One alternate text for the 5th Sunday of Easter this year is Acts 8:26-40, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
Having grown up in a Pentecostal tradition, we didn’t have any true category for “deacon.” We saw “deacon” in 1 Timothy but in most churches that was translated to “board member.” It wasn’t an ordained ministry.
Coming into the Anglican Church, I have embraced the ministry of Deacon. I transferred my ordination into the ACNA (Anglican Church in North America) to vocational deacon, not priest. As I have lived more fully into my ordination, I keep exploring the biblical texts for the example of diaconal ministry. The ACNA isn’t very old as a formed entity. The Roman Catholic Church has done more work on the ordained diaconal ministry, but that work is only 50 years old.
From what I’ve witnessed to this point, it is still a ministry in formation and many ordained priests still don’t have a grasp on what the fullness of diaconal ministry can mean. The ministry of Philip has opened up many possibilities. Acts 6 in my tradition was very adamant about those serving the tables were not deacons. But as I have embraced the theology of the diaconate and give witness to those men being deacons, I am even more intrigued by the ministry of Philip.
When he went down to Samaria and then to the Ethiopian eunuch, it was seen in the paradigm of the “five fold ministry” and Philip was the evangelist. Now I see it as Philip in the gift of evangelism fulfilling his diaconal duty. All of it led by the Holy Spirit.
I usually think of the apostles as “plowing new ground” in the New Testament, but it is Philip to be the very first of the Jerusalem Church to flesh out the call of Jesus in Acts 1:8. Philip is the first into Samaria and he is the first to reach someone from “the remotest part of the world”… and a Gentile.
All of this from a deacon.
This challenges me and it should challenge our church. We are not utilizing the fullness of the diaconal ministry. We should be highlighting so much more of the possibility of diaconal ministry and not limiting it to the ministry of the table or ministry to shut-ins.
It is teaching… and much more that confirmation classes. It is outreach… and much more than serving at a food shelf.
It is moving in the gifts of the Spirit where it may put you on a lonely, dusty road and one person shows up and the Spirit says, “Go talk to them.”
I also think of where Philip was in the context of our day in 2024. He was on a road to Gaza. It was deserted then. It is being ripped apart now. And who is sent there? A deacon.
He is sent to an Ethiopian eunuch. A eunuch seeking God, but would have been rejected by Jews because of his physical condition. And Philip is sent so that man can know the Kingdom of God can touch ANYONE.
Let us lift up the possibilities of the diaconate in our churches. If we are planting churches, don’t limit the scope of vision to a priest. Think of a priest and a deacon.
Our missions teams could be led by deacons.
We need to stand firm on good theological education because we need deacons who can truly expound on the the Word of God to people seeking God.
And we need to realize the work of the deacon can have a major impact. Philip fleshed out Acts 1:8 before the apostles moved out of Jerusalem!
Don’t think of a person and think, “They would make a great deacon.”
Think of what is needed in the ministry of your church in your context and put together a diaconal ministry, then see who the Spirit would point out for that particular type of ministry.
And, for the love of God, could we ask priests to quit saying, “Once a deacon always a deacon?” I’ve generally heard that when it comes to a priest need to pick up folding chairs or deal with cleaning up after an event. It belittles the depth of the diaconal ministry.
Let us find ways to engage more in the conversation and utilize the fullness of this office.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 