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DIACONAL
November 2010
EDITORIAL 2
Deacons and the Afghan War Ashley Beck and Tony Schmitz
DIACONAL SPIRITUALITY 4
Marriage and the Permanent Deacon Paul Chamberlain
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Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage: thoughts from the journey Justin Harkin
DIACONIA OF WORD 11
Contemplative Homiletics James Keating
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Mark, suffering and that big question, ‘Who do they say I am?’ Sean Loone
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Review of ‘The Use and Abuse of the Bible’, by Henry Wansbrough OSB Ashley Beck
DIACONIA OF ALTAR 20
Review of ‘Deacons, Ministers of Christ and of God’s Mysteries’, ed. Gearoid Dullea Justin Harkin
Contents
Issue 5
DIACONIA OF CARITAS 22
Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens
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Deacons and the Euro (Part I) Ashley Beck
THEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF DIACONATE 34
The Perception of the Diaconate in Early Middle Ages: Some Evidence from Canon Law (Part II) Thomas O’Loughlin
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John N. Collins in dialogue with Klaus Kießling: For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ John N. Collins
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Discovering St Ephraem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church Bill Burleigh
DOCUMENTATION / RETRIEVING THE TRADITION 53
International Theological Commission Ministry of Deaconesses Tony Schmitz
REPORT 60
Assembly of Delegates of the International Diaconate Centre, 14-16 September 2010
eview Deacons
DIACONAL
Published November & May each year by: International Diaconate Centre – North European Circle (IDC-NEC) 77 University Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3DR, Scotland. Tel: 01224 481810 (from outside UK: +44 1224 481810) A Charitable Company Registered in England In association with The Pastoral Review, The Tablet Publishing Company Ltd, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London, W6 0GY, UK. Website www.idc-nec.org Board of the IDC–NEC Tony Schmitz (Chair), Ashley Beck, John Traynor, Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens, Wim Tobé, Paul Wennekes, Göran Fäldt Editors Tony Schmitz tony.schmitz@gmail.com Ashley Beck ashleybeck88@hotmail.com Contributions are welcome from readers. Please send material to the editors at the e-mail addresses above. For style details please consult the website of The Pastoral Review www.thepastoralreview.org/style.shtml Editorial consultants Dr John N Collins (Australia) Rt Revd Gerard de Korte (Netherlands) Revd Dr William Ditewig (USA) Rt Revd Michael Evans (England) Revd Prof Dr Michael Hayes (England) Revd Prof Bart Koet (Netherlands), Rt Revd Vincent Logan (Scotland), Most Revd Sigitas Tamkevicius (Lithuania) Designer James Chasteauneuf © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited ISSN 1759-1902 Subscriptions and membership of IDC-NEC 1 year - £15 / 20 euros (or equivalent in other currencies) By post: IDC-NEC, 77 University Road, Aberdeen AB24 3DR, UK Online: www.idc-nec.org (in all main currencies)
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eacons are expected to have a specialised knowledge of Catholic Social Teaching – we are also told that they are called to ‘transform the world according to the Christian order.’ At least since Blessed John XXIII’s great encyclical Pacem in Terris, written just before his death in 1963, social teaching has very clearly included the Church’s witness for peace and against war, reiterated by the teachings of Gaudium et Spes, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. At first sight it might seem as if deacons have less to offer in terms of experience for this area of social teaching than for others. The specialisation in social teaching stems partly from their secular employment – so they will know, for example, more than most priests do about employment law, wages, health and safety at work, Trades Unions and the world of business and finance. At least in Europe, few deacons are members of the armed forces, although some have been in the past and some are attached to military establishments in a support role. Does this mean that deacons should avoid issues of war and peace? Many of those who pioneer the Church’s work for peace – for example, in Pax Christi – are members of religious orders or laypeople rather than secular priests, let alone deacons. Perhaps this reflects the outlook of affluent and politically conservative parishes from which deacons are often drawn. At the time of writing (August 2010) in some of the northern European countries served by this journal the continuing NATO action in Afghanistan is a major political issue, punctuated in Britain, for example, by an increasing number of military casualties. The leaks of US logs at the beginning of August showed a dark and inept side of the war’s conduct – especially in relation to civilian casualties. The contingent in Afghanistan from the Netherlands has just been withdrawn, after the issue had helped to bring down the last Dutch government. Although according to opinion polls there is not much
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and the Afghan War public support for the war people are reluctant to engage in public challenge for fear that they might be seen to undermine ‘our boys’ who are fighting in the name of our countries: this seems to have meant that the churches have played hardly any role in a moral debate about what is happening. Even within the Catholic community retired generals seem to have more influence than theologians. Many of those involved with the NATO action are acting from good motives – for example, in relation to the rights and treatment of women in Afghanistan – but surely we are entitled to ask whether the action has lived up to these ideals in terms of effectiveness and whether they outweigh the moral problems about the conflict. Within our community there is an important group of people who espouse an absolute pacifist position and whose witness against the war has been very powerful. The witness of the Catholic Worker movement, founded nearly eighty years ago by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, is important for the whole Church – their houses in England, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany are beacons of resistance to the culture of war, and of resistance to this war. Most Catholics would probably not espouse this position and would claim rather to be guided by the Just War doctrine, very stringent conditions for waging war, originally formulated by St Thomas Aquinas. Here is the summary from the Catechism (2309): ‘The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grace and certain; All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective; there must be serious prospects of success; the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.’ Many would say that the Afghan war does not succeed in fulfilling even one of these conditions, let alone all four. At best the morality of this war is doubtful, and tradi-
tionally in Catholic moral theology doubt requires us to be cautious. Deacons should familiarize themselves more with this doctrine and teach others about it. Deacons, like bishops, priests and laypeople, should be leading a critique of this conflict in Europe and North America. The real danger is the extent to which governments which engage in morally dubious wars lie to people about what is going on, and do all in their power to bolster support for what they are doing behind the cloak of support for the troops and to stifle those who question this fiasco. This subterfuge actually helps those who are intent on acts of terrorism, in Afghanistan, in Europe and in the rest of the world. People in parishes are being taken in by this: the Church’s ministers must not be drawn into this flag-waving. At the same time many of us from all over Europe have parishioners serving in Afghanistan and may have had to conduct funeral services for those who have been killed. At the very least, if we have publicly opposed this war, we have to explain to the faithful how we are the best supporters of those fighting there, in that we want them to be brought home. These are serious issues faced by many deacons, priests and laypeople in many of our countries. How do we square our pastoral responsibilities with our duty to witness to truth? As we enter the third year of this journal’s life we continue to evaluate what we are doing and we would welcome comments from readers. We are working hard to increase our base of subscribers and widen the journal’s influence. We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to come to our first international conference, which will also be the regular assembly of deacons in England and Wales, in Twickenham next June. The board continues to be grateful to Ignatius Kusiak and Michael Hayes, the publisher and editor of The Pastoral Review, for their support and encouragement. ■
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Editorial
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Ashley Beck and Tony Schmitz
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Paul Chamberlain
A distinctive aspect of the ministry of most permanent deacons is that they are married. We will be including a number of contributions relating to this and in this issue Fr Paul Chamberlain looks at the overall picture. He is Director of the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese married men within the Latin Rite who have of Birmingham and Vice-Chair of the been ordained as deacons. More recently, Conference of Diaconate Directors and because of the provision made for convertDeacon Delegates in England and Wales Anglican-clergy, many of them married, who wished to become Catholic priests, we now have a great number of men in Sacred n the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Orders who are married with families. marriage and Holy Orders together, until recently was a no-go area. All who were in Initially it was feared that many of the laity major orders were bound by the discipline of would not welcome the ordained ministry of celibacy. With the advent of the Permanent married men but the truth of the matter is Diaconate and the admission into the they have been welcomed with open arms Catholic priesthood of married exAnglican by the vast majority of laity. I live in a parish clergy, we have, after the second Vatican where the Priest-in-charge is a married Council, entered into a whole new era as far priest and I can witness to the tremendous as that important discipline is concerned. acceptance there is of this man’s ministry. The Council in calling for the re-establishIn my view it is time the Church tried to ment of the Permanent Diaconate formally assess how well (or otherwise) approached the issue of a married diaconate married ministry is doing in the Catholic rather gingerly, so in the Dogmatic Church. We need to ask the question how Constitution on the Church article 29 we well do Holy Orders and Marriage comread: ‘Should the Roman Pontiff think fit, it bine to produce an effective ministry for will be possible to confer this diaconal order those not called to celibacy, or is having a even upon married men, provided they be of wife and family an impediment to effective more mature age, and also on suitable young ministry? What role does the priest or deamen, for whom however, the law of celibacy con’s wife and family have within their must remain in force.’ (Italics mine). ministry? Or are they to be hidden away and hardly acknowledged in the sphere of Clearly it was envisaged that there would the deacon or priest’s public ministry? be single men who felt called to the diaconate rather than the priesthood and who Whilst this article is specifically about would be bound by the law of celibacy as it Marriage and the Permanent Deacon, was recognised that a call to the diaconate inevitably some of it will have relevance to was of a specific nature different to that of the situation of the married priest. priesthood. Indeed the experience has been that there are many single men who The first thing to be said is that whereas the have come forward and been ordained as married man is ordained to the priesthood deacons but the vast majority have been, by dispensation or by way of exception, each and continue to be, married men. case invoking a special indult from Rome, there is no such a dispensation required Over the past thirty years or so, there has from the law of celibacy for a married man been throughout the world, vast numbers of
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and the Permanent
Diaconate to be ordained as a Permanent Deacon. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Permanent Deacons are married men. Right from the start of his formation, the applicant for permanent diaconate’s wife is involved. She has to give her written and formal consent to her husband entering the formation programme; she is encouraged to join him and be with him on the programme and she must give her formal written consent at the end of the programme before he can be ordained.
ondary responsibility flowing from that is to provide an income to support his family and to pursue his career in such a way as to ensure stability. In third place is his ecclesiastical or parish work. Unlike the priest, the deacon is not supported financially by the diocese or parish although he should be paid any legitimate expenses his ministry incurs.
Whilst it is the deacon and not his wife who is ordained and mandated by the bishop, and despite the fact that I know of some deacon’s wives who have said to their husbands ‘It’s your ministry not mine, I’m happy for you to During the ordination ceremony it is my do it but don’t involve me’, the deacon’s wife experience that the wives of the ordinands is inevitably caught up in her husband’s minare often invited by the bishop to vest their istry. After all, the diaconate is not a job, it is husbands in the stole and dalmatic; mema sacrament and has configured the man bers of their families take important roles who has received it to Christ and specifically within the liturgy including doing readings as Christ the servant. This ‘diakonia’ is now and bringing up the Offertory gifts. part of ‘who’ this man is. This deacon and his wife are ‘one flesh’ and their vocation as a married couple is to forever seek a deeper ... his wife and family along unity with each other; this must inevitably with his job, career or profession mean for the deacon’s wife an ever deeper involvement with and understanding of his must take priority over his diaconal identity. She cannot be distant from ecclesiastical or parish work it without distancing herself from who her husband is. A deacon’s wife therefore not Again, right from the beginning, it is made only consents to her husband’s ministry but clear to the diaconal student and later the shares in it by facilitating it, supporting it and deacon that his wife and family along with shares with him in the inevitable sacrifices his job, career or profession must take priorthat its exercise involves. ity over his ecclesiastical or parish work. He received the sacrament of marriage before I remember one deacon’s wife saying to me he received the sacrament of order, it is as a when I first visited their home. “Since his married man in union with his wife that he ordination I’ve realised there are three of is following Christ, it is from within that relaus now in this marriage, my husband, tionship that he has heard the call of Christ myself and the Church and that has been to the diaconate. So his primary responsibilhard to come to terms with”. I had only ity is to protect the relationship he has with recently been appointed as Director when his wife and with his children. His secthis happened and I realised later that this New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Diaconal Spirituality
Marriage
Marriage and the Permanent Diaconate – Paul Chamberlain
Justin Harkin
Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage:
Deacon’s wives need to take care that their husbands do not forget the priorities I mentioned earlier in this article. She must not feel in the least bit guilty about reminding her husband that his first priority must be to her and the family; indeed she has a duty to do that otherwise resentment could destroy both his ministry and their marriage. Similarly with his job or career, it has to take precedence over any ecclesiastical or pastoral duties Priests need to be sensitive to this; as celibates it’s easy to forget that the deacon has two other important and prior dimensions to their lives, family and career. These take precedence over their ecclesiastical or church work. If the deacon was a celibate and single that would give him a completely different set of priorities very similar in terms of commitment to that of the priest. But the married man has a Godgiven responsibility to have a different set of priorities and a parish priest and bishop must never forget this. We do not live in an ideal world so it is inevitable that there will be times of trauma and stress for the deacon in his ministry. It might be due to a difficult working relationship with the Parish Priest or it might flow from factional interests within the parish. These things happen. It is often the deacon’s wife who feels these things more than her husband. Personal interior struggles are part of everyone’s spiritual journey, these do not disappear with ordination and these of their nature can affect one’s ministry as indeed they can impact upon married life too. The deacon’s marriage is of crucial importance to his ministry. Theirs is a 6
shared life what happens to one affects the other so what is happening in his wife’s life will impact upon his ministry. Owen Cummins in his article ’Images of the Diaconate’ describes both the sacrament of marriage and the diaconate as sacraments of self-giving and emphasises their dynamic nature. Both are lived sacraments in the sense that the rite bestows a relationship that now has to be lived out. Looking at the rites of marriage and diaconal ordination he points out that ‘both are sacraments of enrichment and strengthening; both are sacraments of self-donation, to one’s spouse and to the local church through the bishop; both sacraments are permanent; both have external signs of fidelity and of the pledge made.’ He points out too that whilst ‘no-one would question that the sacrament of Holy Order invites and enables the ordinand to encounter and engagement with God in Christ’ some might see the sacrament of marriage ‘as not quite equal in this regard;’ yet St. Paul spoke of Christian Marriage as signifying the mystery of Christ’s relationship with the Church! We in this new era in the
thoughts from the journey In the main it is not by introspection but by reflecting on our living in common with others that we come to know ourselves. What is revealed? It is an original creation. Freely the subject makes himself what he is, never in this life is the making finished, always it is in process, always it is a precarious achievement that can slip and fall and shatter. Bernard Lonergan1
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Justin Harkin is Director of Pastoral Development for the diocese of Elphin in the west of Ireland. He has recently completed the Scottish diaconal formation programme certain tensions persist in even the best of marriages (1 Cor 7:28; 1 Pet 1:6-8). Today an excellent and growing body of literature exists by way of offering insight into the deacon’s diakonia of the liturgy, of the Gospel and of works of charity2. A number of inter-diocesan, national and international conferences have also explored diaconal identity and spirituality from the perspective of this threefold munera. There is also a significant increase in the number of dioceses, who, in the light of contemporary experience, have deemed it prudent and beneficial to introduce memorandums of understanding, covenant agreements and annual reviews involving married deacons, their spouses, parish priests and bishops3.
Latin Rite where many in ordained ministry both diaconal and sacerdotal are married need to ask these men and their wives to reflect more on what these sacraments contribute to each other in the life of the Church.
n an age characterised by an unholy activism, diaconal students and wives blessed with children, benefit from periodically reviewing the leadership, as distinct from the management, they exert in the family. Centuries ago the prophet Amos posed the beautiful question: Do two people travel together unless they have agreed to do so? (Amos 3:3). The awesome transformative power of good communication needs no advocate. Factor in recognition that all of us, from time to time, contend with major developments of and not of our choosing and the centrality of values-based negotiated outcomes to family well-being and contentment is plain-to-see. And yet perhaps it would be true to suggest that
Certainly in England the Church can only be grateful to the many wives and families who have been generous enough to allow their husbands and fathers to serve the Church in this way. This generosity needs to be more fully but sensitively acknowledged, its significance more deeply reflected upon. ■
1 From Frederick E. Crowe (ed) Collection: papers by Bernard Lonergan (2nd Edition) Darton, Longman & Todd, 1993, p. 220. 2 e.g. James Keating (ed) The Deacon Reader, Paulist Press, 2006; Gearoid Dullea (ed) Deacons: Ministers of Christ and of God’s Mysteries, Veritas, 2010, Tony Schmitz & Ashley Beck (ed)s, New Diaconal Review, IDC-NEC, 2008 – & Kenan B. Osborne The Permanent Diaconate: its history and place in the Sacrament of Orders, Paulist Press, 2007. 3 For example, e.g. Westminster, Aberdeen and Birmingham.
... the married man has a God-given responsibility to have a different set of priorities and a parish priest and bishop must never forget this
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There remains, however, a dearth of research, sharing and theological reflection concerning the lived experience of marriage, family life and diaconal ministry. Deacon William T. Ditewig identified the related challenge very well last year when he highlighted that whilst there are centuries of scholarship on the relationship between celibacy and ordained ministry there is nothing comparable on the relationship of matrimony and holy orders, i.e. with the exception of Chapter 5 of McCaslin & Lawler’s Sacrament of Service: A Vision of the Permanent Diaconate
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lady probably had not been involved at all in her husband’s formation and so had not really grown with him into the diaconate. It might be the husband who is ordained but in the case of a married deacon his wife too is exercising diakonia in sharing her husband with the community he is serving.
Today4. Shift the focus to the years of diaconal formation and you will find even less and, given the pressure of studies and pastoral placements etc. possibly even less time for married diaconal students and their wives to comfortably contextualise this sacred calling vis-à-vis their marriage, family, extended-family and community life5. In fact, there can be a real temptation to avoid or postpone such an exploration, particularly if the developmental stages of children are making significant emotional and psychological demands, if other unaddressed tensions or compromises are influencing the marital relationship and if formation programmes or diaconal students fail to recognise their holistic spiritual formation as the centre of their academic studies.6 Entry into a diaconal formation programme marks a major development in the life of any marriage and family. Potential blessings and risks abound7, bringing with them opportunities for growth and additional joy. Once again a couple enters a period of transition and readjustment. The two-tiered nature of Christian marriage can in some instances, become the focus of conscious attention, i.e. the proclamation, making real and
ongoing celebration of the mutual union of a specific man and woman and the couple’s proclamation, making real and celebrating in representation (domestically and publicly) the union between Christ and the Church8. In countries where catechesis in relation to submission to one another in Christ is uncommon the pathway to a new consensus, as distinct from an accommodation, can call spouses to a deeper level of communication and at a time when assignments etc. also seek attention. Hopefully, however, marital and pre-marital experience has brought home the importance of tending to concerns before they become major frustrations. Here the insight and ingenuity of wives can be a powerful force for good. A short story that precedes my entry into formation illuminates. I entered the employment of the Church in May 2000 and my work quickly evolved to include a significant volume of evening pastoral development and catechetical work. Simultaneously my wife was working fulltime and pouring huge energy into the holistic development of our two young children. Come the weekend we both tended to be tired. It was also the time they sought more of our attention. One night I returned home from a cate-
4 William T. Ditewig “Married and Ordained” in America: The National Catholic Weekly, July 20th 2009. Available online at http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11771 5 This is not to suggest that major difficulties and problems go un-addressed. Many formation teams, theologically grounded spiritual directors, bishops and experienced pastors remain highly sensitive to the marital and familial vocation. The bottom line, however, is that no one can do the work of another person in this area. 6 Here I draw upon the vision of the US Bishops that spiritual formation become the heart of seminary academics (USCCB Program for Priestly Formation (2006) n. 115). An excellent vision of where such a spiritual formation can take us is communicated in James Keating’s A Deacon’s Retreat, Paulist Press, 2010. 7 See Patrick McCaslin & Michael G. Lawler, Sacrament of Service: a vision of the permanent diaconate today, Paulist Press, 1986. See Dottie Mraz, Ministry and the family of the permanent deacon (2nd edition), Alt Publishing Wisconsin, 1997 & 8 For further development of this point see McCaslin & Lawler pp 77 – 79
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Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage – Justin Harkin
chetical session to find a rather large photograph of myself on the ledge in our hallway. Seven years of marriage told me Fiona, my wife, was trying to tell me something I was not hearing in conversation. Her smile indicated her pleasure on having discerned a new way of getting my attention. Always in awe of her ingenuity, I tried over the coming days, to work out what was being said through this photograph. Our children had no idea. Then a friend dropped in. My embarrassment in relation to the august visibility of the photo exceeded my pride! I humbly asked why it was there. “Oh, that’s easy to answer”, Fiona replied. “I want our children to know what you look like!” She proceeded with gentleness
... it’s often while kicking a football that one hears about the current truly developmental facets of school life and characteristic humour to draw attention to my increased absences and disengagement as I engaged more fully in the catechetical work. In that moment I also became aware of how tired she was. It wasn’t just the children who stood in need of my presence and engagement. This experience has been a great gift and is one I am learning from still. Other husbands have shared similar moments of revelation, in one instance arising from work deemed essential to a new business venture and another arising from a man’s passion for supporting the development of young people through sport. We were fortunate that the nobility of our pursuits was not called into question. Had it been we may not have heard the invitation to reconsider how we were
responding to our other responsibilities. We were fortunate too in the people we confided in, people who supported us explore the inner forces we are responding to. Furthermore the fact that we were challenged, which was essential to the well-being of our marriages and families, paved the way for deeper and ultimately liberating truths to have their rightful place. Slow learners like myself, and others who desire to be generous with their time vis-àvis ministry, need to be open to regularly reviewing the consequence of our out-ofhome commitment, even when it’s work related. Entry into formation and ordination do not alter the developmental stages children pass through, ideally accompanied by their parents. Parent readers will appreciate when I say related requests are “little” things that carry huge significance. For example, it’s often while kicking a football that one hears about the current truly developmental facets of school life. Through such engagements we come to know, experience and appreciate their world and sense of reality more profoundly and herein rest the insights that can inform our Christian parenting. The Catechism teaches: “The permanent diaconate, which can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the Church’s mission. Indeed it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a truly diaconal ministry in the Church … be strengthened by the imposition of hands ... and their ministry ... made more fruitful through the sacramental grace of the diaconate” (CCC 1571 quoting AG 16 § 6). When it comes to how the diaconate will constitute an important enrichment of the domestic Church we should also take seriously another Vatican II teaching, i.e. “The wellbeing of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conju-
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Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage – Justin Harkin
gal and family life” (CCC 1603, cf. Gaudium et Spes 47 § 1). Care must be taken too not to pin every marital or familial challenge and possible pang of spiritual growth on the demands of diaconal formation and ministry. As early as 60AD St. Paul recognised that married couples have their troubles (1 Cor 7:28) while St. Peter reminded all the faithful that they could anticipate all sorts of trials so that the worth of their faith would be proven (1 Pet. 1:6-8). We know too that Abraham (and Sarah) became the friend(s) of God after many trials (James 2:23) and that the life of Our Lady involved much hardship and suffering (Lk 2:5-8; Mt 2:18, Lk 2:34-35, Mk 3:20-21,
He spoke through the ingenuity and calm of a very unselfish wife and the period of wondering that ensued prepared the ground for the fresh seed of conversion Lk 22 & 23). Moreover, and I believe this is known in every family where someone aspires to truly live the gospel, we have Christ’s prophetic word: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth … No one who prefers father or mother to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of me. … Anyone who loses his life for my sake with find it” (Mt 10: 34 – 39). Looking back over my years in formation I see more readily how the journey has brought to consciousness the operative theologies of marriage my wife and I were and are living. I can also perceive God’s fidelity to us more clearly. When we got married certain prayers of blessing invoked God’s blessing on both of us, and more specifically on Fiona, as bride. Through the grace of the sacrament those prayers bear fruit 10
everyday but it is only recently I have come to give thanks for this daily spring of grace. During the celebration of our marriage we had received the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:32). Graciously remaining the seal of our marriage covenant (CCC 1624) He continues, with each passing year, to be the source of our love and the strength of our fidelity. In the instance outlined earlier He spoke through the ingenuity and calm of a very unselfish wife and the period of wondering that ensued prepared the ground for the fresh seed of conversion (Lk 8:8). Conversion, nevertheless, remains a very gradual business for most of us. If we agree with the opening quotation from Lonergan, and particularly the phrase “Freely the subject makes himself what he is”, the need to ensure that the domain of private prayer and personal theological reflection expands rather than contracts, merits further consideration. Our God-given desire to be the best of spouses and parents will be forever supported by Christ. However, as my bishop, + Christopher Jones, reminds me from time to time, He does not do for us what we can do for ourselves! Whatever our status in relation to a diaconal formation programme, we need to play our part in ensuring that study and pastoral placement engagements augment rather than cloud out opportunities to prayerfully explore the element of divine gift in diaconal students changed and changing circumstance. This is likely to remain an ongoing challenge, particularly for formation teams (and not just spiritual directors) in dioceses that accept fathers of young children. Hopefully too members of diaconal communities will offer further autobiographical insights and we will see the publication of more qualitative research concerning the relationship between marriage and diaconal formation in New Diaconal Review. ■
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James Keating
Contemplative 1 Homiletics O
ver the past decade of my diaconate I have experimented with various forms of preaching. I have discovered, however, only one form that truly impresses itself upon the consciences of the people and harmonizes with the nature of the Eucharistic mystery itself. I call it contemplative homiletics. Its public manifestation appears in this way: it is brief, it is not read, it is more akin to prayer than to teaching, it carries healing, people receive it eagerly. I believe such a way of preaching could actually allow us to better connect the people to the mystery of Christ’s love and His overwhelming desire to heal them and console them, as well as embolden them to evangelize. We all know, however, that preaching is as much gift as task. After being in priestly formation for almost 20 years now I am convinced that knowledge of communication techniques, public speaking and theology do not in themselves create effective preachers in our clergy. I do believe, however, that expertise in these skills and studies once sublated into a contemplative life will unleash a new power within Catholic preaching. Ideally any approach to preaching that is contemplative (an integrated beholding of the Beauty of Christ living within a mind that has become concentrated in the heart) should stem from a formation in contemplative theology: one that serves the purposes of love imbued truth.2 This type of theology is founded not upon an individual’s quest for discursive information about God but upon an ecclesially based desire for holiness, upon an integration of knowledge and
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D, Institute for Priestly Formation, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
love. Theology is knowledge that when left unobstructed by academic ideology races to completion in contemplation; knowledge that yields learning and savouring. It is a knowledge given as a response to Christ’s urgent longing to abide with us and we with Him (John 15). When we live in Him and He lives in us He makes our thinking about His truth and beauty a holy activity. “We should dispose ourselves to go into God so as to love Him with our whole mind, heart, and our whole soul….In this consists …Christian Wisdom. (Bonaventure, Soul’s Journey Into God, 1.4).” With the desire for holiness comes the concomitant desire for ongoing repentance. For homilies to be occasions for prayer we need to purify vain thinking in our preaching and in its source, our theological musings. Here we enter the deep water of crying for the Holy Spirit, and the puzzling reality of preaching being both gift and task. If we immerse ourselves in prayer, allowing it to purify us and set us on the road to loving the mystery of the Eucharist then soon such a mystery will dwell in us. We will become gifted to preach within the parameters of how well we have worked at becoming vulnerable to the message of the Gospel. When this indwelling occurs we then can speak, preach and pray out of such abiding. Analogically, this is like the growth that happens in the early stages of marriage. In such a stage the husband may not yet wish to leave
1 Andre Guitton, Peter Julian Eymard, “Preaching is praying out loud”, 1996. 328 2 “A progressively scholastic approach to theology …slowly eroded the patristic, medieval sense of the interconnectedness of theology, wisdom and love. …This growing sense of distance between what knowledge can achieve and what is achieved by love…drives a wedge between the Psalmist’s ‘taste’ and his ‘see’, between what is tasted (sapida) and what is known (scientia). David Ford, Christian Wisdom, p269. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Marriage and diaconal formation when children are in the formative stage – Justin Harkin
the safety of his “bachelor” identity, clinging to its comfort and wells of affirmation. He is not ready to die to self. The wife, however, calls out to him to let her define his place of living now. She is insecure until the husband “pays attention” to her and she can internalize his presence thus setting both free to be who they said they wanted to be “united in love.” Since he is now one with his spouse he begins to think and speak and act like a husband. He doesn’t cling to some past “script” of his life since his spouse lives in him and he in her and the language of knowing and loving simply flows out of them freely. And so it is with those who have been “obedient” to the Gospel…it lives in them and they in it. From such intimacy flow homilies that carry the grace of union with God for all in the congregation. And, powerfully, the preacher’s own intimacy with God deepens every time he preaches, not from a place of stored data, but from a place of intimate communion. The goal of contemplative homiletics is to allow the truths of the text to silence and purify the hearts of the listeners. In other words, preaching is to be the occasion for the Holy Spirit’s power of healing, rather than vainly thinking that our arrangement of words causes such healing. To be the cause of such activity is, of course, impossible. But our unpurified egos may think that the more we labor with words and study and rhetoric the more power will be released. Instead the more you point to God in your homilies the more His power of love will be received by the congregation. This would be akin to what happens in contemplative spiritual direction. In such direction the director leans to one side allowing the directee to glimpse the eyes of God. The director simply facilitates this mystic beholding. In homilies this too is all we want; at a homily’s conclusion people ought to be more beguiled by God’s love and assured of His presence in their lives. What facilitates the Holy Spirit’s
Contemplative Homiletics – James Keating
power to silence and purify the listener is their own suffering of the integration of their love for Him and knowledge of Him.
How might one prepare a contemplative homily?: 1. Receive the rationale for such a method: During the course of a week parishioners are being filled with intellectual content in the form of information, data, and distracting ideologies. To some extent they may be shutting down intellectually during mass. We do not want to give them another round of data in the midst of the Mysteries. We do want to refresh them with the Word, conspiring with the Spirit to heal them and offer them rest in the truth that they encounter in the Eucharist. This rest is received by their eager vulnerability to the truth proclaimed in the Gospel and in the Sacrifice of Christ within which they are all now immersed. We also want to build on the work of the Spirit who has been coming to them from within the very fabric of their lives during the week, subtle but sure. 2. As you prepare your homily sit with the text and behold the beauty of love that emerges. Let the Spirit raise up the Beauty, do not search for it as a task. 3. Allow the love that is stirred in your soul over this beauty to be felt and appropriated. Let this love take you…receive this love and abide with Christ in and with and over the text. Enter whatever level of prayer He wants to gift you with. 4. Ask Christ to deliver to you the image or word or affection3 He wants you to ponder in the text… the one that bears beauty. This is what you share with the congregation. This should be a simple message, not one of great theological complexity or dense discourse. Preaching is one of the least effective forms of communication. Simplicity in
3 By affection I mean those feelings that arise as a result of the mind being united to the objective truth of doctrine and scripture, not a free floating emotion unmoored from salvific truth.
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message and brevity in length guarantees that at least some of the words spoken will be held in the hearts of the congregation as agents of healing and purification. There is a necessity for longer meditations bearing more fulsome doctrinal content. For these occasions one can offer the traditional adult faith formation evening or a forum after the Eucharist has concluded. Another option would be to designate the last Sunday of the month as a catechetical Sunday, at which time the masses would include a longer catechetical sermon. 5. Become attuned to time in your preaching. When the energy dissipates and drains out of your message this is the time to stop. It is not the time to rev the engines again and go off in another direction. Do not be afraid of brief homilies that are based upon your contemplation of the beauty of Christ. As you are speaking discern with Him when the power is draining out. Also, you will know when to go a little longer, if necessary. To continue a little longer you will notice your words and affect connecting with a silent eagerness on the congregation’s faces. This connection will be different than the energy you feel when you tell a good joke and it feels like people want more…more jokes. No, this connecting is not an affirmation of our gift to be entertaining, it is the result of your heart and mind searching for the activity of the Spirit. The Spirit comes in silence and power to heal. Is healing going on?? Then go on. 6. Before you begin to preach contemplatively on a regular basis prepare the congregation to receive such. Invite them into the longer silences at Mass after the homily and after the reception of Holy Communion. This is vital because longer silences at Mass will necessarily accompany contemplative homilies. Teach them what to do with and in the silence. Instruct them on how to receive the healing that comes from preaching, or instruct them to deepen an
already mature love of the Paschal Mystery. 7. 5 minute homilies spoken from out of the intimacy the preacher shares with the Trinity and ordered by a life of ‘thinking with the Church” will be most effective. It is better to release yourself from reading homilies as soon as you begin to feel comfortable. The prolonged habit of reading homilies simply delays a preacher’s familiarity with interiority and slows his capacity to trust the Spirit during the prayerful preparation period. Also, it is a fact that people listen and receive homilies more readily when spoken out of the homilist’s place of interior communion with Christ. The homily should then be followed by 3 minutes of silence. The homily sets up the healing that flows through the silence that follows it. The silence is the time of healing. Silence is not elective, silence is the cause of effective homilies once the congregation has been instructed on what to do within it. 8. To preach from a contemplative fount is to speak from the communion you have with Christ. He uses each one of our personalities in His effort to reach the parishioner. The contemplative homiletic way endeavors to integrate with your own style and personality, it is not to be a source of artificiality giving rise to anxiety or worry. As you complete your homily and invite the people into prolonged silence it can be helpful to give them a point for further prayer or to raise up a theme that you want them to appropriate intentionally, thus assisting them with fruitfulness of the silence. In the end such a way of preaching will move the congregation to anticipate a healing of the affect and an elevation of the intellect in its capacity to marvel over the Mystery of Christ’s own love. From such a result will flow a parish that believes more deeply that Christ is alive and not simply that our memory and our knowledge about Him keeps Him so. ■
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Diaconia of Word
Contemplative Homiletics – James Keating
Sean Loone
Deacon Sean Loone works in the parish of Our Lady of Wayside, Shirley, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham
S
uffering, whether it be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual is part of being human. It is a fundamental part of our nature. Yet most of the time we run away from it, failing to come to terms with it and therefore failing to understand it. In this article we will examine the role of suffering in the life of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Mark. Our aim will be to illustrate that suffering is not something that we should run away from replacing it with a romantic, idealized fantasy that the goal of human existence is to ‘be’ without suffering. However, neither is it something that we should actively seek thereby turning it into some kind of virtue. But suffering is something that we should attempt to understand, to make sense out of because it played such a fundamental role in the life of Jesus and his revelation of the nature of God. When Peter replied to Jesus, ‘You are the Christ,’ (Mark 8:30) did he really understand what he was saying or did he still imagine the Messiah as a Davidic, glorified king returned in triumph that would liberate the people of God militarily? It is no coincidence that at this moment, the turning point in Mark’s Gospel, that Jesus begins to teach the disciples that he must suffer and die. Peter’s response is to rebuke him; showing his complete lack of understanding in a suffering Messiah let alone a crucified God. Whilst at the same time Jesus drives home the point that Peter is, in fact, thinking like a man and not God (8: 33). Here then we have the first clear insight into Jesus and his revelation of the true nature and being of God. That if he, his ministry and his mission is to be understood, suffering must be seen 14
‘Who do as a fundamental part of it. As if to drive the message home even further, at this point, Jesus also makes it clear that suffering is also a condition of discipleship (8: 34-38). In our short journey through Mark we will now see how from this point on in the Gospel Jesus continues to confront and challenge his disciples, the people and the religious authorities with the true nature of God and the Messiah through suffering. It will become clear that time and time again everyone failed to understand what was being revealed and how in the end only his own suffering, death and resurrection could make everything clear. In the first half of the Gospel and up to the proclamation of faith by Peter Jesus has been misunderstood and this despite all of
Jesus makes it clear that such signs can only ever be really understood when they are intimately linked to his victory over death through suffering his teaching and miracles. From now on the number of miracles rapidly declines as Jesus makes it clear that such signs can only ever be really understood when they are intimately linked to his victory over death through suffering. It is interesting to note that although the demons recognise who Jesus is (see Mark 1: 34) there is no link at all to understand-
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and that big question,
people say I am?’ ing. In other words knowledge by itself is insufficient in comprehending the true nature of Christ. The same can be said for familiarity. His teaching in the synagogue only produces skepticism (3:21-3, 31-35), the local people remember him as a carpenter and know his family; as a result
It is interesting to note that although the demons recognise who Jesus is, there is no link at all to understanding. In other words knowledge by itself is insufficient in comprehending the true nature of Christ both his wisdom and miracles cannot be accounted for. This means that there has been no faith response to his ministry and therefore a total lack of understanding as to his true identity (6:7). This failure to bring about faith is also extended to his disciples as we have already seen. That is not to say, however, that many people were not enthused by his miracles because they were (6: 53-56). However, what we are maintaining is that this is not necessarily faith. As we come to the critical chapter 8 in Mark the point is made again about the lack of understanding as to who Jesus is. After the second feeding of the multitude (8: 1-10) the Pharisees still demand a sign from heaven to prove who Jesus is. His
response is to tell them that no such sign on demand will be given to this generation, ‘Do you still not understand, still not realize? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear?’ (8: 17-18). Words such as these to his disciples clearly make the point that even they after seeing the multitudes fed twice still fail to understand who Jesus really is and what this means. The teaching, parables and even the miracles by themselves are not enough. Jesus himself realises this and now his life must take another course. Perhaps the healing of the blind man (8: 22-26) becomes an indicator for us as he only comes to sight through stages. With this miracle the first stage of Jesus’ ministry is complete, now the disciples will be brought to true faith and a true understanding of who he is and how his life fully reveals the nature of God only through his suffering, death and resurrection. There comes a point in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus, perhaps, appears to admit to himself that miracles alone will fail to lead the disciples to a true understanding of faith. That moment occurs in Mark 8: 2733. Peter is right in professing that Jesus is ‘The Christ,’ but there is no reference to his suffering which in turn for Our Lord indicates a profound lack of real understanding. As a result Jesus makes it clear that he must suffer and die with his first prediction of his passion (8: 31). As we have already noted Peter rejects this and in so doing Jesus links his understanding of him with that of Satan. As we move on through the Gospel, however, no matter what form miracles take they still fail to inspire a true understanding of Jesus. Take the transfiguration for example. Here
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Mark, suffering
Jesus appears with both Moses and Elijah in all his glory. The disciples do not know what to say other than to offer to build three tabernacles as in Exodus 25-27; 3638. However, they do take the opportunity to question Jesus about the return of
More than any other Gospel there is a feeling of total abandonment and failure as the drama unfolds Elijah. Yet, once again, Jesus in reply talks about his own suffering and links Elijah with the now dead John the Baptist. In so doing Jesus appears to be taking the opportunity to point to the potential fate for all those who would bear witness to him (9: 18). Lack of faith and understanding is taken up by Jesus again when in response to the disciples’ inability to drive out a demon he says, ‘Faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? (9: 19). By the time we reach Mark 9:30-32 Jesus makes a second predication about his passion which ends with the statement, ‘But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him’ (9: 32). The third passion prophecy is the most detailed of all as the events Jesus describes are getting closer. By now James and John are ready to ask Jesus about their place in the kingdom of Heaven but Jesus challenges them about imitating the course he must take which is one of suffering (10: 32-40). At the same time he also makes it clear that in the kingdom of Heaven service is the only sign of greatness, ‘For the Son of man himself came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (10: 45). Once again Jesus is trying to teach the disciples about his true nature and mission but is only met with a failure to understand. As Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt (Zech 9: 9) and is proclaimed king in the line of David Ps 118: 26 this may have been a great honour 16
but once again shows a complete and total lack of understanding about Jesus and his true being. As we enter the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:26-52) we finally come to the central suffering element of the whole Gospel. Jesus predicts that the disciples will abandon him and that Peter will reject him. Mark is setting a tragic tone of loneliness, isolation and suffering; the fruition of everything that Jesus has said about himself. More than any other Gospel there is a feeling of total abandonment and failure as the drama unfolds. Jesus will now face everything alone. He is condemned by the Sanhedrin and mocked while outside Peter denies him. During the Roman trial he is handed over to be crucified by Pilate and once again mocked. The continued theme of mocking only serves to remind the reader that everyone fails to recognise who Jesus is. After all despite everything Jesus had taught his disciples about his fate how was such a thing possible for ‘The Christ?’ (8: 30).
No longer would Jesus just teach about the true nature and being of God now he would fully reveal it through suffering Jesus would literally have to show them if they were to understand. Thus from the ninth hour three groups of people were to mock him on the cross; passersby, chief priests and those who were crucified with him. Once again this illustrates a complete lack of understanding in a crucified God. Mark actually began his passion account with the prayer of Jesus, ‘Abba, Father …… take this cup away from me …. ‘ (14: 36). Here we should take note of the very inti-
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Mark, Suffering and that big question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ – Sean Loone
mate name Jesus uses for his Father, Abba, an Aramaic word, which suggests a familiar, family relationship. Now on the cross and speaking for the first and only time Jesus cries out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (15: 34). At this point Mark drops the word Abba and
What comes next is equally astounding. Early on the third day after his burial three women, expecting to find a corpse, make their way to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. However, to their astonishment the tomb is, in fact, empty. They encounter a young man who informs them that, ‘He has been raised ... he is going before you to Galilee where you will see him, just as he told you.’ (Mark 16: 7) Yet the women proceed to disobey the young man’s command to go and tell the disciples and Peter what they have seen and heard. Instead they, in effect, run away out of fear and say nothing to anyone. Yet we should not be surprised by this in that Mark’s theology has been consistent throughout his Gospel that even a proclamation of the resurrection does not by itself produce faith without those who hear it experiencing a personal encounter with suffering.
Mark’s theology has been consistent throughout his Gospel that even a proclamation of the resurrection does not by itself produce faith without those who hear it experiencing a personal encounter with This in effect is where our journey began and will also end. The women fled in fear suffering from the tomb just as we are tempted to replaces it with God. Here, perhaps, we see the full revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in pain and suffering for all humanity to look upon for all time. No longer would Jesus just teach about the true nature and being of God now he would fully reveal it through suffering. This is what the disciples and all who would follow him must understand. Thus in full communion with God and with the whole human race Jesus actually feels forsaken, abandoned and alone and as a result cannot use the intimate family term ‘Abba,’ instead he is reduced to using an address common to all human beings, ‘My God.’ Yet still there appears to be no answer before Jesus dies. How utterly pointless it must have all seemed to the disciples. Jesus the one they had left everything to follow had suffered and died just as he said he would but none of it had any meaning, none of it made any sense; how could it?
run away, in fear and through a lack of understanding, from suffering. Jesus bids us to stay and trust him. Perhaps for this reason when we revisit Mark’s Gospel we begin to see things a little differently in that those who are suffering are very often those who are more open to the Good News. Suffering is by its very nature part
... those who are suffering are very often those who are more open to the Good News of our universal human condition. Yet it is strange that the more we refuse to understand it the less open to God we become. Is it any wonder that those who are literally stripped of everything therefore are very often those are more open to God? Is it because in a suffering and crucified God we also see ourselves? ■
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Diaconia of Word
Mark, Suffering and that big question, ‘Who do people say I am?’ – Sean Loone
The Use and Abuse of the Bible A Brief History of Biblical Interpretation Author: Henry Wansbrough OSB ISBN: 978-0-567-09057-7 Date: 2010 Price: £14.99 Publisher: Continuum, London In diaconate formation programmes the study of sacred scripture is expected, naturally, to be a large element, partly because of a deacon’s responsibility to preach the Word of God. As most programmes are part-time it is hard to do as much as we would like, so Dom Henry Wansbrough’s new history of aspects of biblical interpretation is very welcome. He is the foremost Catholic biblical scholar alive in Britain today, largely responsible for the 1985 English edition of the New Jerusalem Bible and the recent CTS Catholic Bible. Fr Wansbrough writes in an easy style accessible to those studying the Bible for the first time and for laypeople in general. His opening chapter looks at the ways in which the Jesus and St Paul in the New Testament make use of the Jewish scriptures, and he goes on to look at early patristic biblical scholarship, concentrating on Melito of Sardis, Irenaeus and Origen. There is substantial treatment of Jerome – while the author has a deep knowledge of his work, he in not blind to his faults, particularly his infamous rudeness: ‘To Augustine’s polite suggestion that he is ready to accept from Jerome any correction of scriptural interpretations, Jerome replies that he has never read Augustine’s works with attention...’ (p. 63) While recognising the enormous value of Jerome’s Vulgate, Wansbrough candidly points out that his preference for the Hebrew text of the Old Testament prepared the ground for Martin Luther’s rejection of the deuterocanonical books at the Reformation, leading to a division among Christians about the Bible which prevails today. For those who are English the Venerable Bede occupies a special place in Christian 18
history, and Wansbrough gives due weight to his great volume of work of biblical interpretation, recognised in his being a Doctor of the Church and the use of his work in the Divine Office. In the medieval period the author concentrates initially on Bernard and Thomas Aquinas, and then devotes a chapter to ‘two Norfolk ladies’ who are easily overlooked, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. One of this book’s many strong points is the way in which Wansbrough constantly breaks down the artificial barriers between scholars and spiritual writers which exists in our own age, and his examination of the way these remarkable women of medieval England use the Bible is an example of that. His treatment also exposes the falsehood often repeated that laypeople in medieval Europe were unfamiliar with the Word of God. Today the study of the scriptures is a field of theological activity which is more marked by ecumenical co-operation than any other. This has only been possible because we are able to look candidly at the contexts of past disputes about the Bible, and this is shown in Wansbrough’s treatment of Martin Luther; he draws on the work of Anglican scholars and refers the reader to them (e.g. MacCullogh, Owen Chadwick and McGrath). Wansbrough is drawn to the treatment of the Bible in his early work (‘a racy and hard-hitting quality’), but shows how his obsession with seeing the Church as irredeemably in error gradually takes over and affects all his judgements, with tragic results. As he puts it, ‘Brilliant, witty and down-to-earth as Luther’s argumentation on the Scripture often is, sundered from the deep trust in the tradition of the Church, to the Catholic it has a strange maverick quality which taints the whole and radically reduces its value.’ (p. 119) It is often claimed, and rightly, that Catholics are less conversant with the Bible than other Christians. Many are likely to be even less aware of the way the Bible has
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entered the culture of Protestant countries in ways from which Catholics were largely excluded, and this would be true all over northern Europe. In the British Isles it means that most Catholics (unless they are converts) would know next to nothing of the influence and importance of the King James version of the Bible, and of the preaching and poetry in the 18th century of the founders of what we now call Methodism, John and Charles Wesley. Wansbrough approaches the brothers with great warmth and sympathy, and does a great service by quoting poetry which is not easily accessible elsewhere – he gives in full Charles Wesley’s beautiful ‘Come, O Thou Traveller unknown’ based on the struggle between Jacob and the angel of the Lord in Genesis 32:23-33 (pp. 135-8). For Catholics and many other Christians the way the Bible is used in Wesley’s thousands of hymns is something we have never been made aware of. This issue of our journal is being published a few weeks after Pope Benedict’s beatification in Birmingham of John Henry Newman, so Wansbrough’s chapter on him
is particularly welcome, the only postReformation Catholic writer (and a convert) to be covered, significantly. He focuses on the way Newman views the Bible in his great Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine – the problem with Judaism as we see it from the scriptures, for example, in its inability to develop. Wansbrough’s title is ‘The Use and Abuse of the Bible’ and he illustrates abuse most trenchantly in chapter 12, ‘The Bible and the State of Israel’. Drawing on Dr Nur Masalha’s important work The Bible and Zionism he dissects the sloppy use of the Old Testament by early Zionists – and the uncritical acceptance of this by British Government in the 1917 Balfour Declaration. Bad biblical history has been used to bolster aggression and the oppression of the Palestinian people and also moulded the work of scholars and archaeologists; Wansbrough’s conclusion is that the building of the modern secular state of Israel on this abuse of the Bible and of history is ‘a falling away, a diversion’ from the vocation of the Jewish people (p. 166). In spite of the appeals of Christians in the Holy Land of charities which support them, many Catholics in northern Europe are woefully ignorant about the history of Israel and Palestine, largely because of proIsraeli sentiments in much of the press, so this chapter is particularly welcome. The last chapter deals with the Benedictine tradition of lectio divina, increasingly being used now in parish and other groups1. The present Holy Father constantly urges us in his writings to draw on different parts of our tradition in our reading of the scriptures: based on good historical study this book is a good way to begin to do this. It is perhaps too easy for reviewers in this journal to claim that a good book should be on every formation reading list – but this one should certainly be read by every diaconate student and deacon. Ashley Beck
1 See Sean Murphy New Diaconal Review 1 (2008) New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Review
A Deacon’s Retreat Author: Deacon James Keating ISBN: 978-0-8091-4644-4 Date: 2010 Price: £7.50 Publisher: Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, Pages: 75 Whether an ordained minister or diaconal student takes a week, a day, or an occasional hour to reflect upon his life and ministry, he is guaranteed to encounter encouragement, nourishment, confirmation and a deep call to conversion within these pages. Through eight short meditations structured around the role of the deacon during Mass and offered as a retreat (but open to many other possibilities), Keating takes his readers on an adeptly focussed reflective spiritual journey. In light of this the core question underpinning this review must be, how effectively does Keating do this? Exceptionally well in the opinion of this reviewer, not least owing to Keating’s forthright engagement, whereby he judiciously and expediently engages his reader’s heart. In fact, this short book has the hallmarks of a spiritual classic within deacon literature. Throughout one encounters a lived theology of Eucharist, beautifully articulated without flinching or side-stepping the tensions characteristic of living a Eucharistic spirituality today. This theology is enfolded in Keating’s illumination of the richness of the mystery of Jesus’ own self-gift through the Mass, communicated via contemporary images that lend towards easy comprehension. Indeed some insights could be redeveloped and presented in homilies or in a catechesis on the Eucharist with relative ease. Overall the content interweaves graciously with the general thrust of this book, i.e. Keating’s desire to encourage true conversion. Every page is infused with a Spiritinspired desire to support deacon readers toward “the beginning or deepening of a radical availability to the mystery of Christ”. 20
Moreover these meditations distil much of the wisdom Keating has accrued through pondering his own ministry as a deacon, his presentation and facilitation of many workshops etc., his thirteen years teaching moral and spiritual theology in the School of Theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, his current ministry as Director of Theological Formation in the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, his writing and editing of other books (e.g.Spirituality and Moral Theology: essays from a pastoral perspective (2000) and The Way of Mystery: the Eucharist and Moral Living (2006) and his commitment to promoting the vision of the US Bishops that spiritual formation become the heart of seminary academics (USCCB Program for Priestly Formation (2006) n. 115). Keating’s wonderful achievement, in this instance, is threefold. Firstly he establishes and maintains a meaningful and easily penetrable Christo-centric prayer context for his engaging reader. Secondly, in the formative power of true prayer he appeals to the character of his reader, i.e. to be a man who “no longer lets the occupations of the day become a pretext for denying to Christ the interior intimacy he desires to
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have with him”. Thirdly, and not unlike St. Paul, stylistically he is provocative for the sake of the Gospel, both in terms of the complementary strands of his eucharistic meditations and the searching questions and prayer considerations placed before readers. When Deacon Tony Schmitz invited me to review this book I anticipated a leisurely afternoon in a favoured armchair reading and making a few notes that would later shape this review. Engagement with the opening pages, however, indicated that this book offers a grace-filled means to every ordained minister and diaconal aspirant to revisit their vocation. In good hands this book has the power of a prescriptive medicine that quickly and effectively counteracts human tendencies and ailments that render men inept in relating with Christ or less than Christ desires them to be. If you have been plodding along, don’t be surprised that you experience this book as
a wake-up call. If you feel you are doing well and that you are as Christ the Servant King wants you to be, take up this book and see what word the Spirit speaks to your heart. Be assured it may well be one of confirmation. A final word to diaconal students and formation team members. Yes, this is a very worthwhile book, one you may choose to return to time and again. It offers an excellent answer to the question: “what is a deacon?” Whilst the deacon’s role during Mass is Keating’s setting, his deliberations, core teachings and invitations, might best be summarised in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” and the deacon’s part in fulfilling this word. It also offers a valuable synopsis of what it is for deacons to proclaim the gospel and preside at the liturgy of charity … fundamentals of every deacon’s ministry. Justin Harkin, Director of Pastoral Development (Diocese of Elphin)
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Diaconia of Altar
Review
Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens
Interview with
Hans van Beumel OFM
This is the text of an interview with which took place at Megen in the Netherlands on 1 June 2010.
urrounded by the flowers in the ‘Hof van Lof’ (Garden of Praise), the beautiful garden belonging to the friary of the Franciscans in Megen (Noord-Brabant province, Netherlands) I speak with Hans van Bemmel, Franciscan and deacon.
Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: Can you tell us something about your vocation? Hans van Beumel: Actually I have been involved in my faith all my life, albeit with varying degrees of intensity at different times. As a boy I went to the Franciscan junior seminary. I wanted to become a priest, I found the liturgy – as well as the Franciscan habit – beautiful. At a certain moment, however, I nevertheless left the seminary and went off in a different direction. I ended up working for the Hema, a Dutch warehouse chain, eventually in management. Yet faith did not abandon me. Whilst walking one day I was struck by the text on a building: God is love. Later, in the car, I heard Gregorian chanting that really moved me. In 1983 Hema transferred me to Utrecht. There I met a student who attended the Ariënsconvict, the diocesan formation centre for future priests and he invited me to drop by some day. Later on I visited the Benedictine Abbey of Chevetogne in Belgium. Benedictine spirituality quite appealed to me but I did not (yet) take the step towards the monastery. Then in 1993 a message appeared on a Catholic website: Would you like to become a temporary Franciscan? Both my mother and a priest brought this to my attention. It turned out to be an invitation to live and work for a year in a Franciscan community. At the end of that year, one would be free to leave. My employer gave me the opportunity to take a year off. 22
It was a turning point in my life. The question forcefully imposed itself: What do I want to do with the rest of my life? It was a question about meaning, a search for God. And it brought a certain fear as well. If I were to take such a step, I would have to let go of many things – my job, my house, my car, etc. But I wanted to meet the challenge. Whilst living in the Franciscan community in Heerlen, I made my first contact with homeless folk, which was a far-reaching experience. Twice a week I worked with them and at the same time I pursued courses at the University for Theology and Pastoral Ministry in Heerlen. After six months I wondered: Do I have to return at some point to my job with Hema? I was advised to speak with the brother in charge of vocations, because, after all, it was a major turning point in my life. This brother said: ‘Try it, surrender!’ So I decided to enter the Franciscans first as a postulant and then as a novice. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: Why the Francsicans after all and not the Benedictines or the Dominicans? Hans van Beumel: The social involvement of the Franciscans appealed to me. The story of the conversion of St Francis through his meeting the leper touched me at a profound level. The confrontation with the homeless was a similarly deep experience. After Francis, St Augustine has also been a special source of inspiration. The search for God, the mystery, all the things that are beyond our reasoning, fascinate me in Augustine, as in the famous story of the child with the little bucket at the beach. And of course my patron saint St. John the Evangelist is a source of inspiration.
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Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: And then besides that, you wanted to be a deacon as well. Why? Hans van Beumel: This has grown gradually through my social involvement. My novice master, Friar van de Reijken, knew
The story of the conversion of St Francis through his meeting the leper touched me at a profound level. The confrontation with the homeless was a similarly deep experience that my heart was with underprivileged people and he started to put me on the diaconate trail. Eventually I opted for the diaconate formation course in the Archdiocese of Utrecht, because there I found, besides theoretical training a practical formation including service opportunities. And in view of my age, I preferred a concrete formation. I did not want to waste too much time! During my novitiate, amongst other things, I trained in Brussels at Pagasa, at a centre for victims of trafficking, which was a moving experience. Equally important at that period was the supervision which gave me a better insight into how I functioned. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: Who else has inspired you? Hans van Beumel: Johny de Mot, a priest in the centre of Brussels, is to me a great inspiration in the field of diaconia (Church social welfare work); in his social work, in the way he deals with people, in the links he makes between diaconia and liturgy which
by nature belong together. His approach is the one I followed in my future work. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: And then you were ordained deacon at the end of 2002 and appointed to work in the City of Delft. How did this come about? Hans van Beumel: I became a member of the pastoral team with a special assignment given by the Bishop of Rotterdam to increase the diaconal awareness in Delft and to do so if at all possible in ecumenical co-operation with the various Protestant ecclesial communities. At Christmas in 2003 we had our first celebration for homeless people and the church was packed. After that our committee organised a monthly liturgy, followed by a meal. Altogether there have been about a hundred and twenty such services. When homeless people went to hospital I visited them. Sometimes they would be wrestling with a huge feeling of guilt. I then prayed with them for mutual forgiveness and I tried to trace relatives or children so that contact could be made before the moment of death. Afterwards we would hold special services for them in church. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: Which diaconal committees did you start? Hans van Beumel: Following the example of Johny de Mot, I think it is important not to start personal initiatives but to do so as group initiatives. In Delft we now have a group that prepares the liturgy and meals for the homeless; a group that organises liturgy for people with a mental handicap; a group which visits elderly people in a nursing home; a group which plays with handicapped children; and a ‘foodbank’ where parcels with food are got
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together for people of slender means. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: How do you manage to find so many volunteers for such diaconal work? Hans van Beumel: We now have about a hundred and fifty volunteers in Delft. The spirituality of St. Francis fascinates people and they freely and happily volunteer. In my homilies I attend a great deal to diaconia and people are touched by this. It is important not to overburden volunteers, not to give them too many different responsibilities. Therefore I always look for new volunteers for every new project and I try to have more volunteers than I actually need. And I share my activities (a new kind of diaconia, which is exciting!). And by making the evenings cosy and comfortable, you create a snowball effect and new people will join all the time. It is very important to be interested in the personal well being of the volunteers. Visit them when they are sick, see them as a deacon when they are working on their project. For instance I participate in the work of the foodbank every Thursday. It is all about mutual fidelity. The group of volunteers is a sort of family that enjoys seeing one another. (Remark by NWS: On account of his great diaconal involvement Hans van Bemmel was in 2009 declared Delft’s Best-known Citizen, quite something in this age of secularisation!). Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: Looking back on your time in Delft, what were the highlights? Hans van Beumel: That we have been able to transform a middle class parish into a diaconal church community. In the past the homeless were for example not very welcome in church. Now they are being embraced. They feel that they are part of the community. You may be homeless but you are never ‘cityless’. Everybody has an equal right to the city. Another highlight is 24
the way the volunteers have grown in their interaction with people who are in danger of ‘falling out of society’. Then next, there was the contact with local politicians. There were difficult moments, for instance in respect of the food bank. There was a battle to be fought with the local alderman. For a deacon here we had a clear task: exposing a social unjustice. As a cleric I had the advantage of easier access to the townhall. But make sure that you know your business and that you know your facts. Have clear cases and figures which illustrate people’s needs. The central idea is that justice must be done. You must be ‘a louse in the fur’ as we say in Dutch. In the end a so-called Pact against Poverty was established in which seventy different organisations (churches, political parties, social organisations, even shops) committed themselves to an ‘antipoverty policy’. They meet four times a year and a lot of networking happens in this pact. Once a problem is identified, one can easily find the right people to solve the issue.
Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM – Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens
Hans van Beumel: First of all in the way you deal with people, how you direct them, how you compliment them, but also how you criticise them in a positive way. And then in the way I organize my work. I know I have to prioritise tasks every day. I make a detailed plan each week. In my contacts
Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: So, Franciscan and manager? Hans van Beumel: Sometimes it merges, but in the midst of all the organising and managing it is important to remain aware of the centre and source from which you live as a Franciscan. For me everything begins with God: God is love. This love I may pass on. The upbringing I have received has been very important for my formation in life. I have had the good fortune to receive so many good things in my life! Always look for the mystery of God. That keeps you sharp and is the source from which I live. ■
Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: And of course there is M25… Hans van Beumel: It was our ardent desire to involve young people in the diaconal work. We were helped by the fact that several diaconal groups were already working well. One day we had a group of post-Confirmation youngsters and we read the text of Matthew, chapter 25. One of the youngsters who volunteered suggested the name of M25. They started helping in the services for the homeless and with the meals afterwards. They gradually became involved in all the other activities. The youngsters’ group in Delft now has twenty-two members. Following in Delft’s footsteps, we now have twelve M25 groups in the Diocese of Rotterdam and other dioceses are also most interested. Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens: One question intrigues me: how did your former job as a manager influence your work in the diaconate?
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with the local council, I also benefit from my employment experience. From this I know that it is very important not to become emotional, even when you totally disagree with another. The important thing is to remain in touch, to keep the lines of communication open.
Translated by Paul Wennekes and Gail Schmitz Hans van Bemmel OFM, (pictured here). Image used by permission: © 2010, Johan G Willems
Following the example of Johny de Mot, I think it is important not to start personal initiatives but to do so as group initiatives
Diaconia of Caritas
Interview with Hans van Beumel OFM – Nelleke Wijngaards-Serrarens
Ashley Beck
Most of the states in the European Union have been part of a single currency for over ten years, and for those which are not – such as the United Kingdom, much of Scandinavia and most of the countries which joined the EU in 2004 and since then – the way in which the Euro operates is important. Part of the original inspiration of common European institutions was the social teaching of the Catholic Church, of which deacons are expected by the Church to have a specialist knowledge – so what view should deacons take about the Euro? How is the Euro affected by the current economic crisis in Europe? Fr Ashley Beck is co-editor of the New Diaconal Review and the representative of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales on the Committee of Management of Faith in Europe, an ecumenical research body in association with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. This body has recently published a booklet by the author, Christians and the Euro, advertised elsewhere in this issue. In the first of two articles he looks at the background to the single currency: in our next issue he will link this with Catholic social teaching.
Introduction The key figures who helped to establish the European Common Market in the 1950s were strongly influenced by Catholic social teaching, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasparri and, to a lesser degree, Jean Monnet. The key concepts of solidarity and subsidiarity helped to form structures in which nations were expected to co-operate rather than compete; the countries agreed to share their sovereignty and move to ever closer unity and integration of structures1. Economic integration and a free market of goods across national boundaries makes no sense if there are not common financial structures – so the development since the 1970s of a shared exchanged rate mechanism, leading first to the European Monetary System (EMS) which fixed the exchange rates between European currencies, and then to a single currency2 is a natural form of development. For those suspicious of the whole enterprise of European unity – such as much of the press and political establishment in Britain, and many in Scandinavia – this
1 See Ashley Beck, ‘Why the Church must help Europe recover its soul’, Catholic Herald 14 March 2004, ‘Faith in Europe’, The Pastoral Review November/December 2006, Europe’s Soul and Her Patron Saints (London: CTS [Do 758], 2007), pp. 11-22, René Lejeune, Robert Schuman Une âme pour l’Europe (Paris: Saint-Paul, 1986) and Charles Williams Konrad Adenauer: The Father of a New Germany (New York: John Wiley, 2000). 2 The single currency formally came into existence at the beginning of 1999 and became a visible currency in early 2002. Established EU states outside the zone are Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The ‘accession states’ which joined in 2004 and later are committed by treaty to joining the zone when their economies converge – Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta and Estonia have now done so. In addition, three small states not in the EU or formally part of the zone (and therefore not represented on the Central Bank board) have reached agreements to be able to use it – San Marino, Monaco and the Vatican City State (coins bearing the Holy Father’s head are therefore legal tender throughout the eurozone). Three other states also use it informally: Andorra, Montenegro and Kosovo.
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and the
Euro (Part I)
quest for a single currency is a terrible outrage and infringement of national independence. These articles seek to show that since the European ‘enterprise’ and growing European unity are the natural application of the social doctrine of our Church, Catholics in the whole of the EU – inside and outside the present ‘eurozone’ – should be enthusiastic supporters of the single currency; and since deacons are called to be specialists in social doctrine3, they should be in the vanguard of those supporting it, particularly in this period of financial crisis. If they are working in countries that have not adopted the Euro they should be campaigning for them to do so. It is perhaps useful to recall how inconvenient life was before the Euro was introduced: shortly before it was I travelled by train in one day from London to Salzburg for the IDC International Study conference in March 2001: simply to buy coffee and food for a single day one needed Belgian francs, deutschemarks and schillings – what was needed even changed while one stayed on the same train. All that is history now. In countries such as Britain which have not joined the Euro this issue is very divisive and emotional4. I have found in parish ministry that when I expressed a view
about this in a parish newsletter I got a more negative reaction than I have done about any other issue; this suggests, disturbingly, that nothing matters more to people than money. In the run-up to the 2001 General Election in the United Kingdom, when the main opposition party based its whole campaign on the alleged
Catholic Bishops would encourage Catholics to vote in favour of Britain joining the Euro. Right wing Catholics were disturbed about this need to ‘save the pound’ there was considerable pressure on the Church in that it was thought that in the event of a referendum on the issue (at present a very remote prospect) the Catholic Bishops would encourage Catholics to vote in favour of Britain joining the Euro. Right wing Catholics were disturbed about this: the bishops were attacked by the Catholic Herald, which at that time was virtually a supplement to the xenophobic Daily Telegraph, a paper read by many Catholics. The arguments advanced in this article
3 Congregation for Catholic Education, Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons (London: CTS 1998), 81 (e), p. 66, ‘Christian morality, in its personal and social dimensions, and, in particular, the social doctrine of the Church.’ 4 In Britain the issue is not even going to be considered in the lifetime of the new coalition government, and Gordon Brown’s Labour government, in spite of the more positive attitude in the early Blair administrations, had effectively shelved the issue. In the Scandinavian countries there are signs that the possibility of joining is greater. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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and the one which will follow it are important for the three groups of nations from which our readers are mainly drawn – countries in the eurozone, where people need to have their confidence restored and strengthened in what they have done in the last decade; the ‘accession states’, where the ways in which the current financial crisis causing far more damage than in western Europe need to be seen in the context of these countries joining the euro in due course (as they are bound to by treaty); and Britain, Sweden and Denmark which have chosen to remain outside the zone.
Health warning Something which should, of course, make us hesitate about examining this question is the repeated reminders of our pastors, and indeed the Catholic founding fathers of modern Europe, that the EU shouldn’t primarily be about money or economics. It has taken a long time for Europe to move towards integration in spheres other than the purely economic – and in some economic areas (such as parts of fiscal and taxation policy) it has still not happened: are we not falling into this trap again by focussing on currency? But it is clear that the integration at the heart of the European vision really does need stability and common economic management to succeed – and that, as so often in the past, the original vision of what is meant by a single currency has been stymied and weakened by national governments reluctant to give up power. But we should be careful, because for the Christian money is at best only means to an end. Jesus tells us to use money, ‘tainted as it is’ to win friends; a few years ago (in 2002) Pope John Paul II in his Lent
Deacons and the Euro (Part I) – Ashley Beck
message quoted the famous words from 1Timothy (6:10): The love of money is the root of all evils and there are some, who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds. Turning any sort of currency into an idol, exaggerating its importance, is a dangerous temptation for both sides in this debate – but in Britain it has been a far greater temptation for those fighting to keep the pound, and one they have largely failed to resist. The rather disturbing campaign in the BRITAIN a few years ago, led by the Conservative party, to ‘save the pound’5 is guilty of a kind of idolatry, with its ridiculous badges (which some people even wore to church, and are still wearing)– the currency seems to be an end in itself. We always need to be looking at what we want to achieve for the peoples of Europe in relation to the question of a currency – it must only be a means to an end. By contrast most EU states readily grasped that a currency is simply a means to an end, and have not mourned the disappearance of the franc, lire or deutschemark. They have very little antiquity in themselves – the franc only dates from the French Revolution. From the Germans one might have expected more resistance: as a result of the terrible hyperinflation the strength and stability of the deutschemark has been a bedrock since the foundation of the Federal Republic; but Germany is at the heart of the eurozone. We only need to look at Ireland, whose struggle for national self-determination is so recent in European terms: noone mourns the punt. In fact it was never
5 The slogan of William Hague (now the British Foreign Secretary) in the last week of the 2001 General Election, ‘Seven days left to save the pound’, was even more melodramatic. In view of how little actually happened one was tempted to respond ‘Chance would have been a fine thing.’
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an ‘independent’ currency, since in the 1970s it simply switched from being tied to the pound sterling to membership of the European Monetary System. Do Irish people love their country any the less? The states which have joined the EU since 2004 have in many cases only regained their ‘own’ currencies in the last twenty years, but eventually they will have to join the eurozone – out will go the litas, the tolar and the rest.
Why the single currency happened and why it makes sense This is not the place for a lengthy history of currency fluctuation and policies in the 20th century, but a brief sketch is necessary. Following the international economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s, towards the end of the Second World War, there was a widespread feeling that something had to be done to prevent the world from returning to the chaos which had become the seed bed of fascism; as the English economist and Chief Executive of the Work Foundation Will Hutton puts it in his book The World We’re In: … World trade and finance were henceforth to be conducted within a framework of universal rules that favoured economic openness and internationally agreed responses to individual economies’ difficulties. 6 This was the origin of the agreement signed at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, a system was established for pegging currencies to the dollar and through that to the price of gold. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were set up at the same time to advance transitional loans and special aid to support third world development. There is no doubt that these arrangements, coupled with the gradual lowering
of tariffs through GATT, played a crucial role in helping post-war economic recovery. At this stage, American policy, under the influence of John Maynard Keynes, was committed to collaboration with other countries and proper controls on the market. The problem with the system was that the dollar had to hold its value against gold, and that the United States became the world’s ‘banker of last resort’ – by the early 1970s it was not sustainable, and following additional pressures (for example, the Vietnam War) between 1971 and 1974 President Nixon broke the dollar’s fixed linkage with gold and presided over the dismemberment of the Bretton Woods system. This provides the key background for moves in Europe in the 1970s to form a co-ordinated monetary policy – in these years, the mark had to revalue, the franc had to devalue – this sort of instability threatened to undermine the whole progress towards integration in the EEC. In 1970 the Werner committee’s recommendations were accepted by the EEC (before Britain and Ireland had joined) that the only way to protect the Common Market from competitive devaluations was to set up a European economic and monetary union. The plans could not develop because Germany and France were unable to agree about the right way to link EEC currencies together in relation to the dollar – the collapse of the Werner plan led to stagnation in the pace of European integration, alongside high unemployment, high inflation and low growth, coupled with external pressures such as the sharp rise in oil prices after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. It was in this atmosphere that the European Monetary System (EMS) was eventually established in the late 1970s. Much of the credit of it should go to the
6 London: Time Warner, 2002, p. 185. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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late Lord Jenkins, then President of the European Commission, who realised that it would give a new impetus to the community, and to the leaders of France and Germany, Valery Giscard d’Estaign and Helmut Schmidt. This EMS went on to become the EMU and the euro. The key realisation was that in the free-for-all after Bretton Woods, and as capital controls between countries were gradually being lifted, it was the only way to establish sovereignty over the foreign exchange markets. As Hutton puts it: ‘In a world where neither floating nor fixed exchange rates offered sovereignty, the only course was to establish a single European currency.’ 7 Jenkins describes in his memoirs how from the very beginning Britain’s leaders were suspicious of the enterprise, first Callaghan and then Thatcher.8 This did Britain no good, as Hutton says: In the early 1980s the unstoppable and crazy rise in the pound was the chief cause of the deep recession, and over the 19080s the Tory government tried a variety of ploys to stop the same thing happening again – finally joining the EMS in 1990 at to high a rate in a desperate last effort to achieve some currency stability. The speculation that forced sterling out of the EMS in 1992 was mountainous, reaching $20 billion on ‘Black Wednesday’ alone … the gain in relative value and consequent loss of competitiveness, measured in real terms, is stunning … Modern economies face a complex dilemma – whether countries wish to fix their currency against a group of currencies (such as the old EMS) or an anchor one like the dollar prior to the 1970s, with interest rates that support this rate; or whether they want to fix interest rates for
Deacons and the Euro (Part I) – Ashley Beck
domestic economic or political purposes – either way, they are now subject to the caprice of the international financial markets because of the vast volumes of currency which flow freely in the markets: Currencies can be valued high or low in relation to their underlying value for years, with episodic bouts of frenzy that typically culminate in a final sell-off or burst of enthusiasm that defines the end of the trend. The one thing we have learned about markets is that they are not stable. That in turn forces adjustment of the interest rate to relieve the pressure at some stage in the process – so that again the country has controlled neither its interest rates nor its exchange rate … The beauty of the single currency is that it solves these dilemmas at a stroke. It allows member countries to choose the interest rate they want for the economic area as a whole and stick to it. 9 Moreover, the interest rate is not fixed according to the needs of the ‘anchor’ currency (as it has often been with both the dollar and the deutschemark under previous system) but according to the needs of the area as a whole. That is why member countries have to have broadly synchronised in terms of inflation and growth rates – the basis of the ‘economic tests’ which determine when the British government might judge the time right to seek entry, and the convergence required of the ‘accession states’. There are problems, of course. Enthusiasts for the euro recognised long ago that a single currency would need to be accompanied by an integrated financial and fiscal system, involving harmonised tax regime; this is a long way off because of the intransigence of national governments in the EU.
7 P. 327. 8 A Life at the Centre (New York: Ransom 1991) chapter 26. 9 Hutton, op. cit., p. 329.
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The House that Jacques Built This is all part of the background of the development of the single market from the 1980s, and part of the vision of the European Commission President Jacques Delors, the bête noir of British tabloid culture in the 1980s and of Margaret Thatcher. Like the founding fathers of post-war Europe, Delors was a committed Catholic, influenced from an early age by Catholic social teaching – he was a member of the Catholic workers’ group, the JOC, from the age of 13. Even in his youth in rural France going to Mass was largely female activity – Jacques was one of the few men in the village who went. When he and his family later lived in Paris he remained committed to the church, and his wife Marie was involved in welfare work in the parish, visiting the elderly and teaching immigrant sot read and write in French. Delors was a socialist, and a committed Catholic in a traditionally anticlerical party – his Catholicism got him the nickname of le grenouille du bénitier (‘the frog from the font’) His simple lifestyle was striking – he once asked on French TV whether it was necessary for each family to have 3 cars or 4 TVs. His vision and pushing for integration, including monetary union should be seen in the light of Catholic teaching: but (as with Monnet and Schuman in the 1950s) much of what he wanted was stymied by national governments – an integrated tax system is still far off. In terms of Catholic teaching it is only if monetary union is accompanied by financial and fiscal system which promote the common good and the interests of the poor that it will serve the wider vision. The euro offers stability, shelter from turbulence. This stability supports long-term
investment in the whole of Europe, and is the only practical response to the way the world economy has developed. The sadly defunct pressure group Britain in Europe on their website a few years ago showed how being out of the euro zone negatively affected jobs in Britain, because the pound was overvalued against the euro – and most of Britain’s trading is with the euro zone. Even now, when the pound has lost so much of its value against the euro it still, as a medium size currency, has to float against three giants, the dollar, the euro and the yen. Hutton has shown in more recent writings10 how the current financial crisis makes the economic case for joining even greater than it was when things in the exchange markets were so different. In the first place he shows how the size of a recovery plan for British banks, on the US model, really depends on a European perspective for it to be big enough.11 Second, the fall in the pound’s value has shown how weak it is against the ‘big players’. As he wrote in November 2008: Importantly, at the moment, the five tests for entry by Gordon Brown are all met 100 per cent. Britain and Europe’s economies are in perfect synch as we enter recession simultaneously. The labour market is flexible. Entry would attract much-needed inward investment, and save the City. It would boost growth. In economic and political terms it would be a masterstroke. Britain would become a member of a reserve currency zone at a competitive level, offering us a key role in the emergent debate about eh governance of globalisation and the international financial system. We would remain prosperous and we would matter.12
10 ‘Dithering Britain needs its own plan, and it may hinge on joining the euro’, The Guardian, 1 October 2008, and ‘It might be politically toxic – but we must join the euro now’, The Observer, 16 November 2008. 11 ‘The UK is a medium-sized economy – but has giant banks’, Guardian article. 12 Observer article. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Sadly, as Hutton points out, it is not likely to happen; in the recent British general election one of the things which bound Gordon Brown and David Cameron together was a fanatical resistance to the idea of Britain joining the euro, and it is a tragedy that the Liberal Democrat party abandoned its commitment to the euro on joining the new coalition government. What are the responses to those who say Britain should not join? The euro-sceptic arguments take many forms, and draws people from both left and right (like the pro-euro movement). One argument which was put at the time when the euro was set up was the restraint which being in the zone would put on Britain’s economic autonomy. The Growth and stability pact which was adopted after the Maastricht treaty demands low interest and inflation rates around a very low average – and economic policy should be tightly controlled after entry – countries should not run a budget deficit greater than 3% of GDP, except in certain circumstances. In addition to this lack of freedom, critics claim that the European Central Bank is not accountable to democratic structures. To respond it has to be pointed out that increasingly few nations in the world have the economic independence which so many crave: there has to be some restraint on sovereignty, and better that it should be within an overall community than at the whim of the markets, or indeed of American policy. Moreover flaws in the way the bank works do not negate the policy: Hutton and other apologists for the euro have specific proposals, in line with Delors’ original plan (and Catholic teaching) which would meet many of the criticisms. So much of the opposition is not so much economic as romantic – at gut level, and in spite of decimalisation, many people associate the pound with Britain’s imperial past, with a largely imaginary world role. Hutton showed in his earlier
Deacons and the Euro (Part I) – Ashley Beck
work that the Treasury critics of the euro were the failed men of yesterday who have been wrong so often in the past about Britain in Europe: What the British sceptics are doing is throwing up reasons for not joining because at root they do not believe that they are European, that they share common values with other Europeans and that they can benefit from making common cause with other Europeans, Thus the core position of even exTreasury knights: the euro will lead to a superstate and therefore it is bad. It is the same reluctance and misdiagnosis that have afflicted Britain from the time when the Treaty of Rome was being drafted.13
The Euro and the current economic crisis in Europe today His words are even more apposite in the current economic crisis in Europe and the rest of the world. The crisis caused by irresponsible lending by financial institutions and in some cases the running of national economies on a similarly threadbare basis – that is, by running up enormous debts to finance unrealistic levels of spending (as in Greece) – has undermined all financial structures throughout the world. A large multinational currency such as the Euro, and the ECB which supports it, was bound to be put under pressure, particularly by speculators who helped to create the original crisis. Unfortunately in times of crisis people’s instinct is to look inwards, to ‘pull up the drawbridge’, to wave their national flags. The need for the support which common European institutions can give at this time is illustrated by the case of Iceland. This country is only in the EFTA and EEA and has never seriously considered joining the EU (possibly under the influence of Norway); since the collapse of its banking
13 The World We’re In pp. 42-3.
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system in late 2008 it has entered into negotiations with the EU and other institutions, and is now actively seeking to join the EU and the euro simply to save its economy from total meltdown. As some have pointed out14, its position is worse than that of Greece. Although the Greek crisis has (at the time of the writing of this article) helped to bolster anti-euro feeling in Iceland, it is obvious that the country cannot continue in isolation. The Greek crisis is instructive: while in terms of Catholic teaching one can question the morality of austerity measures which may well damage the poorest in society (as in Britain, with far less justification) what we can see by the measures which other EU countries have taken (albeit reluctantly, particularly in the case of Germany) the virtue of solidarity. Countries have had to rally round. Of course, no one who believes in the Euro would defend the way in which Greek governments have apparently been less than open or deceitful about their economic situation in order to enter the Euro in the first place. There are other examples which show the strength of the Euro in the current crisis: it seems as if Malta, for example, which adopted the Euro in 2008, would have been much worse off it had not done so then15. The original theorists of a common currency rightly saw that this would only work if European countries adopted converging and ultimately common fiscal and economic policies. From the angle of greater European integration, one unintended side effect of the current crisis is that the impetus for this will increase, particularly from the countries in the EU which have the strongest economies such as Germany.
Having lost a lot of the idealism of earlier leaders, necessity may well be the mother of invention. The problem is that this may well create a ‘two tier’ Europe, with the stronger economies able to adopt a clear fiscal regime. Furthermore, the economic orthodoxy which has led many EU countries to adopt very austere policies in response to the crisis is very questionable in terms of Catholic social teaching. While the theory and practice of a common currency demands a measure of regulation for banks and other institutions – in many ways it is the only way in which democratic states can exercise some control over them and other multinational companies – social teaching suggests that there needs to be a lot more regulation. Just as the current political leaders of the EU lack a common European vision and sense of idealism, so also they lack the political will to bring the banks and speculators to heel. Thus the opportunity created by the euro is being lost. Indeed, the current crisis has even led some of these speculators – and hostile elements in the Britain – to foretell the demise of the common currency itself. Much of this article has drawn on the debate in Britain – I know less of the context in Denmark and Sweden, although I imagine many of the arguments are similar. In the second of these articles I will look at why Catholic social teaching demands a positive response to the euro; such a response means that Catholics in euro zone countries should work for its strengthening in line with our teaching, and those in EU states outside the zone should work for their countries to join it as soon as possible. ■
14 Dan Roberts, ‘Better Greece than Iceland’ Guardian 10 February 2010. 15 ‘..Two years on from adopting the euro as its currency in January 2008, the whole country is breathing a sigh of relief at having done so – if it had not, it would have suffered severely in the economic downturn of 2008-09. Instead, being in the Euro Zone has led to a flood of foreign investment, and Malta’s economy has suffered relatively little compared with the rest of Europe, with property prices falling by no more than 3%.’ Neil Wilson, Malta and Gozo (Victoria: Lonely Planet publications 2010), p.11. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Diaconia of Caritas
Deacons and the Euro (Part I) – Ashley Beck
Thomas O’Loughlin
Little academic work has been done on the place of deacons in Canon law. Here Tom Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology in the University of Nottingham, continues his examination of deacons in early medieval Irish canons
T
he next heading in the Collection canonum hiberniensis, ‘Regarding how deacons should behave with due care’ (de diligentia diaconorum), is unusual as it does not answer a question about status nor does it either permit or prohibit anything. It seems more like a piece of good advice rather than law. The first sententia under the heading is a citation of 1 Tim 3:8-10: Deacons likewise must be serious and chaste (pudicos), not double-tongued (bilingues), not indulging in much wine (non multo uino deditos), not greedy for money (non turpe lucrum sectantes); they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. The second sententia under this heading is a glossing exegesis on four phrases from this passage by Isidore of Seville in his De ecclesiasticis officiis.1 Isidore comments that pudicos means that they should be abstainers from sexual desire;2 bilingues means they should not be disturbers of peaceful people; non multo uino deditos
Middle Ages – Some Evidence from Canon law (Part II)
because where there is drunkenness desire and fury rule; and they should be non turpe lucrum sectantes lest they would seek earthly reward for heavenly service! Here the inclusion of the material in the collection is explained not by there being a legal need for this information, but the possession of an apostolic text which, because it made practical demands, had to located somewhere in the Collectio. Its inclusion does not tell us anything about their understanding of deacons within their actual situation, but rather about their attitude towards Scripture: if there is a text that could be seen as a precedent, then it should be included. It is a reminder of the limitations of trying to ascertain actual conditions from what the law permits, condemns, or even simply reports. The remaining six headings are all concerned with the liturgical functions of the deacon and stress the liturgical differences and distance between the diaconate and the priesthood. The fifth heading is entitled ‘the distance between the service of the priest (sacerdos) and the deacon’ and contains a rather confused quotation from Isidore.3 In effect, the difference lies in that deacons are to announce when people are to pray or to kneel, make peti-
1 De ecclesiasticis officiis 2,8,5 (Patrologia Latina 83, 790). 2 There is a textual variation in the Latin text of 1 Tim used in the Collectio. As we edit the Vulgate the text reads simply diaconos similiter pudicos, with pudicus (honourable in the sense of being chaste) rendering the Greek word semnos, a word that can also mean ‘honourable in the sense of serious’ (hence most modern translations). The Collectio’s text reads ‘graues esse et pudicos’ taking both senses into account. 3 De ecclesiasticis officiis 2,8,3-4 (Patrologia Latina 83, 789); my concern here is not with what Isidore said, but with what the Collectio records as his opinion for it was in that form that it became influential in western canon law.
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tions, and read the gospel. While consecration belongs to the priest, to the deacon belongs the dispensing of the sacrament; while priests pray, deacons sing; priest sanctify the offerings, deacons dispense the sanctified; and priests are allowed to take the Lord’s cup from the table, but it should be handed to them by the deacon. And while in the Old Law the Levite had to be over twenty-five years of age before he could have care of the sacred vessels, so in the New Law the deacons can serve the churches until venerable old age! What the users of the Collectio made of this jumble of details we cannot ascertain, but
... deacons did in the liturgy whatever was customary in any particular place there is widespread agreement among the manuscripts which usually indicates in such cases that it was not the subject of close argument. In all likelihood this lack of concern is the result of the fact that deacons did in the liturgy whatever was customary in any particular place, and this was not a matter of controversy. The next heading is also liturgical, decreeing that when taking part in the Eucharist 4 5 6 7 8
(tempore oblationis) they are to wear a while garment. This is presented as related to their desire that they have heavenly life, and that they are approaching the immaculate Victim.4 This final sententia from the Statuta contains an echo of the Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman rite: hostiam puram … immaculatam.5 The compilers were also aware of four other pieces of legislation, canons from synods, relating to deacons; and, therefore, they incorporated each under a heading which acts as an interpretation of each canon’s purpose. These acts of interpretation were necessary in all four cases because the synod had in mind a liturgical situation which no longer had currency in the time of the Collectio, but since the law stood, it had to be given some context and value. A deacon is subject to both a presbyter and a bishop in his service.6 This regulation from the Statuta thought of as a synod was originally wholly liturgical, a deacon could help either a priest or a bishop,7 is now presented in terms of whose canonical subject the deacon is: he must see himself as servant to both the higher orders. Can a deacon distribute the Eucharist (eucharistia) to the people, if a priest is present? Yes, if it is thought necessary.8 And can he preach (praedicatio) if
III,6,a and b. Statuta, n. 60 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 176). III,7. Statuta, n. 57 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 175). III,8 using canon 16 from the Council of Arles of 314 (Corpus Chrstianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 12) which supposes an urban church at a time just before Christianity became a lawful religion; while the Collectio imagines a far more formalised liturgy in a monastic church: at no time in its history did the liturgy in the west change more than between the opening years of the fourth century and the closing years of the seventh. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Theology and History of Diaconate
The Perception of in the Early
a presbyter is present? Apparently, because there is an earlier law that stated that the deacon in the sight of the priests can give voice to the ‘interrogatus.’9 We need to avoid the, quite natural for us, tendency, to inquire what that canon meant ‘originally’ – because that enquiry supposed our historical awareness and empirical attitude towards the acquisition of knowledge. Rather, we must note the different epistemology of the compilers: a canon exists; it must make sense; here is a situation in which is makes sense; here, therefore, lies its legislative force.10 Finally, they had a canon from Nicaea that the deacons were not to be given precedence over the presbyters nor were they to sit in their presence, which they interpreted as ‘that the deacon was not to occupy the presbyter’s chair.11 There is one other mention of deacons that merits attention. In the book dealing with bishops there is a section on the age and experience needed before a man can be ordained a bishop.12 It assumes three different backgrounds. Firstly, if the man is a celibate from youth, he can be ordained lector or exorcist at twenty, porter and subdeacon at twenty-four, deacon at twentyfive, presbyter at thirty, and bishop at forty.13 Secondly, in the case of a young man who is ‘married to one wife’ (1 Tim 3:2): thirty for exorcist, thirty-four for subdeacon, thirty-five for deacon, forty for priest, and fifty for bishop. Thirdly, in the case of elderly layman: he should spend two years as a lector, then after five years he can become a subdeacon, after ten a
deacon, and after twelve years he can be asked to become either a presbyter or a bishop.
The vision of the law One of the most significant developments that took place, almost unnoticed, with the development of the systematic collection was that the law no longer dealt only with cases, but could enshrine a vision of a legal ideal in the very arrangement of the law: something we are only too familiar with today with many countries, and indeed the church, having codified law. We see this larger ecclesial vision of the compilers of the Collectio in the arrangement of books, but we also see it in a summary book on
All ministries are expressions of Christ’s ministry and so, just as they find their origin in his acts, so they finds their interconnection and unity in him the various grades of holy order which shows how the Christ contains within himself each of the orders and therefore surpasses all of them, while each of them exist in him. These ‘summaries’ – all of which are quite similar – of the grades of order have been labelled ‘the Ordinal of Christ’ by Roger Reynolds, and there is one in the Collectio.14 Here is the ‘ordinal’ from the Collectio:15
9 III,9 using Statuta, n. 61 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 148, p. 176). 10 See Kuttner, already cited, for an exposition of this ever-present hodie of the law. 11 III,10 citing the fourteenth canon of Nicaea (325). 12 I,11. 13 There is some corruption in the text at this point, but it does not affect what the Collectio says about the diaconate. 14 R.E. Reynolds, The Ordinals of Christ from their Origins to the Twelfth Century (Berlin, 1978) which contains editions and commentary; and see also: J. Crehan, ‘The Seven Orders of Christ,’ Theological Studies 19(1958)81-93. 15 VIII,1.
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The Perception of the Diaconate in the Early Middle Ages (Part II) – Thomas O’Loughlin
The Christ took on himself the grade of doorkeeper when he opened the entrances of the underworld (see, for example,16 Mt 16:18 and Apoc 1:18);17 he became an exorcist when he ejected seven demons from Mary Magdalene (cf. Mk 16:9 and Lk 8:2); he became a lector when he opened the Book of Isaiah (cf. Lk 4:17); he became a subdeacon when he made wine from water at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-11); he became a deacon when he washed the feet of his disciples (cf. Jn 13:4-12), he became a priest (sacerdos) when to took a loaf and broke and blessed (cf. 1 Cor 11:23-4 and Mt 26:26);18 and he became a bishop when he lifted his hands to heaven and blessed his apostles (cf. Lk 24:50-1). This text makes its appearance in the Collectio as ‘recapitulatio’:19 a gathering together so that the ‘big picture’ can be seen after all the details. All ministries are expressions of Christ’s ministry and so, just as they find their origin in his acts, so they finds their interconnection and unity in him. In the case of the event of the diaconate, the washing of the disciples’ feet, the event is a careful harmonisation of the event in John and the a debate on which of them was greater in Lk 22, the connection with the diaconate being that Jesus in Lk 22:27 replies that he is among them as one who serves (ego autem in medio uestrum sum sicut qui ministrat) which is imagined as demonstrated in the pedilauium in John.20 The link with the diaconate being that Jesus acted as a minister which, as we have noted, was the Latin for deacon.
However, there is another aspect to the recapitulation approach: in seeing every ministry formed in the life of the Christ as he acted towards the disciples/ followers/ believers, it creates a binary vision of the Church. On one side is the agent, the Christ, the clergy; and on the other the recipients, those who are the laity, i.e., the non-clergy. In imagining the clergy standing in place of the Christ the church is made into two sections with the same distinctiveness as that of Jesus and his followers. This paradigm, which still has enormous popularity in parts of the Church today, makes the notion of Christ sharing his priesthood with his people in baptism, where ministry is the performance of Spirit-given skills by and for Church, an irrelevance. Moreover, it makes the incarnation, viewed as the Christ gathering a people who with, through, and in him bless the Father – the fundamental in-built theology of the liturgy all these clerics were celebrating – almost invisible, or, at least, reduces ‘the sharing of our humanity’ to a soteriological exemplarism. In short, we have paid, and are still paying, a heavy, long-term price for the approach to ministry that is manifested in those ‘ordinals.’
The operative theology of ministry The compilers and users of the Collectio canonum hibernensis had an elaborate memory of the diaconate. It began in the great desert ceremonial of the ark and the tabernacle, continued in the ceremonies of the temple. It was then exemplified and
16 The biblical texts being cited here are token texts as this is a study of the diaconate, in a study of the ordinal, qua tale, one would need to relate the ordinal with far greater precision. 17 See T. O’Loughlin, ‘“The Gates of Hell”: From Metaphor to Fact,’ Milltown Studies 38(1996)98-114. 18 See T. O’Loughlin, ‘The Praxis and Explanations of Eucharistic Fraction in the Ninth Century: the Insular Evidence,’ Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 45(2003)1-20; and idem, ‘Translating Panis in a Eucharistic Context: A Problem of Language and Theology,’ Worship 78(2004)226-35. 19 The title of book VIII is de recapitulatione septem graduum. 20 A full study of the scriptural background to these ‘Ordinals’ is long overdue. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Theology and History of Diaconate
The Perception of the Diaconate in the Early Middle Ages (Part II) – Thomas O’Loughlin
The Perception of the Diaconate in the Early Middle Ages (Part II) – Thomas O’Loughlin
John N. Collins
embraced by Jesus at the Last Supper, and then burst forth in the choosing of the seven in the apostolic gathering in Jerusalem, and gained its great patron and model in the death of Stephen,21 one of their number, whose memory as the protomartyr is recalled each year next to the birth of Jesus.22 However, their operative theology, the understanding that informed their day-to-day praxis, was rather different. The clergy formed a clear group apart, and this group was stratified into two major layers: those with the power of the sacerdotium as the superior part, and those who did not have it as the inferior part. Deacons while forming the highest stratum of the inferior part, were still very distant from the next step: the presbyterate. It was already seen as a stepping stone to ‘greater things’ and this transitional status even had times attached depending on the canonical status of the person making the journey through the orders. In itself, it was only conceived of in terms of a supporting liturgical role carrying out specific tasks that were already being thought of, from the way the questions about preaching and distribution the Eucharist are posed, as tasks more normally belonging to the presbyterate. Moreover, with the growing practice of monk-priests celebrating missae priuatae, even this auxiliary role was becoming more ceremonial: adding solemnity, and probably being reserved to the more significant moments within liturgical time.
Further investigations This study, which is by its nature preliminary, has restricted itself to one kind of evidence, indeed to just one document. The full significance of that document, and of the role of the diaconate in the period, will only become clear when this study is
incorporated in a larger study that would include the following. First, an analysis of the evidence for the use of deacons in the liturgical texts from the period. Second, a study of the place assigned to the diaconate in that other source of legal guidance from this period: the penitentials. Third, a study of passing references to deacons in the narrative literature of the period, and this, in large measure, means a study of deacons who are mentioned or described in hagiography. And, finally, a study of the exegesis that was produced at the time of those passages in Scripture that were seen (as exhibited in works like the Collectio) as having a bearing on the diaconate such as Numbers, Acts, and 1 Timothy. There is no shortage of work for willing hands with the right theological and historical skills!
Conclusion But why should we bother to investigate this obscure period, which has neither the splendour of the earlier patristic period nor, apparently, the theological meatiness of the scholastics? The answer lies in the place this period had in the minds of the those who formed the canon law of the Latin church in the twelfth century: when they sought out ‘ancient practice’ and ‘ancient tradition’ on any number of issues it was not to the documents of the early centuries of the Church that they turned, but what they thought was the expression of those early centuries in the form of the canonical legislation of the Carolingian era. In so far as the work of Gratian and his colleagues still gives shape to the Latin church – and Codex Iuris Canonici of 1917 merely codified that legal inheritance – this obscure period is still exercising influence on us. It surely merits more study. ■
21 Gildas imagines Stephen as the model for his own ministry. 22 See the place of Stephen’s memorial in such texts as the Félire Oengusso where his ‘luminous name is like a fair sun that warms thousands’ (W. Stokes ed., The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London 1905, p. 254); and see P. Ó Riain, Feastdays of the Saints: A History of Irish Martyrologies (Brussels, 2006), chs 1-5, for the context.
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New Diaconal Review Issue 5
For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’
John N. Collins is the author of many important works on the diaconate. In this article he continues dialogue with Dr Klaus Kiessling following our last issue
D
r Kießling’s reflections on deacons and the Greek term diakonia (NDR May 2010) were a circuit breaker, and I am very grateful to him. As president of the International Diaconate Centre in Rottenburg am Neckar and editor of the centre’s journal Diaconia Christi, Dr Kießling is a significant voice. It is now 35 years since I first attempted a considered exchange of views with the IDC on connections between diakonia and the then brand-new Roman Catholic diaconate. I see Dr Kießling’s recent reflections as an invitation to join him in the point and counterpoint of developing new theological possibilities in what we both probably consider to be a rather confused area. In any case I suspect deacons themselves would be expecting to hear something from me in response to his exploratory paper.
Pervasive ‘Diakonie’ As Dr Kießling advised readers in his opening footnote, the Greek word diakonia has long resonated within the German language under the guise of the loanword Diakonie. Throughout the EKD (the Evangelical Churches of the many German states, what we tend misleadingly to call the German Lutheran Church) nearly half a million professional employees and nearly that number again of volunteers carry out Christian social work under the name of Diakonie. The Christian dimension of this designation is paramount: a random webpage dated 9 November 2009 announces, ‘Die Diakonie: Gelebte Nächstenliebe [Diakonie: Lived love of our neighbour]’. Such public currency of ‘Diakonie’ and diakonia (and its related words with their
100 instances in the New Testament) inevitably creates legitimacy for the notion that diakonia means loving service. This perception began in heroic circumstances within the Lutheran tradition in the 1840s. Roman Catholics have also been unavoidably exposed to the concept and have not remained deaf to the terminology or immune to the challenging ethical stance it supports. Among themselves, however, German Catholics did not incorporate the terminology into institutional forms of social service, choosing instead, as has happened also outside Germany, the Latin term caritas (charity or love). This choice perhaps reflected a desire to avoid any suggestion of the direct Protestant link between diakonia and deacons. Until well after the
Until well after the Second Vatican Council deacons did not exist as a separate order within the Roman Catholic Church Second Vatican Council deacons did not exist as a separate order within the Roman Catholic Church; being ordained a deacon was simply a prerequisite for being ordained a priest.
Catholic diakonic values By the beginning of the Vatican Council, however, the diakonic values so deeply cherished within Protestant church life in Germany and other north European cultures were permeating Catholic thinking in relation to pastoral renewal in the
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Theology and History of Diaconate
John N. Collins in dialogue with Klaus Kießling
church. A vivid illustration of this impact remains in the urgency underlying Hans Küng’s exposition on ‘Church Office as Ministry’ in his international best-seller The Church (1967). The English ‘ministry’ in that phrase is the German Dienst, ‘service’, the preferred German translation of diakonia.
XVI’s encyclical (no. 34):
Thomas O’Meara is a more recent noted writer on ministry whose Theology of Ministry (1985, second ed. 1999) develops around a concept of a ‘ministerial pleroma’ – we are to think of this as a ‘diakonic fullness’, and we are to understand that in the church every member is called at baptism to embody the loving service that Jesus exemplified in his own diakonia (1999, p. 222; see elsewhere, e. g. , 48,62-65).
From here, Cordes proceeded to express his own evaluation of the nature of diakonia:
The same concept imbues a large section of Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical God is love. A main contributor to the formulation of this document was the German Cardinal Paul Cordes, then president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. This council had been established in 1971 by Paul VI for the purpose of expressing ‘the care of the Catholic Church for the needy’. In that same year Paul Cordes had defended his doctoral thesis in Mainz on priesthood as a ‘Sendung zum Dienst’ (Missioned for Service). In accord with this lifelong theological vision, in May 2008 Cordes was addressing the bishops of England and Wales on God is love, and at a critical juncture expressed himself in the following diakonic terms: Service to our neighbours ... makes demands ... in the very rational decision to desire the best for the other person, even at the price of self-abnegation. Whoever dedicates himself to diakonia thus takes on the opposite of reputation, power, and rank that leaders and political entities claim for themselves. http://www.zenit.org/ article-22486?l=english Supporting this, Cordes cited Benedict 40
My deep personal sharing in the needs and sufferings of others becomes a sharing of my very self with them... I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self; I must be personally present in my gift.
Diakonia is the antithesis of the egocentric society; Jesus with his self-oblation for the ‘ransom of many’ [Mark 10:45] is its model and prototype. In the encyclical Benedict XVI had presented diakonia – described as ‘the ministry of charity exercised in a communitarian, orderly way’ – as ‘part of the fundamental structure of the Church’ (no. 21), A little later he demonstrated this conviction by endorsing the classical trilogy of values that has been the hallmark of eccle-
I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self; I must be personally present in my gift siology since the eve of the Second Vatican Council (no. 25): The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). The last of these, he goes on to say, is ‘a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.’
New Diaconal Review Issue 5
For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ – John N. Collins
German provenance Such conceptualisations of diakonia are vintage Brandt-Beyer, as alluded to by Dr Kießling (p. 36). In a doctoral monograph of 1931, Service and Serving in the New Testament, Wilhelm Brandt had laid down a diakonic template still in use 80 years later. Service as diakonia is not just a fulfilling of one’s obligations within one’s social group (i.e., the Christian community) but consists of ‘a wholly personal offering of one’s self to one’s neighbours’ (p. 85). This is the measure of diakonia as described by the lexicographer H.W. Beyer in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (German edition 1935). And diakonia so envisaged had an imme-
Theologians using northern European languages lacked the versatility of the ‘ministry’ words, and had originally felt constrained to turn to terms meaning ‘office’ diate appeal to theologians writing in languages like German that lacked the ‘ministry’ words that English inherited from Latin. Broad as the meaning of the term ‘ministry’ might be, it mirrored the term ministerium which the Latin bible had mostly used in translating diakonia. Theologians using northern European languages lacked the versatility of the ‘ministry’ words, and in writing about diakonia/ministerium had originally felt constrained to turn to terms meaning ‘office’ (the German Amt, and similarly elsewhere). In addition to the limited semantic range and strong bureaucratic ring of this term , ‘office’ also brought with it into theology heavy sociological baggage that over the post-Reformation centuries had a strong tendency to smother – even to dis-
tort – the ministerial character of roles and activities reported among early Christian communities. In the post-World War 2 era, by contrast, among theologians struggling to release their churches from a morass of authoritarianism, self-righteousness and estrangement from social realities, the attraction of a re-thinking of ‘office’ as ‘service’ (Dienst) on grounds of recent biblical scholarship (1935) held out the possibility of nothing short of a redemption for their churches. And thus occurred the blossoming of the diakonic ecclesiological age. I have strongly emphasised its German provenance and current context because Dr Kießling writes from within that. Even the theologian I call the whistle-blower, Hans-Jürgen Benedict. In a paper of 2000 Benedict exposed misconceptions underlying diakonic theology. In fact the title of his paper announced his challenging theme from the start (in translation): ’Do the German Lutheran claims for the concept of Diakonie rest on a misunderstanding? Collins’ research volume Diakonia’ (Pastoraltheologie 89:343-64). Ironically, some years later, Benedict himself felt obliged to concede that ‘Diakonie’, in spite of the misconceptions that brought it to birth, had the status of a ‘trademark’ and was impossible to discard (Barmherzichkeit und Diakonie, 2008, pp. 132-33).
Disposing of misconceptions What is the misunderstanding that Benedict exposed? In 1971, as I began a research degree on the New Testament’s central diakonic statement already mentioned (Mark 10:45, ‘the Son of man has come not to be served [diakon-] but to serve [diakon-] and give his life a ransom for others’), the question confronting me was why diakon- here needs to be understood as expressing what the dictionary called ‘the very essence of service, of being
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Theology and History of Diaconate
For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ – John N. Collins
for others’ (Beyer, TDNT 2.86) when the dictionary also says that diakon- has ‘the original sense of “to wait at table”’ (Beyer, TDNT 2.84)? A perusal of the 100 passages in the New Testament where diakon- occurs provides no obvious clue. This situation led me to examine diakonwords in other Greek literary sources within 400 years either side of the New Testament.
framework. This imposes a similar semantic pattern on each occurrence. If the word designates an activity, essentially the activity will be mandated or commissioned; if the word designates a person, essentially the person is engaged under a mandate or a commission. Never, however, do diakon- words express a sentiment of benevolence towards the recipient of an activity.
The evidence collected in Diakonia: Reinterpreting the Ancient Sources (1990, reprinted 2009) reveals that diakonwords do not in fact exhibit any ‘original sense’. A diakon- word is not like the word ‘meat’, for example. We might use this word in the phrase ‘the meat of the argument’, but we will be entitled to say that the ‘original sense’ of meat is edible flesh. In the case of diakon-, however, we can arrive at a meaning only from the context in which it occurs. We have no trouble recognising a meaning like ‘waiting at table’ because its context immediately makes that sense recognisable. Most other contexts are less helpful. On close examination, however, the sum of meanings within a context will point to the semantic role played by diakon- within that interplay of meanings. Then the newly discerned meaning of diakon- might well add colour and/or further meaning to the context as a whole. The instances of diakonia in a proclamation by Constantine (Eusebius, Life 2.28-29) and of diakonos in reference to the historian Josephus (BJ 3.354; 4.626) brilliantly illustrate this process (see Diakonia, pp. 107-09, 111-15).
A common context in which this pattern plays out is that of errand. (This also is how waiting at tables fits in.) Thus Constantine (above) was engaged in a divinely mandated ‘mission’ to spread the Christian message, and Josephus was presenting himself as ‘bearer’ of God’s message to Vespasian, a ‘spokesman’, much like Paul (e. g., 1 Corinthians 3:5).
Accordingly, although in a gospel parable diakon-does in fact mean ‘waiting at table’ (Luke 17:8), we cannot be sure that ‘waiting at table’ has any bearing on understanding the statement at, e. g., 1 Timothy 3:13: ‘those who serve well as deacons [diakon-] gain a good standing’. The only thing the diakon- words take from one piece of writing to another is a semantic 42
In her 2007 study of the diakon- material, Diakonia im Neuen Testament, Dr Anni Hentschel fully endorsed both these principles regarding context and mandate. She also recognised the capacity of diakon- to express a notion relating to ‘go-between’,
We cannot make a ‘deacon’ out of both ‘humble waitingon-tables’ and ‘missionary going-between’ which I illustrated for example in Plato’s description of the priestly role (Pol. 290cd, Diakonia, p. 85) but which some mistakenly seem to think is my definition of the ‘real’ or ‘original’ meaning of diakon-. One thing we cannot do with diakon- is to take semantic bits and pieces from differing contexts and construct a mosaic of meaning to fit somewhere else. In other words, we cannot make a ‘deacon’ out of both ‘humble waiting-on-tables’ and ‘missionary going-between’ (Kießling, p. 37).
New Diaconal Review Issue 5
For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ – John N. Collins
The deacon’s identity Who then is the ‘deacon’? Our earliest indicators link ‘deacon’ and episkopos and point to a relationship of agency. The notion of table-service does not belong to any part of this basic ecclesial relationship. Ignatius of Antioch insisted that deacons ‘are not diakonoi / waiters for food and drink but are officers (hypÁretai) of the church of God’ (Trallians 2.3; see Diakonia, pp. 240, 362; Deacons and the Church, pp. 108, 127). In Deacons and the Church (2002) I attempted to develop a more detailed identity kit. In reviewing my earlier Diakonia (1990) the late George Tavard said in relation to deacons, ‘Had it been published at the time of Vatican II, the present book could have provided a basis for the needed theological reflection.’ (Worship, July 1992) In reviewing Dr Hentschel’s
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Diakonia im Neuen Testament Sean Winter concluded (JSNT, 30.5 2008): ‘Hentschel’s work should finally put to rest suggestions that “deacons” in the early church were those given lowly tasks within the community.’ The ecclesiological significance of Hentschel’s work has been noted also by her German-language reviewers (Anneliese Felber, JAC 2008:195-99; Andrea Taschl-Erber, ThRev [online], Munster 2009; Rajah Scheepers, H-Sozu-Kult 28.08.2009). Ecclesiology – and not just deacons – was also the theme on which I brought the book Diakonia to a close. It would be helpful to see IDC taking a lead in importing the new diakonic values into the German context so that we can start moving on together from there. ■
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DIACONAL
Inviting Authors New Diaconal Review welcomes readers to submit articles with a view to publication ● They should be in keeping with the journal's aims, and mindful of pastoral implications. Ideas or topics for articles can be emailed to the editors... Tony Schmitz tony.schmitz@gmail.com or Ashley Beck ashleybeck88@hotmail.com who are happy to comment on their suitability and advise about word length. ● Guidelines for house-style can be found at The Pastoral Review website, www.thepastoralreview.org under 'Contact us'.
New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Theology and History of Diaconate
For deacons it’s not a matter of ‘either-or’ or ‘both-and’ – John N. Collins
Bill Burleigh is a deacon of the diocese of Hallam and based in the parish of High Green in South Yorkshire. He is also a part-time chaplain at Sheffield Children’s Hospital
N
inety years ago this Autumn1, Pope Benedict XV declared St. Ephraem2 of Syria a Doctor of the Universal Church. Until that point, Ephraem had been honoured predominantly among Eastern Rite Catholics and by the Orthodox. Maybe because his teaching was translated from his written Syriac only into the “Eastern” languages for use in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Greek speaking areas but not into Latin, he had somehow become almost eclipsed by the later Latin Fathers and Doctors of the West. At the request of the Catholic patriarchs and bishops of the East as late as 1920, the wisdom, influence and still-relevant teaching of Ephraem was fully acknowledged for the whole Church. In his encyclical to the Eastern Rite Catholic hierarchy3 on the occasion of declaring Ephraem a Doctor of the Universal Church, the pope proposed ‘a splendid example of sanctity, learning, and paternal love… We speak of St. Ephraem the Syrian, whom Gregory of Nyssa compared to the River Euphrates4 because “he irrigated by his waters the Christian community to bring forth fruits of faith a hundred-fold”5’. St. Ephraem is important because his writings give us insight into the active Catholic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Discovering Deacon and faith “in its as yet unhellenized-uneuropeanized form”6. Though unconnected to the language and culture of his contemporaries Jerome, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephraem “is nonetheless essentially at one with them in his understanding of the mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation”7. Since Ephraem’s being named a Doctor of the Church ninety years ago, most of the vast treasury of his extant writings have been translated into European languages, studied, and the huge value of Ephraem’s teaching has been made available for of us. Any of us who saw the first episode of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s recent BBC TV series The History of Christianity will have been surprised at the importance of Syrian Christianity in the first centuries of the Church and, in particular, the role of Ephraem’s adopted town of Edessa8 as a place of learning, of the struggle for orthodoxy and of mission. The part played by Ephraem in the origins of the school of theology there and in teaching through prose, homilies and (especially) theological poetry is now becoming clear. Even today, Ephraem’s hymns are still used within the Syriac church there. The life and theology of Ephraem, both as a
5th October 1920. Variously spelt today: Ephraem, Ephrem or Ephraim. Principi Apostolorum Petro (APA). Near which Ephraem was exiled to live. St. Gregory of Nyssa Life of Ephraem, chap 1, n.4 Brock, Sebastian, The Luminous Eye (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992) p.15 Brock, p.15 Now Nusaybin in south east Turkey. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
St. Ephraem of Syria, Doctor of the Church deacon and in his environment, have a lot to say to the emerging diaconate of the West today. Ephraem was ordained deacon late in his life, though he had clearly been active in his church from his youth. Born around the year 306, his parents and their community had lived through the savage persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian that had impacted even in their home town of Nisibis, a Roman border outpost, close to pagan Persia. Relieved by the conversion of the emperor Constantine, the Christians of Nisibis, within Ephraem’s lifetime, suffered initially vague and then specific persecution under Julian the Apostate, the eastern Roman ruler. Julian, after an incompetent military campaign, ceded Nisibis to the pagan Persian Empire and the whole Christian community, including the now middle aged Ephraem, had to flee in order to retain their faith. Eventually they found sanctuary in Edessa. Like Britain today, Nisibis was a multi-faith9, multi-cultural society with a wide variety, also, of Christian beliefs10. In his youth, Ephraem was baptised by his bishop St. Jacob (Mar Jacob) who remained Ephraem’s guide and mentor for the remaining years of his life. Around the time of Ephraem’s baptism, Bishop Jacob travelled to the Council of Nicaea (325AD) and was certainly a signatory there to what we now know as the Nicene Creed. Ephraem’s Catholic orthodoxy links
directly to his firm adherence to the teachings of Nicaea, the great Council of his own times. Ephraem’s life of diaconal service, both before and after his ordination, appears to be characterised by empathetic concern and action in all three diaconal areas we are familiar with today – word, liturgy and service.
Word Key to Ephraem’s teaching is his deep and prayerful familiarity with Scripture. Both his prose and his poetry teem with biblical references and allusions. As an Aramaic speaker, living in a cosmopolitan environment relatively close to Jerusalem, more than any Greek or Roman Christian, he was in contact with Jewish traditions and practices11. Besides his familiarity with the Hebrew Bible, this link to Judaism shows in his familiarity with post-biblical Jewish literature, perhaps learned through verbal transmission. At the same time, Ephraem was not ignorant of Greek thought and the theological world of Greek-speaking Christianity, perhaps because of translations into Syriac, the language in which he wrote. But Ephraem’s wealth of biblical commentary became eclipsed in the West by his near contemporary, St. Jerome, who wrote in Latin. Jerome spent the closing years of his life of study near Bethlehem, relatively close to Ephraem’s linguistic and
9 Given the ethnic mix of Armenians, Jews, Greeks, Parthians, Romans and Persians, there was a conglomerate of pagan faiths including the worship of local gods such as Hadad, Bel and Shamash and the worship of some Roman gods, many pagans also some, according to Ephraem, using astrology. Nisibis was also a major Jewish centre of the diaspora. 10 Arians, Marcionites, Manichees, Bardiasanites and various Gnostic sects. 11 Brock refers to him as an “heir to Judaism” The Luminous Eye, p.20. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Theology and History of Diaconate
Bill Burleigh
cultural neighbourhood. Jerome pays high tribute to Ephraem’s biblical commentaries12, but the lack of Latin translations closed off Ephraem to Western readers. Everything that Ephraem wrote shows single-minded purpose – to spread the true and Catholic faith, sometimes directly in opposition to the misunderstandings of the Manichees13, Arians14 and others. But, with insight, he recognised the success the Gnostics (especially) were having and so he adopted their literary and didactic devices in his teaching, making use, especially, of music within worship, since music was attracting folk away from the Catholic community A key device that Ephraem used very extensively and which entered, very widely, into the later literary tradition of the Church, was imagery. He frequently uses the images of clothing, fire or healing to express theological truths. For example, for the image of clothing, and possibly drawing from St. Paul15, Ephraem speaks of the Incarnation as God clothing himself in a human body. So, in his Nativity hymn 23 he writes: All these changes did the Merciful One make, stripping off glory and putting on a body; for He had devised a way to re-clothe Adam in that glory which Adam
had stripped off. Christ was wrapped in swaddling clothes, corresponding to Adam’s leaves, Christ put on clothes, instead of Adam’s skins; He was baptised for Adam’s sin, His body was embalmed for Adam’s death He rose and raised up Adam to his glory. Blessed is He who descended, put Adam on and ascended! Using the image of fire16, Ephraem writes: See, Fire and Spirit in the womb that bore You, see, Fire and Spirit in the river in which You were baptised. Fire and Spirit in our Baptism, in the Bread and the Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit.17 Using the image of healing, we find Ephraem in his commentary on John’s Gospel, correcting the Arian rejection of the un-created divine nature of the second Person of the Trinity: After He had said this, He spat on the ground, and fashioned clay from His spittle (Jn 9:6), and made the eyes with His clay. He caused the light to spring forth from the dust, just as He did in the beginning, when the shadow of the heavens was spread out as darkness over everything (cf. Gen 1:2-3). He commanded the light, and it was born from the darkness18
12 Within twenty years of Ephraem’s death, Jerome wrote “Ephraem, deacon of the Church of Edessa, wrote many works in Syriac, and became so famous that his writings are publicly read in some churches after the Sacred Scriptures. I have read in Greek a volume of his on the Holy Spirit; though it was only a translation, I recognized therein the sublime genius of the man” De Viris Illustribus 115. 13 Whose non-orthodoxy stemmed from their non belief in an omnipotent God. Hence the human is constantly caught in a battle between good (the spiritual) and bad (the physical – including the human body). 14 Who could not accept the Nicene faith that the Second Person of the Trinity is eternally begotten by and co-equal with the Father, but, rather, the prime creation of the Father. 15 Philippians 2. 16 And, here, possibly as a refutation of Manicheans who rejected the Acts of the Apostles with its account of Pentecost because they believed the Holy Spirit came through their leader, Mani. 17 10th Faith poem:17. 18 Commentary on the Diatesseron 16:28, cited in Shemunkasho, A, Healing in the Theology of Saint Ephrem (New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2002) p.275.
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
Ephraem also teaches by juxtaposing images and contemplating paradoxes. So, for example, using the image of the eye and the contemporary understanding of how sight works (ie. by light filling it; the more light enters, the clearer the sight), Ephraem writes: The world, you see, has two eyes fixed in it: Eve was the left eye, blind, while the right eye, illuminated, is Mary. Through the eye that was darkened the world was darkened, and people groped and thought that every stone they stumbled upon was a god, calling falsehood truth. But when it was illumined by the other eye and the heavenly Light that resided in its midst, humanity became reconciled once again. In Mary, full of grace, the Light of Christ enabled her to see and, through her giving birth, enabled all to see Truth.19 Ephraem’s favourite paradox appears to have been the humility of God in the Incarnation, “the Rich One who became poor”, “the Great One who became small”, “the Hidden One who disclosed himself “. Ephraem’s 11th Nativity hymn exemplifies this well: Your mother is a cause for wonder: the Lord entered her and became a servant; He who is the Word entered – and became silent within her; thunder entered her – and made no sound; there entered the Shepherd of all, and in her He became the Lamb, bleating as He came forth. Your mother’s womb has reversed the roles: the Establisher of all entered in His richness, but came forth poor; the Exalted One entered her, but came forth meek; the Splendrous One
entered her, but came forth having put on a lowly hue. The Mighty One entered, and put on insecurity from her womb; The Provisioner of all entered – and experienced hunger; He who gives drink to all entered – and experienced thirst: naked and stripped there came forth from her He who clothes all. It is Ephraem’s use of poetry to convey truth, to reflect theologically and to pray that, to me, is at the heart of Ephraem’s genius. Unrestrained by the more dry conventions of Greco-Latin prose style, he is able to let truths and insight surprise us, especially when he is using his vivid imagination and his perceiving of images to help our understanding. Alongside poetry, again deployed to reach out to the general population, Ephraem used familiar ways of writing or telling stories, drawn from ancient Sumerian literature but familiar to the ears of his contemporaries. One such way was through a written dispute between two viewpoints in order to draw out truths. For example, in one poem he sets Satan and Death in dispute over who was greater: I heard Death and Satan loudly disputing which was the stronger of the two amongst humanity. Death has shown his power in that he conquers all. Sin has shown his guile in that he makes everyone sin Then Ephraem constructs their dispute: Death: Only those who want to listen to you, O Evil One. But to me they all come, whether they like it or not.
19 The title “The Luminous Eye”, given to St. Ephraem, derives from the notion that God’s Light enables us to see spiritually just as physical light entering a human eye enables sight. Ephraem’s “luminous eye” describes his enlightenment by God. In his hymn Faith 3 Ephraem writes: “Blessed is the person who has acquired a luminous eye with which he will see how much the angels stand in awe of You, Lord, and how audacious is man”. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
Satan: You just employ brute force, O Death, whereas I use traps and cunning snares. Death: Listen, Evil One, a cunning person can break your yoke, but there is none who can escape from mine. Satan: You, Death, exercise your strength with the sick, but I am the stronger with those who are well. But the key didactic point of this dispute Ephraem reserves for the refrain he intersperses amid the verses: Praise to You, Son of the Shepherd of all, who has saved His flock from the hidden wolves, both the Evil One and Death, who had swallowed it up20
Liturgy Ephraem’s theological poetry spills over into prayer and, hence, was taken up into liturgy. As Pope Benedict XVI, has recently pointed out21 “Poetry allowed him to deepen theological reflection through paradoxes and images. So at the same time, his theology becomes liturgy, it becomes music”. And liturgical music is another of Ephraem’s huge legacies to the Church. Long before Gregory’s development of regularized plainsong, Ephraem was introducing liturgical song into worship in both Nisibis and Edessa. He was known to have introduced roles for women within worship, setting poetry to music for women’s choirs. Clearly in Ephraem’s communities, the people took an active and participatory part in the liturgy22. More significantly for us, it is Ephraem who introduced the idea of repeated responses within long hymns or litanies so that people
could join in without knowing all the words. This method of involving people seems to have spread westwards to Constantinople and onwards into the Western Church. The re-introduction, in our own times, of this way of involving congregations in liturgical music links us right back to Ephraem’s innovation. An example of this way of enabling the people to join in a refrain is found in his Nativity Hymn 7 (here only the first verses are given): At the birth of the Son a great clamour took place in Bethlehem, for Angels descended to give praise there; a great thunder were their voices. With this voice of praise the silent ones23 came to give praise to the Son. Refrain: Blessed is the babe by whom Adam and Eve grew young again. Shepherds, too, came carrying the good things of the flock: sweet milk, fresh meat, fitting praise. They divided [the gifts] and gave to Joseph the meat, to Mary the milk, to the Son the praise. Refrain: Blessed is the babe by whom Adam and Eve grew young again. They carried and offered to Him: suckling lamb to the Paschal Lamb, the first-born to the First-born, a sacrifice to the Sacrifice, a temporal lamb to the True Lamb. A fitting sight that a lamb to the Lamb should be offered. Refrain: Blessed is the babe by whom Adam and Eve grew young again.
20 From 52nd Nisibene Hymn quoted in Brock p.19. Full poem in Brock’s The Harp of the Spirit (London: Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, 1975) no.14. 21 General Audience 28th November 2007. 22 Cf. Vatican II Sacrosanctum Concilium n.113 on the people’s active participation in song. 23 Perhaps the legendary ox and ass.
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
As Pope Benedict XV wrote in 1920, “The artistry introduced by Blessed Ephraem added dignity to sacred matters... The metric rhythm, which our saint popularized, was widely propagated among the Greeks and the Latins. Indeed, does it seem probable that the liturgical antiphonary with its songs and processions, introduced at Constantinople, in the works of Chrysostom and at Milan by Ambrose … was the work of some other author? For the “custom of Eastern rhythm” deeply moved the catechumen Augustine in northern Italy; Gregory the Great improved it and we use it in a more advanced form”24
not all Ephraem’s poetry survived. We have more than twenty of his Nativity hymns but only a few specifically composed for Easter. The origins, we know, of our Exultet are lost in the mists of time but it certainly comes from the first few centuries of the Church. Juxtaposing parts of the Exultet we sing with the words and style of Ephraem’s first Nativity hymn26 inevitably raises the question – unanswerable at this huge distance in time – as to whether Ephraem composed an Easter hymn to the candle that was taken up and developed into the Easter hymn we now use. To illustrate:
If liturgical musical forms, style and metre appear to stretch back beyond Gregory to Ephraem, what of that greatest of all liturgical hymns the Exultet? The origins of this Easter hymn, so well known to any deacon today, are unknown. But are there clues within Ephraem’s poetry to suggest a link here too? St. Jerome, a near contemporary of Ephraem who lived for several years near Syria, attests to the existence of hymns praising the Easter candle25. Egeria, that fascinating woman from Spain who, around this time also, recorded her experiences of Holy Week liturgy in Jerusalem, mentions a hymn to the candle. By the time of Ambrose and Augustine, these Easter proclamations had spread to Northern Italy. Where does Ephraem, with his pioneering of Catholic liturgical music, fit in? Any deacon today, familiar with the style and words of the Exultet, who also delves into Ephraem’s poetry is led to wonder whether it is from Ephraem that our Exultet ultimately derives. We know that
a. From the Exultet: Pray that God grant to me, a deacon of the Church, strength to sing this Easter candle’s praises... From the 1st Nativity Hymn: Pray for me, my friends, that I may be strengthened once more to set forth their qualities… [ie the qualities and typology of the prophets of Christ’s birth] b. From the Exultet: Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour, radiant in the brightness of your king! Lands that once lay covered by darkness, see... From the 1st Nativity Hymn: Keep vigil as bright ones on this bright night; for even if its colour is black, still it is splendid in its power…
24 Principi Apostolorum Petro 13. 25 adding a caustic comment about deacons showing off in their singing. Cf. Patrologia Latina 30 referred to in Roger Greenacre and Jeremy Haselock, The Sacrament of Easter (Leominster: Gracewing, 1995) p.131. 26 McVey, Kathleen (trans), Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns, (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1980 in the series The Classics of Western Spirituality) p. 63-74. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
c. From the Exultet: How holy is this night, which heals our wounds and washes all evil away! A night to cast out hatred! A night for seeking peace and humbling pride... From the 1st Nativity Hymn: Serene is the night on which shines forth the Serene One Who came to give us serenity... This is the night of reconciliation; let us be neither wrathful nor gloomy on it. On this all-peaceful night let us be neither menacing nor boisterous. This is the night of the Sweet One, let us be on it neither bitter nor harsh. On this night of the Humble One, let us be neither proud nor haughty. d. From the Exultet, using Old Testament types of the Paschal Mystery: This is the night when first you set the children of Israel free: you saved your ancestors from slavery in Egypt... When you led your people by a pillar of fire…When Christians everywhere... From the 1st Nativity Hymn using signs anticipating the coming of Christ : Who is able to glorify the true Son Who rises for us, Whom just men yearned to see... Adam anticipated Him... Abel yearned for him... Eve looked for him... Noah... Melchizedek... Moses... [and many more] e. From the Exultet: O truly blessed night, when heaven is wedded to earth and we are reconciled with God... From the close of the 1st Nativity hymn:
Today the Deity imprinted itself on humanity, so that humanity might also be cut into the deal of Deity. Despite the paucity of extant Easter poems by Ephraem, we can, nevertheless, find feint traces of our Easter liturgy in his writings. In his 2nd Hymn for the Resurrection27 there are, perhaps, references to lighted torches being held by everyone: ... The shouts of holy Church are joined with the Divinity’s thunder, and with the bright torches lightning flashes intermingle... , to the use of multiple alleluias: ... Now too at the festival does the crowd… scatter for You, Lord, halleluiahs like blossoms... , and to some form of litany of saints: ... Let us summon and invite the saints, the martyrs, apostles and prophets... Just as with our inability to trace back definitively to Ephraem’s liturgy, so, too, with his music. Though the names of tunes are referred to in the headings of many of Ephraem’s hymns, the actual music used is now unknown. But what is refreshing for us of so much of what we can see of Ephraem’s contribution to the liturgical development of his day is its relevance to the post-Vatican II Church. In our day we have re-introduced processional hymns and parts of the Mass with repeated refrains, to encourage active participation in Mass, and we have returned to the vernacular. All these are present in what we see of Ephraem’s liturgy as he used fresh words and music to support orthodoxy and understanding.
27 See Brock, S and Kiraz, G, Ephraim the Syrian: Selected Poems (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2006) p.169-179.
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
Service Looking for evidence of Ephraem as a compassionate and active deacon, we find that some of the scant details known about his life show him ministering in a pluralistic society not too dissimilar from our own experience of post-Christian cities. We can also detect similar needs for diaconal ministry in, for example, spreading Catholic Christian belief plainly in the face of apathy or rejection and tending to the needs of migrants. The Catholic Church in Nisibis, into which Ephraem was baptised, was either ignored by the many non-Christians and pagans or harried, to one extent of another, by rival claimants to orthodoxy. Ephraem’s need to write and speak so firmly in defence of Nicene Catholicism may mirror, not so much our experience today, but a possible near future scenario where the internet coverage and financial superiority of Evangelical Protestantism may well need more active challenge. Today’s widespread and media-encouraged comprehensive rejection of Christian truth because of the assumed necessity of belief in the literal truth of creation as described in Genesis, for example, is surely a product of unchallenged Christian fundamentalism. Ephraem’s response to disunity and challenge was to teach Catholic faith actively, beyond the walls of his church, simply and in innovative ways. A second feature of Ephraem’s experience not dissimilar from our own is the impact of migration in both Nisibis and Edessa. Not only was Nisibis, as a frontier town, subjected to periodic attack by Persians, but asylum seekers from surrounding areas, foreign traders and travellers made up a major part of the population. There is evidence that Ephraem was active in the Christian community responding both at times of siege and to the needs of migrants. Indeed, after the ceding of Nisibis to the Persians, the
whole Christian community was forced into exile eventually settling in Edessa. Ephraim was among the refugees and, once in Edessa, became a major figure in the settling of the community and the building up of the Christian community there. Ephraem’s exposure to the suffering of others through the various sieges of Nisibis and as an asylum seeker having to settle in a new country and city, may account for his focus on the healing power of Christ. Certainly his works show both human compassion and a deep awareness of the links between physical/mental suffering and spiritual dis-ease. In this way, he shows both evidence of a diaconal spirit and insight far beyond his contemporaries, comparable with our own understanding of the roots of much depression and some mental illness. In his commentary on the curing of the woman in Luke 8, Ephraem writes: If the afflicted woman had been healed and had gone away secretly…she too would have become spiritually sick, although bodily healed. Even if she believed that he was a Righteous man because He had healed her, she would have doubted that He was God, because He would not have been aware [of her]…So that the mind of the one who had been healed in her body might not be sick, He took care also with regard to the healing of her mind…This is why He asked “Who touched my garments?”. He revealed that someone had definitely touched Him, but He did not want to reveal who it was that had touched him….[I]t was [precisely] that people might profess the truth that He did this28. Hence the healing was incomplete at merely the physical level. Mental and spiritual health was also the gift of Christ and came
28 Shemunkasho p.259/260; from Ephraem’s Commentary on the Diatesseron 7.6 New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
Tony Schmitz
International Theological Commission through the woman being helped to faith. A link here to the diaconal service of catechesis, so clearly a major part of Ephraem’s life. So much detail of Ephraem’s life is lost, but the last we hear of his diaconal service is that he died in 373 as a result of his caring for the sick during one of the periodical plagues that ran through Edessa. Ephraem’s service to the Church is far from over. Indeed, maybe some of his experience and teaching is becoming more pertinent as we move into the twenty-first century. His theology of creation is sacramental in character. The interconnectedness of everything because of creation, led him to see the relationship of humanity to nature and the importance of our attitude to the environment. In this way Ephraem stands as a significant Christian voice, equal or greater even than that other deacon saint, Francis of Assisi, in current and future ecological debate. In his 5th Paradise hymn Ephraem writes: In his book Moses29 described the creation of the natural world, so that both the natural world and his book might testify to the Creator: the natural world, through humanity’s use of it, the book, through his reading of it. Ephraem considered nature and Scripture as twin sources of revelation. Ephraim’s understanding of the centrality of the right use of our free will is important here. The right use of free will involves wonder at, gratitude for, and stewardship of, creation, whereas the wrong use of free will leads to greed, misuse and exploitation30.
and goodness of the human body is relevant to twenty-first century re-appraisal of the theology of the body through the teaching of John Paul II. This is because Ephraem, as a Syrian Christian, is not effected by Greek dualism and so stands in refreshing contrast to the disdain-forthe-body character of much Early Christian (and later) spiritual writing deriving from Gnostic thought. Ephraem writes31: If our Lord had despised the body as something unclean or hateful and foul, then the Bread and the cup of Salvation should also be something hateful and unclean to these heretics; for how could Christ have despised the body yet clothed himself in the Bread, seeing that bread is related to that feeble body. And if he was pleased with dumb bread, how much more so with the body endowed with speech and reason? To Ephraem, the body and the soul are equally important, but with different roles: The body gives thanks to You because You created it as an abode for Yourself, the soul worships You because You betrothed it to Your coming.32 Perhaps a current and future service of Ephraem to the Church is to support, from an Early Church, non-dualistic viewpoint, the development of both a theology of ecology and the renewed theology of the body. Valuable work in linking Ephraem to modern thinking on both has yet to be undertaken. ■
Ministry of Deaconesses I
n the apostolic period, the various forms of diaconal assistance women afforded the Apostles and their communities would appear to have had an institutional character. Thus Paul commends “our sister Phoebe, the servant (hé diakonos) of the Church at Cenchreae” to the community at Rome (cf. Rom 16.1-4). Although the masculine form of diakonos is used here, we cannot from this conclude that the term is already being used here to designate the specific function of a “deacon”; firstly, because in this context, diakonos still means servant in a very general sense and, secondly, because the word “servant” is not given a feminine ending, but is rather preceded by the feminine definite article. What seems certain is that Phoebe has performed a service in the community at Cenchreae, a service that was recog-
What seems certain is that Phoebe has performed a service in the community at Cenchreae, a service that was recognised and subordinate to the ministry of the Apostle nised and subordinate to the ministry of the Apostle. Elsewhere in Paul’s writings, secular authorities are themselves called diakonos (Rom 13.4) and in 2 Cor 11.14 to 15, there is even a reference to the diakonoi of the devil.
Again, Ephraem’s teaching on the value 29 For many centuries it was believed that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch 30 Cf. Brock, S pp 164-168 31 Hymns against Heresies 43, quoted in Brock S, p.37 32 Hymns against Heresies 17, quoted in Brock S, p.38
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Exegetes are divided on the subject of 1 Tim 3:11. The mention of “women”, fol-
The NDR presents the next instalment of a fresh and complete translation of the International Theological Commission’s important research document Le Diaconat: Évolution et Perspectives, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 2003. The German, Greek and Latin footnotes are translated for the first time. Deacon Tony Schmitz is Director of Studies of the national diaconate formation programme for the Diaconate Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and co-editor of the New Diaconal Review. The following is the fourth part of the Second Chapter. lowing the reference to deacons, could suggest either women-deacons (through the parallel presentation of “similarly”), or else the spouses of deacons, already referred to earlier. In this epistle we find not a description of deacons’ functions, but only the conditions for their admission to the diaconate. It says that women should neither teach nor manage men (1 Tim 2, 8-15). But governance and teaching functions were in any case always reserved to the episcopate (1 Tim 3,5) and to presbyters (1 Tim 5,17), and not to deacons. Widows constituted a recognised group in the community from whom they received assistance in exchange for their commitment to continence and prayer. 1 Tim 5, 3-16 insists on the conditions for enrolment on the list of widows to receive aid from the community and is silent about any further functions. Later on, they were officially “instituted”, but “not ordained”;58 they would constitute an “order” in the Church,59 and would never have any mission beyond good example and prayer. A letter from Pliny the Younger, a governor of Bithynia, mentions two women, described by Christians as ministrae, the
58 The Apostolic Tradition 10; SCh 11 bis, 67. 59 Cf. Tertullian, To his Wife, 1,7,4 ; SCh 273; Exhortation to Chastity, 13,4; SCh 319. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Discovering St. Ephraem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church – Bill Burleigh
probable equivalent of the Greek diakonoi (X 96-97). It is not until the third century that we see the appearance of the specifically Christian terms diaconissa or diacona. From the third century onwards an ecclesial ministry specifically assigned to women called deaconesses is in fact attested to in certain regions of the Church60 – but not in all.61 This relates only to Eastern Syria and the city of Constantinople. It was towards 240 AD that a singular canonico-liturgical compilation, the Didascalia Apostolorum (DA), which had no official standing, first made an appearance. Here we find the bishop is endowed with all the traits of an omnipotent biblical patriarch (cf. DA 2,3335,3). He is at the head of a small community which he governs with the help of deacons and deaconesses above all. It is here that these latter first emerge in an ecclesiastical document. Following a typology borrowed from Ignatius of Antioch, the bishop holds the place of God the Father, the deacon holds the place of Christ, and the deaconess that of the Holy Spirit (the word for whom is feminine in Semitic languages), whilst the presbyters (who are seldom mentioned) represent the Apostles, and the widows represent the altar (DA 2,26,4-
Ministry of Deaconesses – Tony Schmitz
7). There is no question here of the ordination of these ministers. The Didascalia document puts an emphasis on the charitable role of both deacon and deaconess. The ministry of diakonia should appear as “a single soul in two bodies”. The diakonia of Christ who washed the feet of his disciples is its model. (DA 3,13,1-7). In respect of the functions performed, however, there is no strict parallelism between the two branches of the
... the bishop holds the place of God the Father, the deacon holds the place of Christ, and the deaconess that of the Holy Spirit (the word for whom is feminine in Semitic languages) diaconate. Deacons are chosen by the bishop “to take care of many necessary things”, whilst the deaconesses were chosen only “for the service of women” (DA 3,12,1). It was considered desirable that “the number of deacons be proportionate to size of the assembly of the people of the Church” (DA 3,13,1).62 Deacons adminis-
60 “C’est au limes oriental de l’Empire romain que nous voyons enfin apparaître des diaconesses: le premier document qui les présente et qui en est en quelque sorte l’acte de naissance, c’est la Didascalie des Apôtres … connue que depuis la publication en 1854 … de son texte syriaque … .” A.G. Martimort, Les diaconesses: Essai historique, Rome 1982, 31. “It is on the eastern limes of the Roman Empire that we finally see deaconesses emerging. The first document that specifically mentions deaconesses, one that, in a sense, constitutes their birth certificate as an ecclesial institution, is the document called the Didascalia of the Apostles … known since 1854 [when Paul de Lagarde published] its Syriac text … .” Idem., Deaconesses: an Historical Study, trans K D Whitehead, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1986, p. 35. 61 The most ample collection of all the testimonies in respect of this ecclesiastical ministry, with an accompanying theological interpretation, is that of Jean Pinius, De diaconissarum ordinatione, in: Acta Sanctorum, Sept.I, Antwerp, 1746, I–XXVII. Most of the Greek and Latin documents referred to by Pinius are reproduced by J. Mayer, Monumenta de viduis diaconissis virginibusque tractantia, Bonn 1938. Cf. R. Gryson, Le ministère des femmes dans l’Église ancienne (Recherches et synthèses), Gembloux 1972. 62 A norm resumed by the Constitutiones Apostolorum, III 19,1. On the origin of the professionalisation of the clergy, cf. G. Schöllgen, Die Anfänge der Professionalisierung des Klerus und das Kirchliche Amt in der Syrischen Didaskalie (JAC. Erg.-Vol. 26), Münster 1998.
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tered the goods of the community in the name of the bishop. Like the bishop, deacons were maintained at the community’s expense. Deacons are called the ear and mouth of the bishop (DA 2,44,3-4). Men faithful had to go through deacons to gain access to the bishop, whilst women faithful had to go through the deaconesses (DA 3,12,1-4). One deacon kept watch over admission to the place of meeting, whilst another attended the bishop at the Eucharistic Offering (DA 2,57,6). Deaconesses were charged with performing the bodily anointing of women in the course of the baptismal rite, with instructing women neophytes, and with visiting the women faithful, and especially the sick, in their homes. They were forbidden to administer baptism itself or to play any role in the Eucharistic Offering (DA 3,12,1-4). Deaconesses supplanted the widows. Bishops could still institute widows, but these widows were not allowed either to teach or to confer (female) baptism. It was theirs simply to pray (DA 3,5,1-3,6,2). The Constitutiones Apostolicorum, which appeared in Syria towards 380, used and interpolated the Didascalia, the Didache, as well as the Traditio Apostolica. These Constitutiones were to have a lasting influence on the discipline concerning ordinations in the East, even though they have never been considered to be an official canonical collection. The compiler of the
collection envisaged the imposition of hands along with an epiclesis of the Holy Spirit not only for bishops, presbyters and deacons, but also for deaconesses, subdeacons and lectors (cf. CA VIII 16-23).63 The notion of klèros is extended to all who exercised a liturgical ministry, who derived their livelihood from the Church and who enjoyed the civil privileges that imperial legislation afforded clerics. Thus deaconesses were considered as belonging to the clergy, whilst widows were excluded. Respectively, the bishop and presbyters are paralleled with the high priest and the priests of the Old Covenant, while all the other ministers and states of life – “dea-
Respectively, the bishop and presbyters are paralleled with the high priest and the priests of the Old Covenant, while all the other ministers and states of life – “deacons, lectors, cantors, porters, deaconesses, widows, virgins and orphans” correspond to the Levites cons, lectors, cantors, porters, deaconesses, widows, virgins and orphans” correspond to the Levites (CA II 26,3. CA VIII 1,21). Deacons were placed “at the service of the bishop and the presbyters” and should not encroach on the functions of
63 The compiler was attentive to the nuances of vocabulary. In CA II 11,3, he says: we do not allow presbyters to ordain (cheirotonein) deacons, deaconesses, lectors, servants, cantors or porters: that belongs to bishops alone. However, he reserves the term cheirotonia to the ordination of bishops, presbyters, deacons and subdeacons (VIII 4-5; 16-17; 21). He uses the expression epitithenai tas (tèn) cheira(s) for deaconesses and lectors (VIII 16,2; 17,2). He does not seem to want to give this expression differentiated meanings since all these impositions of hands are accompanied by an epiclesis of the Holy Spirit. For confessors, virgins, widows, exorcists he is quite specific that there is no question of cheirotonia (VIII 2326). In addition, the compiler distinguishes between cheirotonia and cheirothesia which is a gesture of simple benediction (cf. VIII 16,3 and VIII 28,2-3). Chirothésie could be performed by priests in the baptismal ritual, at the re-integration of penitents or at the blessing of catechumens (cf. II 32,3; II 18,7; VII 39,4). New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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the latter.64 The deacon could proclaim the Gospel and could lead the prayer of the assembly (CA II 57,18), but only the bishop and presbyters did the exhortations (CA II 57,7). Admission to the functions of deaconesses was done by an epithesis cheirôn or an imposition of hands that conferred the Holy Spirit,65 as was done for lectors (CA VIII 20. 22). The bishop pronounces the following prayer: “Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of man and woman, who filled Myriam, Deborah, Anne, Hulda with your Spirit; who did not deem it unworthy for your Son, the OnlyBegotten, to be born of a woman; who in the tent of testimony and in the temple instituted women guardians of your sacred doors; look now upon your servant here before you, proposed for the diaconate; grant her the Holy Spirit and purify her of every defilement of flesh and spirit so that she may perform the office entrusted to her worthily, for your glory and to the praise of your Christ, through whom be glory and adoration to you, in the Holy Spirit, for all ages. Amen.66 Deaconesses were named before the subdeacon, who, in his turn, received a cheirotonia like the deacon (CA VIII 21), whilst the virgins and widows could not be “ordained” (VIII 24-25). The Constitutiones insist that deaconesses should have no liturgical function (III 9, 1-2), but they broaden their functions in the community as “service to the women” (CA III 16.1) and as intermediaries between women and the bishop. It is still stated that they represent the Holy Spirit, but they “do nothing with-
Ministry of Deaconesses – Tony Schmitz
out the deacon” (CA II 26.6). They must stand at the women’s entrance at the meetings (II 57,10). Their functions are summarised as: “The deaconess does not bless and she does nothing that presbyters and deacons do, but she keeps vigil at the doors, and she assists the presbyters in the course of the baptism of women, for the sake of decency.” (CA VIII 28.6) This observation is echoed by the almost contemporary Epiphanius of Salamis in the Panarion in about 375: “There is certainly an order of deaconesses in the
“The deaconess does not bless and she does nothing that presbyters and deacons do, but she keeps vigil at the doors, and she assists the presbyters in the course of the baptism of women, for the sake of decency.” Church, but this exists not for exercising sacerdotal functions, nor for being entrusted with some enterprise, but for the preservation of decency of the feminine sex at the time of baptism.”67 A law of 21 June Theodosius 390, revoked on 23rd August that same year, set at sixty the age for admission to the ministry of deaconess. The Council of Chalcedon (canon 15) reduced the age to forty, whilst also pro-
64 Cf. CA III 20,2; VIII 16,5; VIII 28, 4; VIII 46,10-11. 65 Canon 19 of the Council of Nicaea (325) could be interpreted not as refusing the imposition of hands on all deaconesses in general, but as the simple statement that the deaconesses of the party of Paul of Samosata did not receive the imposition of hands, and “were anyway counted as amongst the laity”, and that they needed to be re-ordained after being re-baptised, like the other ministers of this dissident group returning to the Catholic Church. Cf. G. Alberigo, Les conciles oecuméniques, t. II, 1 Les Décrets, Paris 1994, 54. 66 Constitutiones Apostolorum, VIII, 20, 1-2; SCh 336; Metzger, 221-223. 67 Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion haer. 79,3,6, éd. K.Holl, GCS 37, 1933, p. 478.
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hibiting subsequent marriage.68
contract marriage after this ordination.
Even in the fourth century, the way of life of deaconesses approximated that of nuns. At that time the head of a monastic community of women was called a deaconess, as is testified by Gregory of Nyssa, amongst others.69 Upon ordination as abbesses of female monasteries, deaconesses wore the maforion or veil of perfection. Until the sixth century, they still assisted women in the baptismal pool and for the accompanying anointing. Although they did not serve at the altar, they were able to distribute communion to women who were sick. When the practice of anointing the whole body at baptism was abandoned, deaconesses were simply consecrated virgins who took a vow of chastity. They lived either in monasteries or at home. The condition for admission was virginity or widowhood and their activity consisted of charitable and health-related care of women.
In eighth century Byzantium, the bishop still used to impose hands on deaconesses and conferred on her the orarion or stole (both strips of which were worn at the front, one over the other); he gave her the chalice which she placed on the altar, without communicating anyone. The deaconess was ordained in the course of the Eucharistic liturgy, in the sanctuary, like deacons.70 Despite the similarities between the rites of ordination, deaconesses did not have access to the altar or to any liturgical ministry. These ordinations were intended especially for the superiors of monasteries of women.
At Constantinople, the best-known of the deaconesses of the fourth-century was Olympias, the superior of a monastery of women, who was a protegé of St John Chrysostom and who had put her property at the service of the Church. She was “ordained” (cheirotonein) deaconess along with three of her companions by the patriarch. Canon 15 of the Council of Chalcedon (451) seems to confirm the fact that the deaconesses were actually “ordained” by the imposition of hands (cheirotonia). Their ministry was called leitourgia and they were no longer allowed to
In the West, it should be noted, there is no trace of any deaconesses for the first five centuries. The Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua prescribe that women catechumens and their preparation for baptism be entrusted
Despite the similarities between the rites of ordination, deaconesses did not have access to the altar or to any liturgical ministry to the widows and nuns “chosen ad ministerium baptizandarum mulierum”.71 Certain fourth and fifth century Councils reject any ministerium feminae72 and prohibit any ordination of a deaconess.73 According to the Ambrosiaster (composed
68 Cf. G. Alberigo, Les conciles oecuméniques. Les Décrets, t. II/1, Paris 1994, 214. 69 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St Macrina 29,1; SCh 178; Maraval, 236-237. 70 Byzantine Ritual of Ordination of Deaconesses: Euchologe du manuscrit grec Barberini 336, in: Vatican Library, ff 169R-17/v. cited by J.-M. Aubert, Des femmes diacres (Le Point Théologique 47), Paris 1987, 118-119. 71 Cf. Canon 100 (Munier 99). Additionally, women “even holy and well-instructed ones” are expressly prohibited from instructing and baptizing men (cf. can. 37. 41; ibid. 86). 72 Council of Nimes (394/6), can. 2. Cf. J. Gaudemet, Conciles gaulois du IVe siècle (SCh 241), Paris 1977, 127-129. 73 Council of Orange 1 (441), can. 26. New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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in Rome at the end of the fourth century), the female diaconate was restricted to Montanist heretics.74 In the sixth century, women admitted into the group of widows were sometimes referred to as deaconesses. To avoid any confusion, the Councils of Epaone prohibited “the consecration of widows who call themselves deaconesses”.75 The Second Council of Orléans (533) decided to exclude from communion women who had “received the blessing for the diaconate despite the canons forbidding this and who had remarried”.76 Abbesses, or the spouses of deacons, were also called diaconissae, by analogy with presbyterissae or even episcopissae.77 This present historical overview shows that a ministry of deaconesses did indeed exist and that it developed unevenly in different parts of the Church. It seems clear that this ministry was not perceived as simply the feminine equivalent women of the masculine diaconate. Nonetheless, at
Ministry of Deaconesses – Tony Schmitz
the very least it was an ecclesial function, exercised by women, sometimes mentioned before that of the sub-deacon in the list of ministries of the Church.78 Was this
... it was an ecclesial function, exercised by women, sometimes mentioned before that of the sub-deacon in the list of ministries of the Church ministry conferred by an imposition of hands comparable to that by which the episcopate, the presbyterate and the masculine diaconate were conferred? The text of the Consitutiones Apostolorum might seem to suggest so, but this is practically
74 Cf. ed. H.I. Vogels, CSEL 81/3, Vienna 1969, 268. 75 Council of Epaone (517), can. 21 (C. de Clercq, Concilia Galliae 511-695, CCL 148A, 1963, p. 29). The blessings of women as deaconesses was able to become widespread because the Rituals did not provide for the blessings of widows, as the Second Council of Tours had reason to recall (567), can. 21 (ibid. 187). 76 Ibid. 101. 77 Cf. The Second Council of Tours, can. 20 (ibid. 184). 78 Numerous commentators have followed the lead of Ambrosiaster in his Commentary on 1 Tim 3,11 (CSEL 81,3; G.L. Müller [Hg.], Der Empfänger des Weihesakraments. Quellen zur Lehre und Praxis der Kirche, nur Männern das Weihesakrament zu spenden, Würzburg 1999, 89): “But the Cataphrygians, seizing the occasion of their fall into error, on the pretext that Paul addressed women after addressing the deacons, upheld their audacious folly that deaconesses should also be ordained. They know however that the Apostles chose seven deacons (cf. Acts 6,1-6); is it to be supposed that at that point of time no suitable woman could be found, when we read that there were holy women in the milieu of the Eleven Apostles (cf. Acts 1,14)? ( ... ) And Paul orders women to keep silence in church (cf. 1 Cor 14,34-35).” See also John Chrysostom, In I. Tim hom. 11; PG 62, 555; Epiphanius, Haer. 79,3 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 88); Council of Orange (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 98); Council of Dovin (Armenia, 527): “It is not permitted for women to discharge the offices of deaconess except for their ministry in baptism” (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 105); Isidore of Seville, De eccl. off. II, 18, 11 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 109). Decretum Gratiani, can. 15 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 115); Magister Rufinus, Summa Decretorum, can. 27, q. 1 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 320); Robert of Yorkshire, Liber poenitentialis, q. 6, 42 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 322); Thomas Aquinas, In I. Tm III,11 (G.L. Müller, Quellen, 333); etc..
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the only witness to this and its interpretation is the subject of intense debate.79 Should the imposition of hands on dea-
Should the imposition of hands on deaconesses be equated to that on deacons, or is it rather on the same level with the imposition of hands on sub-deacons and lectors? conesses be equated to that on deacons, or is it rather on the same level with the
imposition of hands on sub-deacons and lectors? It is difficult to determine the issue on the basis of historical data alone. In the chapters that follow some items will be clarified and some other questions will remain open. In particular, a chapter will be devoted to examining more closely how the Church through her theology and her magisterium has become more conscious of the sacramental reality of Holy Orders, in its three degrees. But before that, it is appropriate to examine the causes which led to the disappearance of the permanent diaconate in the life of the Church. ■
79 Cf. P. Vanzan, Le diaconat permanent féminin. Ombres et lumières, in: Documentation Catholique 2203 (1999) 440-446. The author refers to the discussions which have taken place between R. Gryson, A.G. Martimort, C. Vagaggini, C. Marucci. Cf. L. Scheffczyk (ed.), Diakonat und Diakonissen, St. Ottilien 2002, and in particular M. Hauke, Die Geschichte der Diakonissen. Nachwort und Literaturnachtrag zur Neuauflage des Standardwerkes von Martimort über die Diakonissen, p. 321-376.
Joint National Assembly of Deacons in England and Wales &
International Conference, International Diaconate Study Centre North European Circle Friday 24th June – Sunday 26th June 2011
St Mary’s University College, Twickenham Confirmed visitors and speakers so far include Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Professor William Cavanaugh, author of Torture and Eucharist
Price: £180 / = C190 with a discount for married couples. More details from... ashleybeck88@hotmail.com ... or from ... www.diaconate.org New Diaconal Review Issue 5
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Ministry of Deaconesses – Tony Schmitz
Report
Assembly of Delegates of the International Diaconate Study Centre by Deacon Erik Thouet, Director of the IDC/IDZ
ing to hear these experiences from very different backgrounds.
The IDC held an Assembly of Delegates from 14 – 16 September 2010 in the beautiful city of Barcelona (Spain).
The “International Information Centre” for questions on the diaconate was founded in 1965 in Rome during an International Study Conference on the “Deacon in the Church and World of today”. In 1969 it was reorganised and renamed as “Internationales Diakonatszentrum” (IDZ) – International Diaconate Centre (IDC).
11 delegates from 10 different countries (Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Finland, Scotland, India, Germany) were able to take part. We met at a monastery of Benedictine nuns. They supported our meeting with their great hospitality, their prayer and beautiful singing. The very good food came mostly from their own organic garden. We were very honoured that Cardinal Dr. Lluís Martínez Sistach came to celebrate the Eucharist with us and to express his great support for the diaconate. The main topic of our meeting was the need for further internationalisation and regionalisation of the IDC. It was quite clear that we want to strengthen the regions (CIDAL, IDC – NEC, IDC IMBISA) and that each region has to find their own structure and way of working according to their culture and specific needs. At the same time we need to ensure that they are closely connected with the IDC as a whole. It was decided to invite all members of the IDC to take part in an extraordinary General Assembly to be held in Frankfurt (Germany) on the 8th of October 2011. All the delegates gave reports on current developments from their countries or regions. It was very interesting and enrich60
At present the IDC has only about 750 members. In the UK there are 37 members, in Ireland 2, in Canada 8, in the USA 64. There is a big change taking place at the moment. Many of the pioneers of the deacons who were ordained in the ‘60s or ‘70s of the last century have died or are no longer involved. If we want to enlarge the number of members in the future, we have to especially attract the new generation of deacons across the globe to join our international network. Remember – at last there are 37,000 deacons around and their number is constantly rising. That is the way the IDC can and will grow: through personal encounters and friendship, through being dedicated to the same cause in different countries – in a spirit of solidarity and love. If you wish to contact Erik with reactions to this report please contact him at the International Diaconate Centre (IDC) Postfach 9, D 72101 Rottenburg. E-Mail: ethouet@bo.drs.de Website: http://idz.drs.de
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