LIFE IN THE SEMINARY
The Twentieth in a series of articles by Leo Coshan, describing his experiences testing his vocation in the Societas Verbi Divini (S.V.D. Society of the Divine Word)

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SERVING THE LORD AS A DEACON IN BURSLEM
Hello Ramblers! Greetings from Burslem, If you can remember I spent three weeks here two years ago. Now my stay is for a somewhat longer period; six months to begin with. Since my ordination to the diaconate on June 25th I have been appointed to this parish - St. Joseph's, which is in the care of us SVD. In my four weeks nww I've managed to settle in. There's
plenty of work to do. In fact I've not had a complete day off as yet.

The numhers in our community vary from two to over seven. Some of our
priests supply for the surrounding area. Others have to go out on mission appeals. My immediate superior is the parish priest. My novice master is also a part of our community,and enjoys working. He is over 75 years old. Truly a wise man in the tradition of the Old Testament wisdom writers, where the wise man is associated with age. The other resident priest is an

American who used to be a brother and was imprisoned for some time in Communist China. Another young priest from the Irish province is awaiting his visa to the USA. Yet another young priest, an Englishman, is also temporarily here, supplying and filling in where neeed. We have one
brother who is a commissioned acolyte. He losks after the church building - sort of a sacristan - and does communion rounds and other odd jobs. In addition to our more or less permanent community two novices are spending three weeks here while their novice master is on holiday. They are occupied with a parish census. Our address for any of you who might happen to be up this way is: St. Joseph's Presbytery, Hall Street Burslem , St.oke-on-Trent, ST6 4BB, Staffordshire. We are situated not far from the Peak District to the East and Manchester to the North West. As you may know this is the heart of the Potteries Arnold Bennett's country.

Some of you may he a hit myocified as to what is a deacon and what he does. There are more and more of these animals knocking around in various parishes nowaday, but I will set out a summary of the neacon, and his function, for your information. To beginwith here is a quotation from Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church - Lumen Gentium: For the nurturing
and constant growth of the people .of God, Christ the Lord instituted in the Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body.

Ministry is a word which means to give service. It is used in the Church to describe different ways in which Catholics can exercise functions within the community of the Church. Until fairly recently this referred almost exclusively to the ordained and hierarchical ministries. But now it has a much wider meaning and applies to each and every Christian, i.e. everyone who is calleo hy God and is committed to Christ: the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is, in a very real and fundamental sense, only one ministry, that of JESUS CHRIST. He is THE Minister, reaching out to serve the whole human race through the members of his body, the Church. But one can speak bf three divisions of ministry, all forming the ministry of-Christ, the Christian·ministry:-
(1) The ministry of the baptized, the faithful.
(2)  Instituted ministries and
(3)  Ordained ministries.
The first, the minintry of the baptized, refers to any activities undertaken
without a formal commission from the Church. One can list nurses, doctors,
teachers, social workers as well as those who work in the parish or serve the oommunity in a spirit of Christian dedication. 

.The instituted ministries are those of lector (reader), catechist and acolyte.
These are officially recognised forms of service, or mInistry, in a particular
capacity in the Church. They are also called lay ministries and are proper to the lay state. For the last three years I exercised these ministrIes. They are open to those of the congregation aspiring to serve the community in this way and are not ·confined solely to seminarians.

Finally, the ordained ministries refer to the diaconate, the priesthood. and the episcopate, These are the ministries exercised by those who have received the Sacrament of Order (Holy Orders), i.e. those who have been ordained to a particular office in the Church. While all the ministries have as the
ultimate aim the proclaiming and the building up of the Kingnom of God, it
is the ministry of the deacon that I want to discuss further. 

There are two kinds of deacon at present in the Church:-
(1) The permanent deacon, who may be a married man with a family. There are several already in this country and, I hope, thore will be many more, bearing in mind that it is a vocation.
(2) The deacon who is on his way to the priesthood, of which I am one. Let's
call him a transitory deacon. Both exercise the same functions, though the permanent deacon will be looked on more or less as one would look to a
parish priest, except that though attached to a diocese he would be more
mobile. (For the deacon works directly with a bishop, or should do). The
transitory deacon, however, works more or less with the priest in a particular
parish, though not necessarily the one in which he will work as a priest, after his priestly ordination.

For what a deacon does we go back to Lumen Gentium, Article 29, which says:
"At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons, who receive the
imposition of hands 'not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry'. For,
strengthened by sacramental grace they are dedicated to the people of God,
in conjunction with the bishop and his body of priests, in the aervice of the
Liturgy, of the Gospel, and of works of charity. It pertains to the office of a deacon, in so far as it may be assigned to him by the competent authority, to administer Baptism solemnly to be custodian and distributor of the Eucharist, in the name of the Church, to assist at and bless marriages. to bring Viaticum to the dying, to read the sacred scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside over the worship and the prayer of the f'aithful, to administer sacramentals, and to officiate at funeral and burial services."

But why do we need a deacon at all ? Shurely a priest can do all these things just listed. Well, there are two main reasons (1) To complete the hierarchy of sacred orders (2) to enrich and strengthen the various diaconal (service) ministries already at work with the sacramental grace of the diaconate.

1. The diaconate is an integral part of the Church's threefold ordained ministerial hierarchy: bishops, priests and deacons. Of course, bishops and priests can do everything a deacon can do and also, deacons can do many of the things bishops and priests can do, but that is not the point. The point is that the ordained ministry in its fulness includes all three orders. Deacons are not priest's assistants, although in practice they do give important assistance to many priests. Rather, deacons were from very early times in the history of the Church as having a special relationship to the bishop.

2. The three traditional diaconal ministries are:

1. The ministry of the word.
2. The ministry of the liturgy 

3. The ministry of charity.

In our country there are many people already exercising these ministries in one form or another - those who read at Mass, those who serve, those who keep the church building clean, the SVP, the Knights, the prayer group, etc. These may all be looked upon as being contained in the diaconal ministry. But the deacon is, in a special way, commissioned to enter into all these services, or ministries, and is motivated to this by his ordination, whether he is a permanent or a transitory deacon. He is strengthened and confirmed by sacramental grace. His commitment is a lifelong one. When, therefore, he reads the Gospel, or instruct's a couple for marriage, or administers the Eucharist to the faithful and the sick, he is serving the people of God in the person of Christ, who is the first Deacon.

The Deacon, then, is a Church official in his own right, responsible to and
before God, in the service of God's people. His task is to lead the people
of God in the mission of living out their Christian commitment. He is the
sacramental sign of the concern that the Church must show for people in order to be worthy of the name Christian. 

Finally, once more from Lumen Gentium "Dedicated to works of charity and and functions of adndnistratinn, deacons should recall the admonition of St. Polycarp: 'Let them be merciful, and zealous, and let them walk according to the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all'.

This article is a bit long so I will conclude as rapidly as possible. Most of
the functions that I have spelled out above I have, or will be, engaged in. It's very fulfilling, especially when the faith of the person is stimulated and
encouraged. It encourages me in my own faith in the Lord. The people here are wonderful and I am looking forward to a satisfying, if demanding, ministry. 

Until I am again in contact with you, may God, in his goodness and love, watch over you all, 'as you walk in the Light of the Holy Spirit. Shalom. 

LEO COSHAN, S.V.D.

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