ON July 21, this year the Archdiocese of Brisbane celebrated the ordination of Russ Nelson as a permanent deacon.
Russ joins a growing group of deacons in the archdiocese and Australia, which has about 100 deacons in a variety of ministries and dioceses.
For many of us the deacon as a permanent minister is something new but its roots are ancient.
The Holy Spirit has a significant role in the diaconate and indeed the life of the Church.
Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit guides an ecumenical council and inspires the bishops to make such decisions as renewing the liturgy, renewing religious life and renewing the ministry of deacon.
Ministry is one of the gifts of the Spirit through which the Church is built up (Eph 4:11-13and 1 Cor 12:12-27).
In each deacon’s life the Spirit plants the seed of vocation and it is up to the Church to discern that a true calling has been received.
As we shall see, in this reflection, the diaconate is a gift of the Spirit for the Church.
Diaconate is part of the three-fold order of ministry of bishop, priest and deacon which has existed in the Church since ancient times.
Both the terms episkopos (bishop) and diakonos (deacon) are found in the New Testament as the names for offices which existed in the Church.
The Second Vatican Council, repeating the ancient doctrine of the Church, taught that the three-fold ministry is established as a gift of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the Church.
In restoring the diaconate as a permanent ministry, the council was responding to the call of the Council of Trent, to show that each of these three ministries is necessary for the life of the Church.
Having permanent deacons creates a permanent sign of the significance of the ministry for the Church.
All ministries in the Church are a gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Sacrament of Orders is a sacramental signification of the work of the Spirit in sustaining and giving life to the Church.
Ordained ministry is not institutional ministry but charismatic ministry, a Spirit given gift for the life of the Church, sustaining the institution and communion of the Church.
All ministries participate in the one ministry of Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
Vatican II taught that it is the task and duty of the diocesan bishop to discern and regulate the gift of the Spirit in the local church (diocese).
The council exhorts the bishop to be cautious in this discernment process and to make certain he is allowing his church to receive the gift of the Spirit and to grow from it.
He is cautioned against doing anything that would stifle the operation of the Spirit.
The discernment of the call to ordained ministry involves the bishop, through his advisors discerning the presence of the Spirit.
It is not a process that can be artificially controlled or regulated through laws, simple rules or the imposition of quotas.
The Spirit is hard to pin down in a simple formula or rule. It would not be true discernment to say that we will only have 10 religious sisters in our diocese or order because that is all that we want or that we will have 20 priests but no more because that is all the priests I need now.
And so it is with deacons. The Spirit has to be allowed to pour out gifts on the Church and the Church needs to be ready to receive from the generosity of the Spirit.
Diaconate is a vocation, a calling which comes from the Spirit. We believe that the Spirit prompts the individual enquirer and the local church to hear God’s call to ministry.
The Spirit implants in some the desire to offer themselves and their time and talent for the life of the local church as deacons.
A person who hears a call to diaconal ministry would begin a process of discernment with whomever the bishop has appointed for this process.
The discernment does not cease when and if an enquirer is accepted as an aspirant (the first stage of formation) but will continue all the way through the formation process which may result in ordination.
Discernment of an individual’s vocation is a matter for the individual and the Church.
Both individual and Church need to be ready to acknowledge that there may or may not be a vocation present.
It may be that the discernment process leads an aspirant to decide not to proceed or that the bishop decides that this person does not have a vocation and will not be ordained.
In the best of worlds the aspiring deacon and the local church will arrive at the same decision at the same time.
All ministries in the Church work together for the purpose of building up the Church and preparing the Church for mission in the world.
Priests and deacons are collaborators with the bishop and are ordained for the local church which they generously serve.
They work in collaboration with religious and lay workers whom the Spirit has called and gifted in a variety of ways, so that all of the gifts work together for the same purpose.
The gifts are distributed in the communion of the Church in a way St Paul compares to the different parts of a body.
The Church cannot be all deacon or all priest or all religious or all lay any more than the body can be all eye or all ear or all foot. Each part and ministry and gift works to give life to the whole body.
All ministries must act within this communion and in a relation to each other.
One of the frequently used prayers for vocations petitions God to send workers into the field. In response to our prayer God has sent us deacons.
We are grateful that so many have responded to Gods call and answered our prayers, just as we give thanks for those who have responded and become religious brothers, sisters and priests.
The Spirit inspired the Church to renew the diaconate and now that gift of the Spirit is beginning to flourish in the Church once again.
We are at a new stage in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, where we are beginning to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit called diaconate.
Pope John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI called deacons to be at the forefront of “new evangelisation”.
Who knows what great things may be accomplished in this new evangelisation through this renewed ministry which is a gift of the Spirit?
Rev Anthony Gooley is a deacon of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
