Some people in our local Church community fear that an increase in the number of deacons might "…lead to an over clericalisation of the Church and obscure the call of all the baptised to ministry" (Fr R Egar, SA Catholic, Nov., 1996).  This fear is very real for some of our priests and people, and yet it fails to show an appreciation for the ministry of deacons.  Pope John Paul II reminds us that "deacons can in no way diminish the role of lay people called and willing to co-operate in the apostolate … On the contrary, the deacon’s tasks include that of promoting and sustaining the apostolic activities of the laity" (L’Osservatore Romano, October 20, 1993).

The ministry of a deacon as a servant or ambassador of charity is a different ministry to that of a priest.  This difference between the ministry of priests and deacons was clearly expressed recently by Cardinal Clancy (Archbishop of Sydney, Australia), who writes:

"There is much confusion about the role of the permanent deacon. Many see him as a kind of 'mini-priest', or 'almost-priest'. One can understand that, because the Sacrament of Orders does in fact make the candidate a cleric, and his duties very significantly overlap those of the priest. In fact, he can do virtually all that a priest does except celebrate Mass and administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

"However, there is a further very important difference, and that is in terms of priority, orientation and perspective.

"The priest is primarily called to the service of worship and sanctification through the administration of the Sacraments and the proclamation of the Word. His service of charity in the world, and especially walking with his people in their pilgrimage through life, is an extension and a validation of his service in the sanctuary.

"The deacon, on the other hand, though truly an ordained minister, is primarily called to the service of charity in the world. His ministry in the sanctuary is an extension of his service to the world. He has a quite distinct and specific role in the Church which is not to be confused with that of the priest. The priest and the deacon represent two different poles, so to speak.

"In and from a sacramental context the deacon serves to remind and challenge all of the Church community that by reason of their Baptism they are all called to mission and service in the Church and in the world. In his special capacity, the deacon is at the forefront and the cutting edge of the serving and missionary community. In his ordained status he inspires, challenges and leads his brothers and sisters in serving others and proclaiming the Gospel - not from outside, but as one of them. The role of the deacon dissipates that confusion which promotes two erroneous tendencies: the one to clericalise the laity, the other to laicise or secularise the priesthood. The deacon serves to distinguish and protect the true identity of each."

It is abundantly clear from the documents of, and following, the Second Vatican Council that evangelisation and Christian ministry are the obligation of all the baptised. Since the Council, this obligation has been successfully and fruitfully taken up by many lay ministers in a diversity of areas within the Church.

Against this background, the diaconate can be seen as an unnecessary optional extra within the collaborative ministry performed by priests and lay ministers. The diaconate is almost never viewed or defined in its own right, but is always seen in the light and perspective of the priesthood. Consequently, the deacon is not seen as possessing a different ministry, but as an inferior minister vis-a-vis the priest who is the real ordained minister. This, together with the appropriate expansion of lay ministries, has led to deacons being seen as ‘over qualified lay people or under qualified priests.’

To quote the words of Lawrence Cross (Australian Catholic University), "a priest is not a deacon tadpole who metamorphosed into a frog, nor is a deacon almost a priest and not quite a lay person. The diaconate is one of the three sacred orders which make up the threefold ministry of the ecclesial hierarchy. It is not a stepping stone to any other order. It has its own specific content, which is to see that none is passed over in the daily distribution (Acts 6:1-6) and it springs from the very nature of the Church at the dawn of its history."

Neither the priest nor the lay minister should feel threatened by the diaconal ministry. The deacon is not a priest nor a lay minister. The ministry of the deacon is characterised by "diakonia" - a word which can be translated as 'service' or 'ambassadorship'.

Christian diakonia has a distinctive character, flowing as it does from a life committed to Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, informed by God's Word, made loving through prayer, and made humble through Christ like service.

While bishops, priests, and deacons all share in the ordained ministry, they do so in distinctive ways. Bishops are ordained for the ministry of pastoral oversight and governance of the local Church. Priests are ordained to collaborate with the bishops in a ministry of pastoral leadership and care for the Christian community. Deacons, however, in accord with the ancient tradition, are not ordained "unto the priesthood", but unto the "ministry of service."

The deacon's ministry is "to bring God's Word to believer and unbeliever alike, to preside over public prayer, to baptise, to assist at marriages and bless them, to give viaticum to the dying, and to lead the rites of burial. Once he is consecrated by the laying on of hands ... he will perform works of charity in the name of the bishop". Furthermore, the deacon is "to celebrate faithfully the liturgy of hours for the Church and for the whole world." (Ritual of Ordination of a Deacon).

A casual survey of the patristic Church reveals that the deacons were not assistants to the presbyters or primarily Church leaders, but rather they served the poor and the sick. Essentially, the deacon's task is to learn of the needs of the marginalised and neglected, and bring word of this to the community.

Deacons are not the only members of the Church to be involved in the ministry of service, but they are to be (in the words of Pope Paul VI) the "animators and promoters of the Church's service". Ultimately, the deacon is to be a visible reminder and witness to the local Church of what all the baptised should and must be about - the service of the least of our brothers and sisters (those who are most easily passed over).

It is in this task of stirring up, mobilising and summonsing the Church to works of charity and justice for the sake of those in need that we see the distinctive and central identity of the deacon. They are to exercise a "prophetic role" in making the Church aware of what we would very often rather not see. They are to shatter our complacency with the "ordinariness" of need and injustice, and motivate the Church to the life of service to which all the baptised are called.

"The deacon should indeed be a person who looks at the same circumstances we all look at, but who sees much more than appears to most. The deacon should be a person who can listen to what we all listen to among the voices and murmurs of humanity, but who hears more. Someone who grasps almost intuitively the dimension of need that routinely escapes our all-too-superficial hearing and sight." (US Bishops’ Committee on the Permanent Diaconate.)

Whilst many may argue that the diaconal ministry is irrelevant given the work of priests and lay ministers in the Church today, they are mistaken. The ordination to the diaconate of some of those who seek to render service to the needy on behalf of, and in the name of the Church, serves a number of important purposes asserts Barnett (1995):

1. Ordination declares that the deacon's ministry of service and ambassadorship is undertaken as a representative of the Church, and therefore, all the baptised.

2. The Church officially affirms that the things done in this ministry are expressions of her concerns.

3. In the ministry of many deacons, the concept of Christian ministry is broadened both in the eyes of the Church and of the world, bringing reality to the love the Church professes. The diaconate asserts that we who call ourselves by the name of Christ are called to be servants.

4. The symbol of diakonia is embodied and made real in areas that are meaningful to contemporary society. The Church is visibly reaching out into the world to care for the needs of all humanity.

5. The distinctive Christian workstyle and lifestyle of such deacons provides a model and witness to inform others of what it can mean to live and work as a Christian in the world today.

6. Symbolically, deacons by virtue of the diaconal office assert the unity of the "sacred" and the "secular," of all of life; another witness much needed in the midst of our fragmented world.

This in not to say that deacons do not have other legitimate ministries; proclaiming the Word of God, ministering at the Altar, and appropriate pastoral leadership are inherent in diaconal ministry. Yet what unites, focuses, and animates whatever else a deacon may do is his foremost commitment to be a sacramental sign of the Church's care for the needy in the name of Christ. Indeed, the liturgical ministry of the deacon should remind the Church of the intimate link between its’ worship of God and its’ service to the neglected and marginalised.

This link between the deacon's liturgical role and ministry of service is symbolised in the Eucharistic ritual, thus:

1. The deacon receives from the Chalice after having first ministered it to the people (General Instruction on the Roman Missal, no 137). In this way it is seen that the deacon is first the servant of the Eucharistic community.

2. At the conclusion of the Eucharist, it is the deacon who dismisses the people. The dismissal echoes the diaconal call to serve God and God's people, especially the poorest and weakest. Thus, the diaconal ministry within the liturgy returns the deacon and the assembly to ministry outside it.

The diaconal ministry is at the very heart of the Church's mission, as has been asserted by the reforms following Vatican II. For the Church to neglect to ordain deacons to minister as her ambassadors in the service of the weak and the marginalised (as a result of either social, economic, cultural or spiritual poverty or injustice), is for the Church to neglect her own apostolic heritage.

The image the Church presents of the deacon is that of a man standing at the edge or margin of both the Church and society. It is from that vantage point that the deacon invites those who are marginalised to meet Christ, and also invites the Church to make Christ present. In this way the deacon is truly the ambassador of Christ who brings the needy to the Church and the Church to the needy.