the sum of meaningswithin a context will point to the semanticrole played by diakon- within that interplayof meanings. Then the newly discernedmeaning of diakon- might well add colourand/or further meaning to the context as awhole. The instances of diakonia in aproclamation by Constantine (Eusebius,Life 2.28-29) and of diakonos in referenceto the historian Josephus (BJ 3.354; 4.626)brilliantly illustrate this process (seeDiakonia, pp. 107-09, 111-15).

Accordingly, although in a gospel parablediakon-does in fact mean ‘waiting at table’(Luke 17:8), we cannot be sure that ‘wait-ing at table’ has any bearing on under-standing the statement at, e. g., 1 Timothy3:13: ‘those who serve well as deacons[diakon-] gain a good standing’. The onlything the diakon- words take from onepiece of writing to another is a semantic

framework. This imposes a similar seman-tic pattern on each occurrence. If theword designates an activity, essentially theactivity will be mandated or commis-sioned; if the word designates a person,essentially the person is engaged under amandate or a commission. Never, however,do diakon- words express a sentiment ofbenevolence towards the recipient of anactivity.

A common context in which this patternplays out is that of errand. (This also ishow waiting at tables fits in.) ThusConstantine (above) was engaged in adivinely mandated ‘mission’ to spread theChristian message, and Josephus was pre-senting himself as ‘bearer’ of God’s mes-sage to Vespasian, a ‘spokesman’, muchlike Paul (e. g., 1 Corinthians 3:5).

In her 2007 study of the diakon- material,Diakonia im Neuen Testament, Dr AnniHentschel fully endorsed both these prin-ciples regarding context and mandate. Shealso recognised the capacity of diakon- toexpress a notion relating to ‘go-between’,

which I illustrated for example in Plato’sdescription of the priestly role (Pol. 290c-d, Diakonia, p. 85) but which some mis-takenly seem to think is my definition ofthe ‘real’ or ‘original’ meaning of diakon-.

One thing we cannot do with diakon- is totake semantic bits and pieces from differ-ing contexts and construct a mosaic ofmeaning to fit somewhere else. In otherwords, we cannot make a ‘deacon’ out ofboth ‘humble waiting-on-tables’ and ‘mis-sionary going-between’ (Kießling, p. 37).



We cannot make a ‘deacon’out of both ‘humble waiting-on-tables’ and ‘missionarygoing-between’

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deacon and in his environment, have a lotto say to the emerging diaconate of the Westtoday. Ephraem was ordained deacon latein his life, though he had clearly been activein his church from his youth. Born aroundthe year 306, his parents and their commu-nity had lived through the savage persecu-tion of Christians under the RomanEmperor Diocletian that had impactedeven in their home town of Nisibis, aRoman border outpost, close to paganPersia. Relieved by the conversion of theemperor Constantine, the Christians ofNisibis, within Ephraem’s lifetime, sufferedinitially vague and then specific persecutionunder Julian the Apostate, the easternRoman ruler. Julian, after an incompetentmilitary campaign, ceded Nisibis to thepagan Persian Empire and the wholeChristian community, including the nowmiddle aged Ephraem, had to flee in orderto retain their faith. Eventually they foundsanctuary in Edessa.

Like Britain today, Nisibis was a multi-faith9,multi-cultural society with a wide variety,also, of Christian beliefs10. In his youth,Ephraem was baptised by his bishop St.Jacob (Mar Jacob) who remained Ephraem’sguide and mentor for the remaining years ofhis life. Around the time of Ephraem’s bap-tism, Bishop Jacob travelled to the Council ofNicaea (325AD) and was certainly a signato-ry there to what we now know as the NiceneCreed. Ephraem’s Catholic orthodoxy links

directly to his firm adherence to the teach-ings of Nicaea, the great Council of his owntimes.

Ephraem’s life of diaconal service, bothbefore and after his ordination, appears tobe characterised by empathetic concernand action in all three diaconal areas we arefamiliar with today – word, liturgy and service.

WordKey to Ephraem’s teaching is his deep andprayerful familiarity with Scripture. Bothhis prose and his poetry teem with biblicalreferences and allusions. As an Aramaicspeaker, living in a cosmopolitan environ-ment relatively close to Jerusalem, morethan any Greek or Roman Christian, he wasin contact with Jewish traditions and prac-tices11. Besides his familiarity with theHebrew Bible, this link to Judaism shows inhis familiarity with post-biblical Jewish liter-ature, perhaps learned through verbaltransmission. At the same time, Ephraemwas not ignorant of Greek thought and thetheological world of Greek-speakingChristianity, perhaps because of transla-tions into Syriac, the language in which hewrote. But Ephraem’s wealth of biblicalcommentary became eclipsed in the Westby his near contemporary, St. Jerome, whowrote in Latin. Jerome spent the closingyears of his life of study near Bethlehem,relatively close to Ephraem’s linguistic and


Ninety years ago this Autumn1, PopeBenedict XV declared St. Ephraem2 of

Syria a Doctor of the Universal Church.Until that point, Ephraem had been hon-oured predominantly among Eastern RiteCatholics and by the Orthodox. Maybebecause his teaching was translated fromhis written Syriac only into the “Eastern”languages for use in Arabic, Armenian,Coptic, Ethiopian and Greek speaking areasbut not into Latin, he had somehowbecome almost eclipsed by the later LatinFathers and Doctors of the West. At therequest of the Catholic patriarchs and bish-ops of the East as late as 1920, the wisdom,influence and still-relevant teaching ofEphraem was fully acknowledged for thewhole Church.

In his encyclical to the Eastern RiteCatholic hierarchy3 on the occasion ofdeclaring Ephraem a Doctor of theUniversal Church, the pope proposed ‘asplendid example of sanctity, learning, andpaternal love… We speak of St. Ephraemthe Syrian, whom Gregory of Nyssa com-pared to the River Euphrates4 because “heirrigated by his waters the Christian com-munity to bring forth fruits of faith a hun-dred-fold”5’.

St. Ephraem is important because his writ-ings give us insight into the active Catholic

faith “in its as yet unhellenized-uneuro-peanized form”6. Though unconnected tothe language and culture of his contempo-raries Jerome, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory ofNyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephraem“is nonetheless essentially at one with themin his understanding of the mystery of theTrinity and the Incarnation”7.

Since Ephraem’s being named a Doctor ofthe Church ninety years ago, most of thevast treasury of his extant writings havebeen translated into European languages,studied, and the huge value of Ephraem’steaching has been made available for of us.

Any of us who saw the first episode ofDiarmaid MacCulloch’s recent BBC TVseries The History of Christianity will havebeen surprised at the importance of SyrianChristianity in the first centuries of theChurch and, in particular, the role ofEphraem’s adopted town of Edessa8 as aplace of learning, of the struggle for ortho-doxy and of mission. The part played byEphraem in the origins of the school of the-ology there and in teaching through prose,homilies and (especially) theological poetryis now becoming clear. Even today,Ephraem’s hymns are still used within theSyriac church there.

The life and theology of Ephraem, both as a


Bill Burleigh

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Bill Burleigh is a deacon of the dioceseof Hallam and based in the parish ofHigh Green in South Yorkshire. He isalso a part-time chaplain at SheffieldChildren’s Hospital

Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church

1 5th October 1920.2 Variously spelt today: Ephraem, Ephrem or Ephraim.3 Principi Apostolorum Petro (APA).4 Near which Ephraem was exiled to live.5 St. Gregory of Nyssa Life of Ephraem, chap 1, n.46 Brock, Sebastian, The Luminous Eye (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992) p.157 Brock, p.158 Now Nusaybin in south east Turkey.

9 Given the ethnic mix of Armenians, Jews, Greeks, Parthians, Romans and Persians, there wasa conglomerate of pagan faiths including the worship of local gods such as Hadad, Bel andShamash and the worship of some Roman gods, many pagans also some, according toEphraem, using astrology. Nisibis was also a major Jewish centre of the diaspora.

10 Arians, Marcionites, Manichees, Bardiasanites and various Gnostic sects.11 Brock refers to him as an “heir to Judaism” The Luminous Eye, p.20.

Ephraem also teaches by juxtaposingimages and contemplating paradoxes. So,for example, using the image of the eye andthe contemporary understanding of howsight works (ie. by light filling it; the morelight enters, the clearer the sight),Ephraem writes:

The world, you see, has two eyes fixed init: Eve was the left eye, blind, while theright eye, illuminated, is Mary. Throughthe eye that was darkened the world wasdarkened, and people groped andthought that every stone they stumbledupon was a god, calling falsehood truth.But when it was illumined by the othereye and the heavenly Light that residedin its midst, humanity becamereconciled once again. In Mary, full ofgrace, the Light of Christ enabled her tosee and, through her giving birth,enabled all to see Truth.19

Ephraem’s favourite paradox appears tohave been the humility of God in theIncarnation, “the Rich One who becamepoor”, “the Great One who became small”,“the Hidden One who disclosed himself “.Ephraem’s 11th Nativity hymn exemplifiesthis well:

Your mother is a cause for wonder: theLord entered her and became a servant;He who is the Word entered – andbecame silent within her; thunderentered her – and made no sound; thereentered the Shepherd of all, and in herHe became the Lamb, bleating as Hecame forth. Your mother’s womb hasreversed the roles: the Establisher of allentered in His richness, but came forthpoor; the Exalted One entered her, butcame forth meek; the Splendrous One

entered her, but came forth having put ona lowly hue. The Mighty One entered,and put on insecurity from her womb;The Provisioner of all entered – andexperienced hunger; He who gives drinkto all entered – and experienced thirst:naked and stripped there came forthfrom her He who clothes all.

It is Ephraem’s use of poetry to conveytruth, to reflect theologically and to praythat, to me, is at the heart of Ephraem’sgenius. Unrestrained by the more dry con-ventions of Greco-Latin prose style, he isable to let truths and insight surprise us,especially when he is using his vivid imagi-nation and his perceiving of images to helpour understanding.

Alongside poetry, again deployed to reachout to the general population, Ephraemused familiar ways of writing or telling sto-ries, drawn from ancient Sumerian litera-ture but familiar to the ears of his contem-poraries. One such way was through a writ-ten dispute between two viewpoints inorder to draw out truths. For example, inone poem he sets Satan and Death in dis-pute over who was greater:

I heard Death and Satan loudly disputingwhich was the stronger of the twoamongst humanity.

Death has shown his power in that heconquers all. Sin has shown his guile inthat he makes everyone sin

Then Ephraem constructs their dispute:

Death: Only those who want to listen toyou, O Evil One. But to me they all come,whether they like it or not.


Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh

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19 The title “The Luminous Eye”, given to St. Ephraem, derives from the notion that God’sLight enables us to see spiritually just as physical light entering a human eye enables sight.Ephraem’s “luminous eye” describes his enlightenment by God. In his hymn Faith 3Ephraem writes: “Blessed is the person who has acquired a luminous eye with which he willsee how much the angels stand in awe of You, Lord, and how audacious is man”.

cultural neighbourhood. Jerome pays hightribute to Ephraem’s biblical commen-taries12, but the lack of Latin translationsclosed off Ephraem to Western readers.

Everything that Ephraem wrote shows sin-gle-minded purpose – to spread the true andCatholic faith, sometimes directly in opposi-tion to the misunderstandings of theManichees13, Arians14 and others. But, withinsight, he recognised the success theGnostics (especially) were having and so headopted their literary and didactic devices inhis teaching, making use, especially, of musicwithin worship, since music was attractingfolk away from the Catholic community

A key device that Ephraem used very exten-sively and which entered, very widely, intothe later literary tradition of the Church,was imagery. He frequently uses the imagesof clothing, fire or healing to express theo-logical truths. For example, for the image ofclothing, and possibly drawing from St.Paul15, Ephraem speaks of the Incarnationas God clothing himself in a human body.So, in his Nativity hymn 23 he writes:

All these changes did the Merciful Onemake, stripping off glory and putting on abody; for He had devised a way to re-clothe Adam in that glory which Adam

had stripped off. Christ was wrapped inswaddling clothes, corresponding toAdam’s leaves, Christ put on clothes,instead of Adam’s skins; He was baptisedfor Adam’s sin, His body was embalmedfor Adam’s death He rose and raised upAdam to his glory. Blessed is He whodescended, put Adam on and ascended!

Using the image of fire16, Ephraem writes:

See, Fire and Spirit in the womb thatbore You, see, Fire and Spirit in the riverin which You were baptised. Fire andSpirit in our Baptism, in the Bread andthe Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit.17

Using the image of healing, we findEphraem in his commentary on John’sGospel, correcting the Arian rejection of theun-created divine nature of the secondPerson of the Trinity:

After He had said this, He spat on theground, and fashioned clay from His spittle(Jn 9:6), and made the eyes with His clay.He caused the light to spring forth from thedust, just as He did in the beginning, whenthe shadow of the heavens was spread outas darkness over everything (cf. Gen 1:2-3).He commanded the light, and it was bornfrom the darkness18



12 Within twenty years of Ephraem’s death, Jerome wrote “Ephraem, deacon of the Church ofEdessa, wrote many works in Syriac, and became so famous that his writings are publiclyread in some churches after the Sacred Scriptures. I have read in Greek a volume of his onthe Holy Spirit; though it was only a translation, I recognized therein the sublime genius ofthe man” De Viris Illustribus 115.

13 Whose non-orthodoxy stemmed from their non belief in an omnipotent God. Hence thehuman is constantly caught in a battle between good (the spiritual) and bad (the physical –including the human body).

14 Who could not accept the Nicene faith that the Second Person of the Trinity is eternallybegotten by and co-equal with the Father, but, rather, the prime creation of the Father.

15 Philippians 2.16 And, here, possibly as a refutation of Manicheans who rejected the Acts of the Apostles with its

account of Pentecost because they believed the Holy Spirit came through their leader, Mani.17 10th Faith poem:17.18 Commentary on the Diatesseron 16:28, cited in Shemunkasho, A, Healing in the Theology of

Saint Ephrem (New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2002) p.275.

As Pope Benedict XV wrote in 1920, “Theartistry introduced by Blessed Ephraemadded dignity to sacred matters... The met-ric rhythm, which our saint popularized,was widely propagated among the Greeksand the Latins. Indeed, does it seem proba-ble that the liturgical antiphonary with itssongs and processions, introduced atConstantinople, in the works of Chrysostomand at Milan by Ambrose … was the work ofsome other author? For the “custom ofEastern rhythm” deeply moved the cate-chumen Augustine in northern Italy;Gregory the Great improved it and we use itin a more advanced form”24

If liturgical musical forms, style and metreappear to stretch back beyond Gregory toEphraem, what of that greatest of all litur-gical hymns the Exultet? The origins ofthis Easter hymn, so well known to anydeacon today, are unknown. But are thereclues within Ephraem’s poetry to suggest alink here too? St. Jerome, a near contem-porary of Ephraem who lived for severalyears near Syria, attests to the existence ofhymns praising the Easter candle25.Egeria, that fascinating woman from Spainwho, around this time also, recorded herexperiences of Holy Week liturgy inJerusalem, mentions a hymn to the can-dle. By the time of Ambrose andAugustine, these Easter proclamations hadspread to Northern Italy. Where doesEphraem, with his pioneering of Catholicliturgical music, fit in?

Any deacon today, familiar with the styleand words of the Exultet, who also delvesinto Ephraem’s poetry is led to wonderwhether it is from Ephraem that ourExultet ultimately derives. We know that

not all Ephraem’s poetry survived. We havemore than twenty of his Nativity hymns butonly a few specifically composed for Easter.The origins, we know, of our Exultet are lostin the mists of time but it certainly comesfrom the first few centuries of the Church.Juxtaposing parts of the Exultet we singwith the words and style of Ephraem’s firstNativity hymn26 inevitably raises the ques-tion – unanswerable at this huge distance intime – as to whether Ephraem composedan Easter hymn to the candle that wastaken up and developed into the Easterhymn we now use.

To illustrate:

a. From the Exultet:

Pray that God grant to me, a deacon ofthe Church, strength to sing this Eastercandle’s praises...

From the 1st Nativity Hymn:

Pray for me, my friends, that I may bestrengthened once more to set forth theirqualities… [ie the qualities and typologyof the prophets of Christ’s birth]

b. From the Exultet:

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour,radiant in the brightness of your king!Lands that once lay covered by darkness,see...


Keep vigil as bright ones on this brightnight; for even if its colour is black, still itis splendid in its power…



Satan: You just employ brute force, ODeath, whereas I use traps and cunningsnares.

Death: Listen, Evil One, a cunning personcan break your yoke, but there is none whocan escape from mine.

Satan: You, Death, exercise your strengthwith the sick, but I am the stronger withthose who are well.

But the key didactic point of this disputeEphraem reserves for the refrain he inter-sperses amid the verses:

Praise to You, Son of the Shepherd of all,who has saved His flock from the hiddenwolves, both the Evil One and Death,who had swallowed it up20

LiturgyEphraem’s theological poetry spills overinto prayer and, hence, was taken up intoliturgy. As Pope Benedict XVI, has recentlypointed out21 “Poetry allowed him to deepentheological reflection through paradoxesand images. So at the same time, his theol-ogy becomes liturgy, it becomes music”.

And liturgical music is another of Ephraem’shuge legacies to the Church. Long beforeGregory’s development of regularized plain-song, Ephraem was introducing liturgicalsong into worship in both Nisibis and Edessa.He was known to have introduced roles forwomen within worship, setting poetry tomusic for women’s choirs. Clearly inEphraem’s communities, the people took anactive and participatory part in the liturgy22.More significantly for us, it is Ephraem whointroduced the idea of repeated responseswithin long hymns or litanies so that people

could join in without knowing all the words.This method of involving people seems tohave spread westwards to Constantinopleand onwards into the Western Church. There-introduction, in our own times, of this wayof involving congregations in liturgical musiclinks us right back to Ephraem’s innovation.An example of this way of enabling the peo-ple to join in a refrain is found in his NativityHymn 7 (here only the first verses aregiven):

At the birth of the Son a great clamourtook place in Bethlehem, for Angelsdescended to give praise there; a greatthunder were their voices. With this voiceof praise the silent ones23 came to givepraise to the Son.

Refrain:Blessed is the babe by whom Adam and Evegrew young again.

Shepherds, too, came carrying the goodthings of the flock: sweet milk, freshmeat, fitting praise. They divided [thegifts] and gave to Joseph the meat, toMary the milk, to the Son the praise.


They carried and offered to Him:suckling lamb to the Paschal Lamb, thefirst-born to the First-born, a sacrifice tothe Sacrifice, a temporal lamb to the TrueLamb. A fitting sight that a lamb to theLamb should be offered.




20 From 52nd Nisibene Hymn quoted in Brock p.19. Full poem in Brock’s The Harp of the Spirit(London: Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, 1975) no.14.

21 General Audience 28th November 2007.22 Cf. Vatican II Sacrosanctum Concilium n.113 on the people’s active participation in song.23 Perhaps the legendary ox and ass.

24 Principi Apostolorum Petro 13.25 adding a caustic comment about deacons showing off in their singing. Cf. Patrologia Latina

30 referred to in Roger Greenacre and Jeremy Haselock, The Sacrament of Easter(Leominster: Gracewing, 1995) p.131.

26 McVey, Kathleen (trans), Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns, (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1980 in theseries The Classics of Western Spirituality) p. 63-74.

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ServiceLooking for evidence of Ephraem as a com-passionate and active deacon, we find thatsome of the scant details known about hislife show him ministering in a pluralisticsociety not too dissimilar from our own expe-rience of post-Christian cities. We can alsodetect similar needs for diaconal ministry in,for example, spreading Catholic Christianbelief plainly in the face of apathy or rejec-tion and tending to the needs of migrants.

The Catholic Church in Nisibis, into whichEphraem was baptised, was either ignoredby the many non-Christians and pagans orharried, to one extent of another, by rivalclaimants to orthodoxy. Ephraem’s need towrite and speak so firmly in defence ofNicene Catholicism may mirror, not somuch our experience today, but a possiblenear future scenario where the internetcoverage and financial superiority ofEvangelical Protestantism may well needmore active challenge. Today’s widespreadand media-encouraged comprehensiverejection of Christian truth because of theassumed necessity of belief in the literaltruth of creation as described in Genesis,for example, is surely a product of unchal-lenged Christian fundamentalism.Ephraem’s response to disunity and chal-lenge was to teach Catholic faith actively,beyond the walls of his church, simply andin innovative ways.

A second feature of Ephraem’s experiencenot dissimilar from our own is the impact ofmigration in both Nisibis and Edessa. Notonly was Nisibis, as a frontier town, subject-ed to periodic attack by Persians, but asylumseekers from surrounding areas, foreigntraders and travellers made up a major partof the population. There is evidence thatEphraem was active in the Christian com-munity responding both at times of siegeand to the needs of migrants. Indeed, afterthe ceding of Nisibis to the Persians, the

whole Christian community was forced intoexile eventually settling in Edessa. Ephraimwas among the refugees and, once inEdessa, became a major figure in the set-tling of the community and the building upof the Christian community there.

Ephraem’s exposure to the suffering of oth-ers through the various sieges of Nisibis andas an asylum seeker having to settle in anew country and city, may account for hisfocus on the healing power of Christ.Certainly his works show both human com-passion and a deep awareness of the linksbetween physical/mental suffering and spir-itual dis-ease. In this way, he shows bothevidence of a diaconal spirit and insight farbeyond his contemporaries, comparablewith our own understanding of the roots ofmuch depression and some mental illness.

In his commentary on the curing of thewoman in Luke 8, Ephraem writes:

If the afflicted woman had been healedand had gone away secretly…she toowould have become spiritually sick,although bodily healed. Even if shebelieved that he was a Righteous manbecause He had healed her, she wouldhave doubted that He was God, becauseHe would not have been aware [ofher]…So that the mind of the one whohad been healed in her body might notbe sick, He took care also with regard tothe healing of her mind…This is why Heasked “Who touched my garments?”.He revealed that someone had definitelytouched Him, but He did not want toreveal who it was that had touchedhim….[I]t was [precisely] that peoplemight profess the truth that He didthis28.

Hence the healing was incomplete at mere-ly the physical level. Mental and spiritualhealth was also the gift of Christ and came



c. From the Exultet:

How holy is this night, which heals ourwounds and washes all evil away! A nightto cast out hatred! A night for seekingpeace and humbling pride...


Serene is the night on which shines forththe Serene One Who came to give usserenity... This is the night ofreconciliation; let us be neither wrathfulnor gloomy on it. On this all-peacefulnight let us be neither menacing norboisterous. This is the night of the SweetOne, let us be on it neither bitter norharsh. On this night of the Humble One,let us be neither proud nor haughty.

d. From the Exultet, using Old Testamenttypes of the Paschal Mystery:

This is the night when first you set thechildren of Israel free: you saved yourancestors from slavery in Egypt... Whenyou led your people by a pillar offire…When Christians everywhere...

From the 1st Nativity Hymn using signsanticipating the coming of Christ :

Who is able to glorify the true Son Whorises for us, Whom just men yearned tosee... Adam anticipated Him... Abelyearned for him... Eve looked for him...Noah... Melchizedek... Moses... [andmany more]

e. From the Exultet:

O truly blessed night, when heaven iswedded to earth and we are reconciledwith God...

From the close of the 1st Nativity hymn:

Today the Deity imprinted itself onhumanity, so that humanity might also becut into the deal of Deity.

Despite the paucity of extant Easter poemsby Ephraem, we can, nevertheless, findfeint traces of our Easter liturgy in his writ-ings. In his 2nd Hymn for theResurrection27 there are, perhaps, refer-ences to lighted torches being held byeveryone:

... The shouts of holy Church are joinedwith the Divinity’s thunder, and with thebright torches lightning flashesintermingle... ,

to the use of multiple alleluias:

... Now too at the festival does thecrowd… scatter for You, Lord, halleluiahslike blossoms... ,

and to some form of litany of saints:

... Let us summon and invite the saints,the martyrs, apostles and prophets...

Just as with our inability to trace backdefinitively to Ephraem’s liturgy, so, too,with his music. Though the names of tunesare referred to in the headings of many ofEphraem’s hymns, the actual music usedis now unknown. But what is refreshing forus of so much of what we can see ofEphraem’s contribution to the liturgicaldevelopment of his day is its relevance tothe post-Vatican II Church. In our day wehave re-introduced processional hymnsand parts of the Mass with repeatedrefrains, to encourage active participationin Mass, and we have returned to the ver-nacular. All these are present in what wesee of Ephraem’s liturgy as he used freshwords and music to support orthodoxy andunderstanding.



27 See Brock, S and Kiraz, G, Ephraim the Syrian: Selected Poems (Provo, Utah: Brigham YoungUniversity Press, 2006) p.169-179. 28 Shemunkasho p.259/260; from Ephraem’s Commentary on the Diatesseron 7.6

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through the woman being helped to faith. Alink here to the diaconal service of catech-esis, so clearly a major part of Ephraem’slife.

So much detail of Ephraem’s life is lost,but the last we hear of his diaconal serviceis that he died in 373 as a result of his car-ing for the sick during one of the periodi-cal plagues that ran through Edessa.

Ephraem’s service to the Church is farfrom over. Indeed, maybe some of hisexperience and teaching is becoming morepertinent as we move into the twenty-firstcentury. His theology of creation is sacra-mental in character. The interconnected-ness of everything because of creation, ledhim to see the relationship of humanity tonature and the importance of our attitudeto the environment. In this way Ephraemstands as a significant Christian voice,equal or greater even than that other dea-con saint, Francis of Assisi, in current andfuture ecological debate. In his 5thParadise hymn Ephraem writes:

In his book Moses29 described thecreation of the natural world, so thatboth the natural world and his bookmight testify to the Creator: the naturalworld, through humanity’s use of it, thebook, through his reading of it.

Ephraem considered nature and Scriptureas twin sources of revelation. Ephraim’sunderstanding of the centrality of the rightuse of our free will is important here. Theright use of free will involves wonder at,gratitude for, and stewardship of, creation,whereas the wrong use of free will leads togreed, misuse and exploitation30.

Again, Ephraem’s teaching on the value

and goodness of the human body is rele-vant to twenty-first century re-appraisal ofthe theology of the body through theteaching of John Paul II. This is becauseEphraem, as a Syrian Christian, is noteffected by Greek dualism and so stands in refreshing contrast to the disdain-for-the-body character of much EarlyChristian (and later) spiritual writingderiving from Gnostic thought. Ephraemwrites31:

If our Lord had despised the body assomething unclean or hateful and foul,then the Bread and the cup of Salvationshould also be something hateful andunclean to these heretics; for how couldChrist have despised the body yetclothed himself in the Bread, seeing thatbread is related to that feeble body. Andif he was pleased with dumb bread, howmuch more so with the body endowedwith speech and reason? To Ephraem,the body and the soul are equallyimportant, but with different roles: Thebody gives thanks to You because Youcreated it as an abode for Yourself, thesoul worships You because You betrothedit to Your coming.32

Perhaps a current and future service ofEphraem to the Church is to support, froman Early Church, non-dualistic viewpoint,the development of both a theology ofecology and the renewed theology of thebody. Valuable work in linking Ephraem tomodern thinking on both has yet to beundertaken. �



29 For many centuries it was believed that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch 30 Cf. Brock, S pp 164-16831 Hymns against Heresies 43, quoted in Brock S, p.3732 Hymns against Heresies 17, quoted in Brock S, p.38

In the apostolic period, the various formsof diaconal assistance women afforded

the Apostles and their communities wouldappear to have had an institutional char-acter. Thus Paul commends “our sisterPhoebe, the servant (hé diakonos) of theChurch at Cenchreae” to the communityat Rome (cf. Rom 16.1-4). Although themasculine form of diakonos is used here,we cannot from this conclude that theterm is already being used here to desig-nate the specific function of a “deacon”;firstly, because in this context, diakonosstill means servant in a very general senseand, secondly, because the word “servant”is not given a feminine ending, but israther preceded by the feminine definitearticle. What seems certain is that Phoebehas performed a service in the communi-ty at Cenchreae, a service that was recog-

nised and subordinate to the ministry ofthe Apostle. Elsewhere in Paul’s writings,secular authorities are themselves calleddiakonos (Rom 13.4) and in 2 Cor 11.14to 15, there is even a reference to thediakonoi of the devil.

Exegetes are divided on the subject of 1Tim 3:11. The mention of “women”, fol-

lowing the reference to deacons, could sug-gest either women-deacons (through theparallel presentation of “similarly”), or elsethe spouses of deacons, already referred toearlier. In this epistle we find not a descrip-tion of deacons’ functions, but only theconditions for their admission to the dia-conate. It says that women should neitherteach nor manage men (1 Tim 2, 8-15).But governance and teaching functionswere in any case always reserved to theepiscopate (1 Tim 3,5) and to presbyters (1Tim 5,17), and not to deacons. Widowsconstituted a recognised group in the com-munity from whom they received assis-tance in exchange for their commitment tocontinence and prayer. 1 Tim 5, 3-16insists on the conditions for enrolment onthe list of widows to receive aid from thecommunity and is silent about any furtherfunctions. Later on, they were officially“instituted”, but “not ordained”;58 theywould constitute an “order” in theChurch,59 and would never have any mis-sion beyond good example and prayer.

A letter from Pliny the Younger, a governorof Bithynia, mentions two women,described by Christians as ministrae, the


Tony Schmitz

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Deaconesses

What seems certain is thatPhoebe has performed a servicein the community at Cenchreae,a service that was recognisedand subordinate to the ministryof the Apostle

58 The Apostolic Tradition 10; SCh 11 bis, 67.59 Cf. Tertullian, To his Wife, 1,7,4 ; SCh 273; Exhortation to Chastity, 13,4; SCh 319.

The NDR presents the next instalmentof a fresh and complete translation ofthe International TheologicalCommission’s important researchdocument Le Diaconat: Évolution etPerspectives, Les Éditions du Cerf,Paris, 2003. The German, Greek andLatin footnotes are translated for thefirst time. Deacon Tony Schmitz isDirector of Studies of the nationaldiaconate formation programme for theDiaconate Commission of the Bishops’Conference of Scotland and co-editor ofthe New Diaconal Review. The followingis the fourth part of the Second Chapter.

tered the goods of the community in thename of the bishop. Like the bishop, dea-cons were maintained at the community’sexpense. Deacons are called the ear andmouth of the bishop (DA 2,44,3-4). Menfaithful had to go through deacons to gainaccess to the bishop, whilst women faithfulhad to go through the deaconesses (DA3,12,1-4). One deacon kept watch overadmission to the place of meeting, whilstanother attended the bishop at theEucharistic Offering (DA 2,57,6).

Deaconesses were charged with perform-ing the bodily anointing of women in thecourse of the baptismal rite, with instruct-ing women neophytes, and with visiting thewomen faithful, and especially the sick, intheir homes. They were forbidden toadminister baptism itself or to play any rolein the Eucharistic Offering (DA 3,12,1-4).Deaconesses supplanted the widows.Bishops could still institute widows, butthese widows were not allowed either toteach or to confer (female) baptism. It wastheirs simply to pray (DA 3,5,1-3,6,2).

The Constitutiones Apostolicorum, whichappeared in Syria towards 380, used andinterpolated the Didascalia, the Didache,as well as the Traditio Apostolica. TheseConstitutiones were to have a lasting influ-ence on the discipline concerning ordina-tions in the East, even though they havenever been considered to be an officialcanonical collection. The compiler of the

collection envisaged the imposition ofhands along with an epiclesis of the HolySpirit not only for bishops, presbyters anddeacons, but also for deaconesses, sub-deacons and lectors (cf. CA VIII 16-23).63

The notion of klèros is extended to all whoexercised a liturgical ministry, who derivedtheir livelihood from the Church and whoenjoyed the civil privileges that imperiallegislation afforded clerics. Thus dea-conesses were considered as belonging tothe clergy, whilst widows were excluded.Respectively, the bishop and presbyters areparalleled with the high priest and thepriests of the Old Covenant, while all theother ministers and states of life – “dea-

cons, lectors, cantors, porters, deaconess-es, widows, virgins and orphans” corre-spond to the Levites (CA II 26,3. CA VIII1,21). Deacons were placed “at the serviceof the bishop and the presbyters” andshould not encroach on the functions of


Ministry of Deaconesses – Tony Schmitz

probable equivalent of the Greek diakonoi(X 96-97). It is not until the third centurythat we see the appearance of the specifi-cally Christian terms diaconissa or diacona.

From the third century onwards an eccle-sial ministry specifically assigned to womencalled deaconesses is in fact attested to incertain regions of the Church60 – but not inall.61 This relates only to Eastern Syria andthe city of Constantinople. It was towards240 AD that a singular canonico-liturgicalcompilation, the Didascalia Apostolorum(DA), which had no official standing, firstmade an appearance. Here we find thebishop is endowed with all the traits of anomnipotent biblical patriarch (cf. DA 2,33-35,3). He is at the head of a small commu-nity which he governs with the help of dea-cons and deaconesses above all. It is herethat these latter first emerge in an ecclesi-astical document. Following a typology bor-rowed from Ignatius of Antioch, the bishopholds the place of God the Father, the dea-con holds the place of Christ, and the dea-coness that of the Holy Spirit (the word forwhom is feminine in Semitic languages),whilst the presbyters (who are seldommentioned) represent the Apostles, andthe widows represent the altar (DA 2,26,4-

7). There is no question here of the ordi-nation of these ministers.

The Didascalia document puts an empha-sis on the charitable role of both deaconand deaconess. The ministry of diakoniashould appear as “a single soul in two bod-ies”. The diakonia of Christ who washedthe feet of his disciples is its model. (DA3,13,1-7). In respect of the functions per-formed, however, there is no strict paral-lelism between the two branches of the

diaconate. Deacons are chosen by thebishop “to take care of many necessarythings”, whilst the deaconesses were cho-sen only “for the service of women” (DA3,12,1). It was considered desirable that“the number of deacons be proportionateto size of the assembly of the people of theChurch” (DA 3,13,1).62 Deacons adminis-



63 The compiler was attentive to the nuances of vocabulary. In CA II 11,3, he says: we do notallow presbyters to ordain (cheirotonein) deacons, deaconesses, lectors, servants, cantors orporters: that belongs to bishops alone. However, he reserves the term cheirotonia to theordination of bishops, presbyters, deacons and subdeacons (VIII 4-5; 16-17; 21). He uses theexpression epitithenai tas (tèn) cheira(s) for deaconesses and lectors (VIII 16,2; 17,2). Hedoes not seem to want to give this expression differentiated meanings since all theseimpositions of hands are accompanied by an epiclesis of the Holy Spirit. For confessors,virgins, widows, exorcists he is quite specific that there is no question of cheirotonia (VIII 23-26). In addition, the compiler distinguishes between cheirotonia and cheirothesia which is agesture of simple benediction (cf. VIII 16,3 and VIII 28,2-3). Chirothésie could be performedby priests in the baptismal ritual, at the re-integration of penitents or at the blessing ofcatechumens (cf. II 32,3; II 18,7; VII 39,4).

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60 “C’est au limes oriental de l’Empire romain que nous voyons enfin apparaître des diaconesses: le premier document qui les présente et qui en est en quelque sorte l’acte de naissance, c’est laDidascalie des Apôtres … connue que depuis la publication en 1854 … de son texte syriaque … .”A.G. Martimort, Les diaconesses: Essai historique, Rome 1982, 31. “It is on the eastern limes of the Roman Empire that we finally see deaconesses emerging. Thefirst document that specifically mentions deaconesses, one that, in a sense, constitutes theirbirth certificate as an ecclesial institution, is the document called the Didascalia of the Apostles… known since 1854 [when Paul de Lagarde published] its Syriac text … .” Idem., Deaconesses:an Historical Study, trans K D Whitehead, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1986, p. 35.

61 The most ample collection of all the testimonies in respect of this ecclesiastical ministry, withan accompanying theological interpretation, is that of Jean Pinius, De diaconissarumordinatione, in: Acta Sanctorum, Sept.I, Antwerp, 1746, I–XXVII. Most of the Greek andLatin documents referred to by Pinius are reproduced by J. Mayer, Monumenta de viduisdiaconissis virginibusque tractantia, Bonn 1938. Cf. R. Gryson, Le ministère des femmes dansl’Église ancienne (Recherches et synthèses), Gembloux 1972.

62 A norm resumed by the Constitutiones Apostolorum, III 19,1. On the origin of theprofessionalisation of the clergy, cf. G. Schöllgen, Die Anfänge der Professionalisierung desKlerus und das Kirchliche Amt in der Syrischen Didaskalie (JAC. Erg.-Vol. 26), Münster 1998.

... the bishop holds the place of God the Father, the deaconholds the place of Christ, andthe deaconess that of the HolySpirit (the word for whom isfeminine in Semitic languages)

Respectively, the bishop andpresbyters are paralleled withthe high priest and the priestsof the Old Covenant, while allthe other ministers and statesof life – “deacons, lectors,cantors, porters, deaconesses,widows, virgins and orphans”correspond to the Levites

hibiting subsequent marriage.68

Even in the fourth century, the way of lifeof deaconesses approximated that of nuns.At that time the head of a monastic com-munity of women was called a deaconess,as is testified by Gregory of Nyssa, amongstothers.69 Upon ordination as abbesses offemale monasteries, deaconesses wore themaforion or veil of perfection. Until thesixth century, they still assisted women inthe baptismal pool and for the accompany-ing anointing. Although they did not serveat the altar, they were able to distributecommunion to women who were sick.When the practice of anointing the wholebody at baptism was abandoned, dea-conesses were simply consecrated virginswho took a vow of chastity. They livedeither in monasteries or at home. The con-dition for admission was virginity or widow-hood and their activity consisted of charita-ble and health-related care of women.

At Constantinople, the best-known of thedeaconesses of the fourth-century wasOlympias, the superior of a monastery ofwomen, who was a protegé of St JohnChrysostom and who had put her propertyat the service of the Church. She was“ordained” (cheirotonein) deaconess alongwith three of her companions by the patri-arch. Canon 15 of the Council ofChalcedon (451) seems to confirm the factthat the deaconesses were actually“ordained” by the imposition of hands(cheirotonia). Their ministry was called lei-tourgia and they were no longer allowed to

contract marriage after this ordination.

In eighth century Byzantium, the bishopstill used to impose hands on deaconessesand conferred on her the orarion or stole(both strips of which were worn at thefront, one over the other); he gave her thechalice which she placed on the altar,without communicating anyone. The dea-coness was ordained in the course of theEucharistic liturgy, in the sanctuary, likedeacons.70 Despite the similarities betweenthe rites of ordination, deaconesses did nothave access to the altar or to any liturgicalministry. These ordinations were intendedespecially for the superiors of monasteriesof women.

In the West, it should be noted, there is notrace of any deaconesses for the first fivecenturies. The Statuta Ecclesiae antiquaprescribe that women catechumens andtheir preparation for baptism be entrusted

to the widows and nuns “chosen ad minis-terium baptizandarum mulierum”.71

Certain fourth and fifth century Councilsreject any ministerium feminae72 and pro-hibit any ordination of a deaconess.73

According to the Ambrosiaster (composed



the latter.64 The deacon could proclaim theGospel and could lead the prayer of theassembly (CA II 57,18), but only the bish-op and presbyters did the exhortations (CAII 57,7). Admission to the functions of dea-conesses was done by an epithesis cheirônor an imposition of hands that conferredthe Holy Spirit,65 as was done for lectors(CA VIII 20. 22). The bishop pronouncesthe following prayer: “Eternal God, Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of manand woman, who filled Myriam, Deborah,Anne, Hulda with your Spirit; who did notdeem it unworthy for your Son, the Only-Begotten, to be born of a woman; who inthe tent of testimony and in the templeinstituted women guardians of your sacreddoors; look now upon your servant herebefore you, proposed for the diaconate;grant her the Holy Spirit and purify her ofevery defilement of flesh and spirit so thatshe may perform the office entrusted toher worthily, for your glory and to thepraise of your Christ, through whom beglory and adoration to you, in the HolySpirit, for all ages. Amen.66

Deaconesses were named before the sub-deacon, who, in his turn, received a cheiro-tonia like the deacon (CA VIII 21), whilstthe virgins and widows could not be“ordained” (VIII 24-25). The Constitutionesinsist that deaconesses should have no litur-gical function (III 9, 1-2), but they broadentheir functions in the community as “ser-vice to the women” (CA III 16.1) and asintermediaries between women and thebishop. It is still stated that they representthe Holy Spirit, but they “do nothing with-

out the deacon” (CA II 26.6). They muststand at the women’s entrance at the meet-ings (II 57,10). Their functions are sum-marised as: “The deaconess does not blessand she does nothing that presbyters anddeacons do, but she keeps vigil at the doors,and she assists the presbyters in the courseof the baptism of women, for the sake ofdecency.” (CA VIII 28.6)

This observation is echoed by the almostcontemporary Epiphanius of Salamis inthe Panarion in about 375: “There is cer-tainly an order of deaconesses in the

Church, but this exists not for exercisingsacerdotal functions, nor for being entrust-ed with some enterprise, but for thepreservation of decency of the femininesex at the time of baptism.”67 A law of 21June Theodosius 390, revoked on 23rdAugust that same year, set at sixty the agefor admission to the ministry of deaconess.The Council of Chalcedon (canon 15)reduced the age to forty, whilst also pro-



64 Cf. CA III 20,2; VIII 16,5; VIII 28, 4; VIII 46,10-11.65 Canon 19 of the Council of Nicaea (325) could be interpreted not as refusing the imposition

of hands on all deaconesses in general, but as the simple statement that the deaconesses ofthe party of Paul of Samosata did not receive the imposition of hands, and “were anywaycounted as amongst the laity”, and that they needed to be re-ordained after being re-baptised,like the other ministers of this dissident group returning to the Catholic Church. Cf. G.Alberigo, Les conciles oecuméniques, t. II, 1 Les Décrets, Paris 1994, 54.

66 Constitutiones Apostolorum, VIII, 20, 1-2; SCh 336; Metzger, 221-223.67 Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion haer. 79,3,6, éd. K.Holl, GCS 37, 1933, p. 478.

68 Cf. G. Alberigo, Les conciles oecuméniques. Les Décrets, t. II/1, Paris 1994, 214.69 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St Macrina 29,1; SCh 178; Maraval, 236-237.70 Byzantine Ritual of Ordination of Deaconesses: Euchologe du manuscrit grec Barberini 336,

in: Vatican Library, ff 169R-17/v. cited by J.-M. Aubert, Des femmes diacres (Le PointThéologique 47), Paris 1987, 118-119.

71 Cf. Canon 100 (Munier 99). Additionally, women “even holy and well-instructed ones” areexpressly prohibited from instructing and baptizing men (cf. can. 37. 41; ibid. 86).

72 Council of Nimes (394/6), can. 2. Cf. J. Gaudemet, Conciles gaulois du IVe siècle (SCh 241),Paris 1977, 127-129.

73 Council of Orange 1 (441), can. 26.

“The deaconess does notbless and she does nothingthat presbyters anddeacons do, but she keepsvigil at the doors, and sheassists the presbyters in thecourse of the baptism ofwomen, for the sake ofdecency.”

Despite the similaritiesbetween the rites ofordination, deaconesses didnot have access to the altar or to any liturgical ministry

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the only witness to this and its interpreta-tion is the subject of intense debate.79

Should the imposition of hands on dea-

conesses be equated to that on deacons, oris it rather on the same level with the

imposition of hands on sub-deacons andlectors? It is difficult to determine theissue on the basis of historical data alone.In the chapters that follow some items willbe clarified and some other questions willremain open. In particular, a chapter willbe devoted to examining more closely howthe Church through her theology and hermagisterium has become more consciousof the sacramental reality of Holy Orders,in its three degrees. But before that, it isappropriate to examine the causes whichled to the disappearance of the permanentdiaconate in the life of the Church. �



in Rome at the end of the fourth century),the female diaconate was restricted toMontanist heretics.74 In the sixth century,women admitted into the group of widowswere sometimes referred to as deaconess-es. To avoid any confusion, the Councils ofEpaone prohibited “the consecration ofwidows who call themselves deaconess-es”.75 The Second Council of Orléans(533) decided to exclude from commu-nion women who had “received the bless-ing for the diaconate despite the canonsforbidding this and who had remarried”.76

Abbesses, or the spouses of deacons, werealso called diaconissae, by analogy withpresbyterissae or even episcopissae.77

This present historical overview showsthat a ministry of deaconesses did indeedexist and that it developed unevenly in dif-ferent parts of the Church. It seems clearthat this ministry was not perceived assimply the feminine equivalent women ofthe masculine diaconate. Nonetheless, at

the very least it was an ecclesial function,exercised by women, sometimes men-tioned before that of the sub-deacon in thelist of ministries of the Church.78 Was this

ministry conferred by an imposition ofhands comparable to that by which theepiscopate, the presbyterate and the mas-culine diaconate were conferred? The textof the Consitutiones Apostolorum mightseem to suggest so, but this is practically



74 Cf. ed. H.I. Vogels, CSEL 81/3, Vienna 1969, 268.75 Council of Epaone (517), can. 21 (C. de Clercq, Concilia Galliae 511-695, CCL 148A, 1963,

p. 29). The blessings of women as deaconesses was able to become widespread because theRituals did not provide for the blessings of widows, as the Second Council of Tours hadreason to recall (567), can. 21 (ibid. 187).

76 Ibid. 101.77 Cf. The Second Council of Tours, can. 20 (ibid. 184).78 Numerous commentators have followed the lead of Ambrosiaster in his Commentary on 1

Tim 3,11 (CSEL 81,3; G.L. Müller [Hg.], Der Empfänger des Weihesakraments. Quellen zurLehre und Praxis der Kirche, nur Männern das Weihesakrament zu spenden, Würzburg 1999,89): “But the Cataphrygians, seizing the occasion of their fall into error, on the pretext thatPaul addressed women after addressing the deacons, upheld their audacious folly thatdeaconesses should also be ordained. They know however that the Apostles chose sevendeacons (cf. Acts 6,1-6); is it to be supposed that at that point of time no suitable womancould be found, when we read that there were holy women in the milieu of the ElevenApostles (cf. Acts 1,14)? ( ... ) And Paul orders women to keep silence in church (cf. 1 Cor14,34-35).” See also John Chrysostom, In I. Tim hom. 11; PG 62, 555; Epiphanius, Haer.79,3 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 88); Council of Orange (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 98); Council ofDovin (Armenia, 527): “It is not permitted for women to discharge the offices of deaconessexcept for their ministry in baptism” (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 105); Isidore of Seville, De eccl.off. II, 18, 11 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 109). Decretum Gratiani, can. 15 (G.L. Müller, Quellen,115); Magister Rufinus, Summa Decretorum, can. 27, q. 1 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 320); Robertof Yorkshire, Liber poenitentialis, q. 6, 42 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 322); Thomas Aquinas, In I.Tm III,11 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 333); etc..

79 Cf. P. Vanzan, Le diaconat permanent féminin. Ombres et lumières, in: DocumentationCatholique 2203 (1999) 440-446. The author refers to the discussions which have takenplace between R. Gryson, A.G. Martimort, C. Vagaggini, C. Marucci. Cf. L. Scheffczyk (ed.),Diakonat und Diakonissen, St. Ottilien 2002, and in particular M. Hauke, Die Geschichte derDiakonissen. Nachwort und Literaturnachtrag zur Neuauflage des Standardwerkes vonMartimort über die Diakonissen, p. 321-376.

... it was an ecclesialfunction, exercised bywomen, sometimesmentioned before that of the sub-deacon in thelist of ministries of theChurch

Should the imposition of handson deaconesses be equated tothat on deacons, or is it ratheron the same level with theimposition of hands on sub-deacons and lectors?

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Joint National Assembly of Deacons in England and Wales

& International Conference, International Diaconate Study Centre

North European Circle

Friday 24th June – Sunday 26th June 2011

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham

Confirmed visitors and speakers so far include Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop Vincent Nichols

and Professor William Cavanaugh, author of Torture and Eucharist

Price: £180 / C=190 with a discount for married couples.

More details from... [email protected] ... or from ... www.diaconate.org

by Deacon Erik Thouet,Director of the IDC/IDZ

The IDC held an Assembly of Delegatesfrom 14 – 16 September 2010 in the beau-tiful city of Barcelona (Spain).

11 delegates from 10 different countries(Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Brazil,Spain, Hungary, Finland, Scotland, India,Germany) were able to take part.

We met at a monastery of Benedictinenuns. They supported our meeting withtheir great hospitality, their prayer andbeautiful singing. The very good food camemostly from their own organic garden.

We were very honoured that Cardinal Dr.Lluís Martínez Sistach came to celebratethe Eucharist with us and to express hisgreat support for the diaconate.

The main topic of our meeting was theneed for further internationalisation andregionalisation of the IDC. It was quiteclear that we want to strengthen theregions (CIDAL, IDC – NEC, IDC -IMBISA) and that each region has to findtheir own structure and way of workingaccording to their culture and specificneeds. At the same time we need to ensurethat they are closely connected with theIDC as a whole.

It was decided to invite all members of theIDC to take part in an extraordinaryGeneral Assembly to be held in Frankfurt(Germany) on the 8th of October 2011.

All the delegates gave reports on currentdevelopments from their countries orregions. It was very interesting and enrich-

ing to hear these experiences from verydifferent backgrounds.

The “International Information Centre” forquestions on the diaconate was founded in1965 in Rome during an InternationalStudy Conference on the “Deacon in the Church and World of today”. In 1969 it was reorganised and renamed as“Internationales Diakonatszentrum” (IDZ)– International Diaconate Centre (IDC).

At present the IDC has only about 750members. In the UK there are 37 mem-bers, in Ireland 2, in Canada 8, in the USA 64.

There is a big change taking place at themoment. Many of the pioneers of the dea-cons who were ordained in the ‘60s or ‘70sof the last century have died or are nolonger involved.

If we want to enlarge the number of mem-bers in the future, we have to especiallyattract the new generation of deaconsacross the globe to join our internationalnetwork. Remember – at last there are37,000 deacons around and their numberis constantly rising.

That is the way the IDC can and will grow:through personal encounters and friend-ship, through being dedicated to the samecause in different countries – in a spirit ofsolidarity and love.

If you wish to contact Erik with reactionsto this report please contact him at theInternational Diaconate Centre (IDC)Postfach 9, D 72101 Rottenburg.E-Mail: [email protected] Website: http://idz.drs.de


Report

Assembly of Delegates of theInternational Diaconate Study Centre

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