The United Church of Christ, over the past few years, has had a number of discussions and debates about revising and “fixing” the Manual on Ministry. The proposed changes have been controversial, particularly in the collapsing of the categories of licensed and commissioned ministers into one ordained minister category. This has been met with concern, and some derision.
I’m going to propose an alternative: an ordained diaconate.
My proposal is to create one order of ordained minister with two forms: the presbyter and the deacon. The presbyter (or elder?) would probably look like what most of think of when we consider a Protestant minister serving in a church today: primarily called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament within a local church or chaplaincy.
In my vision, an ordained diaconate would be intentionally bivocational, focused on the intersection of church and society, and be tied intimately into the life of our local churches
Let me expand on what I envision…
Continue reading “HOT TAKE: The United Church of Christ should have an ordained diaconate.”