Seeing the Deacon in Our Midst

An Aid for the Discerning Community

What is discernment?

For many years it has been the practice of The Episcopal Church to rely on self-nomination to identify those who are, or may be, called to ordained leadership. We are used to waiting for someone to say, “I think God is calling me to be a deacon.” Today we are working to encourage the community of faith to be the initiator of the process of call.  We hope that everyone in a congregation will continually look around to see if there is a prospective deacon in their midst and be emboldened to approach such a person and ask, “Do you think you might be called . . .?” This isn’t either/or since God is not limited to acting just through individuals or only through the congregation. A person’s own sense of call needs to be honored, but most importantly, it needs to be seen, corroborated, and affirmed by others in the local community of faith and in the wider church. In the same way, the perceptions of the people about a prospective deacon need to be sensed, prayed into, and owned by the individual. Discernment is an ever-present, on-going vocation of the gathered people of God.

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