The Church of North India

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2002 by D.K. Sahu

Many of the diaconal ministries within churches arose in response to specific needs in their respective Societies; that is, they express the response by the churches to particular historical and cultural realities. Thus the dominant factors in generating the diversity of diaconal ministries have been the various needs which they have sought to meet and, while respecting this cultural and historical diversity, the need is to reflect critically on it because some forms of diaconal service may have outlived their usefulness, and some may need to be reformed.

The most obvious diversity is amongst the diaconate as an ordained position, and forms of diaconal ministry which are rather "commissioned". Moreover, different forms of the diaconate relate in different ways to the decision-making structures of the churches. Some were initially mandated by the central structures of the church authority, while others arose as grassroots initiatives responsible to the church in more indirect ways. A relative freedom from central decision-making structures has permitted some diaconal ministries to be "spaces" where excluded groups (e.g., women) have been able to shape their own ministries. The "go-between" role of diaconal ministry operates in both directions: from the church to the needs, hopes and concerns of persons in and beyond the church; and from those needs, hopes and concerns to the church. Therefore it is a matter not just of ministries of service (diakonia) but also of witness (martyria) and worship (leitourgia).

A renewed definition of the diaconate for our time--and particularly to meet the need of our local constituencies in north India--is most urgent. Deacons are not to be merely an inferior order of ministers, exercising lowly service; rather they should be ordained to assist the presiding officers of the community (bishops and presbyters), both in proclamation and celebration of word and sacrament, and in coordinating the community's diakonia in Christ. Ordination is into both an activity and an identity; it demands some kind of life-long commitment. All this would imply a reconsideration of the transitional diaconate, and the possibility of direct ordination to the priesthood for persons discerned to have presbyteral vocation without their passing through the diaconate.

The presbyters may perceive a renewed diaconate as a threat to their own identity and role. If, however, presbyters can welcome deacons as partners-in-ministry then the diaconate can stand as a witness against the ecclesiastical distortion rooted in exclusivist attitudes and practices. The lay members may perceive a renewed diaconate as a threat to various ministries in worship which are now exercised by lay persons, but which might be re-absorbed into what might be seen as a more "clerically"-oriented diaconate. But it must be understood that what deacons do is the same as what Christians, in general, could or should do. What is distinctive is their call to be publicly accountable servants who have a charge to model, encourage and coordinate diakonia.