‘Once a deacon, always a deacon.’ These words have served as a useful reminder that, whatever circumstances I have found myself in, God’s call to diaconal ministry has remained constant.
Having been without appointment for several years, I am now in a Connexional appointment which is very different from my first Circuit appointment! Being appointed to work for the wider Methodist Connexion was not something I expected or even desired but being a member of a religious order means I am also under discipline and that, sometimes, others can see potential in us which we can’t see ourselves!
‘Once a deacon, always a deacon’ remains true as I serve God and the wider church in the area of complaints work. I am reminded of the hymn by Brian Wren, ‘Great God, your love has called us here’, (Singing the Faith 499) as I recognise that ‘we, by love for love were made,’ and that we still bear Christ’s image, though it is ‘marred, dishonoured, disobeyed.’
Even in the area of complaints work, God calls us all to come ‘with all our heart and mind,’ God’s call to hear, Christ’s love to find.
‘Once a deacon, always a deacon’, is a reminder that I must continue to take up the towel and basin as I serve the wider church; that I must continue to re-present the servant ministry of Christ, often to those I will never meet face to face; that I must hold before myself and others, God’s call to reconciliation which God through Christ has made possible.
Regardless of the context in which I now find myself, as an ordained deacon serving the Methodist Church, I join with the wider church and pray, ‘Great God, in Christ you set us free your life to live, your joy to share; give us your Spirit’s liberty to turn from guilt and dull despair and offer all that faith can do, while love is making all things new.’ (StF 499 v5)