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What Does It Mean to Be a Distinctive Deacon in the Church of England Today? DPT Thesis

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What Does It Mean to Be a Distinctive Deacon in the Church of England Today? DPT Thesis Sorensen, Anna Katrine Elizabeth (2018) What does it mean to be a distinctive deacon in the Church of England today? DPT thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/30917/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] What does it mean to be a distinctive deacon in the Church of England today? https://www.facebook.com/everydaydeaconism The Rev’d Anna Katrine Elizabeth Sorensen, B A Hons, M Phil Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology Theology and Religious Studies School of Critical Studies University of Glasgow October 2018 Word count – 66,828 Abstract This thesis outlines the history of the distinctive diaconate within the Church of England, and the understanding of the diaconate contained with the Ordinal. It explores the experience of distinctive deacons within the Church of England today. It does so through interviews with a respondent cohort of sixteen distinctive deacons in active ministry. Secondly, this thesis explores the reasons why the distinctive diaconate has failed to grow and flourish. It does so by drawing attention to the ways in which the distinctive diaconate has been misused, and the inability of the Church hierarchy to act upon the recommendations of various reports that is has commissioned. It also explores the effect that collegial relationships, stipendiary status, and methods of deployment have had on this ministry. In its conclusion, this thesis presents an argument for the retention and development of the distinctive diaconate in the ministry of the Church of England. Table of Contents: Acknowledgements ................................................................................... 6 List of abbreviations .................................................................................. 7 1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 8 Missing Voices .................................................................................... 10 The influences of the New Testament and the Early Church .............. 14 The influence of Kaiserswerth ............................................................. 17 A Cinderella ministry .......................................................................... 20 2 Research Methods ................................................................................ 22 A trio of stories and a bricolage of methodologies .............................. 22 Reflexivity – my story ......................................................................... 24 Narrative Methodology – the distinctive deacons’ stories .................. 27 A meeting of methodology and theology ............................................ 31 Feminist Theology – a transformative methodology for the Church of England’s story .................................................................................... 33 The practical and ethical issues of data collection and use ................. 38 3 The Role of the Distinctive Deacon ..................................................... 43 A comparison with the Ordinal ........................................................... 43 The bishop’s officer ............................................................................. 69 Conclusions ......................................................................................... 70 4 A History of Lost Opportunities, Misuse and Lack of Support ........... 73 The Ordinals of 1550 and 1662 ........................................................... 74 Tractarianism and the diaconal ministry in the Church of England .... 76 The seesaw debate ............................................................................... 82 The 1980 Ordinal ................................................................................. 86 The ordination of women to the diaconate and its impact ................... 87 Theology which supported the continuing debate ............................... 89 The Common Worship Ordinal ........................................................... 94 Conclusions ......................................................................................... 95 5 The Abuse of the Diaconate ................................................................. 98 The ‘long diaconate’ ............................................................................ 99 The misuse of the diaconate by those opposed to the priesting of women ............................................................................................... 101 An invisible ministry ......................................................................... 105 Issues of discernment......................................................................... 108 Being pushed towards priesthood ...................................................... 116 Conclusions ....................................................................................... 120 6 Collegial Relationships ...................................................................... 123 Tradition ............................................................................................ 124 Ecumenical collegiality ..................................................................... 127 Lay colleagues ................................................................................... 129 Relating to bishops ............................................................................ 132 Priest colleagues ................................................................................ 135 Deacon colleagues ............................................................................. 141 Reader colleagues .............................................................................. 145 Conclusions ....................................................................................... 151 7 Deployment ........................................................................................ 155 The profile of deployed distinctive deacons ...................................... 157 Remuneration..................................................................................... 158 The Correlation between a range of factors (age, gender, family situation, educational or professional background, training pathway) and deployment, in the respondent cohort. ........................................................................................................... 160 Description of deployment from the respondent cohort .................... 163 The view of the respondent cohort about stipends for deacons ......... 173 Conclusions ....................................................................................... 179 8 The Conclusions ................................................................................. 184 What does it mean to be a distinctive deacon in the Church of England today?................................................................................................. 184 Is the retention of the distinctive diaconate justified? ...................... 187 Mapping the future ........................................................................... 191 A re-consideration of structures ....................................................... 191 Embracing the breadth of tradition in the Church of England ......... 193 Relating to the world-wide diaconate ............................................... 194 Per saltum ordination ....................................................................... 195 Moving forward ................................................................................. 196 Appendix A: A discussion of per saltum ordination. ........................... 198 Appendix B: A precis of an example of the re-appraisal of the diakon- root words by John Collins in 2002 ...................................................... 200 Appendix C: The description of a deacon’s ministry from the Common Worship Ordinal .................................................................................... 202 Appendix D: Basic statistics from the dioceses in the Provinces of York and Canterbury - active deacons, stipendiary status, those in sector ministry ................................................................................................ 203 Appendix E: Basic statistics from the dioceses in the Provinces of York and Canterbury - those in training and those in discernment for the distinctive diaconate ............................................................................. 204 Appendix F: Basic information about the respondent cohort at January 2015 ...................................................................................................... 205 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 206 Acknowledgements: I never intended to write a doctoral thesis. However, many of the best things that we do in life are the ones that we did not plan to do. Having embarked
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