| Trinity Church Pass Christian, MS |
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Deacon's Corner
| "God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely" 1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg 543 Ordination: Deacon |
A place to talk about
outreach ministry, liturgy,
scripture, tradition, and
your questions!
outreach ministry, liturgy,
scripture, tradition, and
your questions!
| What are deacons and what do they do? A deacon is a member of one of four orders of ministry in the church. The four orders are; Laity, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Deacons belong to the Diaconate which is an ordained order within the church. The word Deacon is taken from the Greek word Diakoneo which means "servant". Hence the Diaconate is often called the "Servant Ministry". As quoted from the Book of Common Prayer above, Deacons work out in the world among the poor, weak, sick and marginalized in life. The Deacon brings the concerns of the world to the church to help the church respond with ministry as means to spread the Gospel, or Good News of Jesus Christ. Liturgically, the deacon proclaims the Gospel to the congregation as his/her ministry proclaims it in the world. The Deacon sets the altar for communion and clears the altar afterwards, much as a servant at a meal would do. The Deacon offers the Dismissal to lead the the congregation out into the world. Based on local custom, Deacons also lead the Prayers of the People and the General Confession. At the Great Vigil of Easter Mass, the Deacon carries the new Paschal Candle into the church, chanting "The Light of Christ" and censes the new candle and then sings the "Exsultet", a hymn of praise for the Paschal Candle and the Risen Lord |
| Outreach Ministry: The World is a big place and it is full of problems from one end to the other. A common question is; "How can my little outreach efforts make a difference in such a broken world"? Answer: God does not call us to solve the problems of the world. He calls us to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and part of our witness to the Gospel is serving others. In serving others we give them the opportunity to see the Gospel in action, to be recipients of God's unconditional love. We create a nexus, or a place, where Christ's redemptive work of the cross can be brought to bear in personal and unique situations. We should always be aware that at those times we least expect it, someone may be watching us and learning and being led by our actions, our words, or our quiet presence into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a life altering redemptive relationship where they may experience true love and true peace for the first times in their lives. |
| Trinity Church Pass Christian, MS |
| Trinity Church Pass Christian, MS |
The Rev. Warren B. Mueller, deacon
| Please remember to pray for Dr. Chris Feuillade, our full-time missionary in Santiago De Chile, Chile S.A. Click here to see information about his ministry at Iglesia Del Salvador! |
| In a recent adult Sunday School class which is exploring the tenets of Anglican Faith the question came up about God, and does He know all the future like He knows all the past, particularly if He is the unchanging uncreated God who resides outside of time? This is a most interesting question which has challenged the great theologians down through the ages. It is also a topic that has recently received an assist from science as new research shapes thought in this area of inquiry. Classical Physics gave us what is known as the Deterministic World. That is, from events of the past we can determine what the future will be. For example, if I hit a baseball in a certain way, I can calculate, or determine where it will fall. Theologically, we expected God, living outside of time, to be the master at this exercise having already calculated all these future outcomes for us. But then along came Quantum Mechanics, which proposes that nothing in the future is nailed down by what happened in the past. A current event looks forward to an infinite number of future possibilities which have different probabilities of occurring. For instance when I get up in the morning there is a certain probability I will make coffee (very high probability) or I won't (rather small probability). Once I make a move either way, the probability of that event goes to 100% and the probability of all the other events collapses to zero. Theologically, some have proposed that God is also looking at all those future probabilities and as soon as an event occurs He then looks forward now to all the new future outcomes and their probabilities, ad infinitum. Does God really work this way? Well, we don't know. But having been created in His image, it has been proposed long ago that we might come to know more about Him by knowing more about ourselves and the world we live in. |
| Please keep Gloria Dei Episcopal Church in Cocoa, FL in your prayers as they discern a path forward with the global Anglican Communion. Their rector is Fr. Paul Young. |
| Do the current controversies in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion really matter to a Deacon? After all, if you read the description above of what a deacon is and what they do within the order of the church, you might be tempted to say no. After all, the hungry are still hungry, and so the lonely, the sick, and the unchurched. Whatever the church may decide or not decide, these people still have needs and they are part of the harvest of ministry that a deacon is called to lead. While I have every sympathy with that answer and at times fall into that mode of thinking myself, the fact of the matter is that the analysis is flawed and the answer is wrong. The deacon brings the needs of the world to the church so that the church can respond. But, we are not another social service agency or another non-profit. We are the earthly body of Christ and we have been charged with a special mission. To spread the Gospel or the Good News of Christ to the world which is so in need of hearing it and coming to Christ. And so there is the rub. What is it we are going to spread? Are we going to spread the true Gospel, in which the central character is Jesus, the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the central character in the New Testament, or are we going to spread a Gospel which reflects modern thinking and modern social norms; a Gospel that elevates the needs of the one over the true message of scripture and substitutes issues of Justice for the need of Redemption for all? The one thing I actually learned in Psych 101 was something called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This theory claims that we cannot think or ponder higher order needs like spirituality, or the meaning of life, until lower order needs such as food, water, shelter, and safety (among others) have been satisfied. As deacons, we see a lot of people who have these basic needs and we have probably learned that you can't make much headway with the Gospel until people's bellies are full or their rent is paid up, etc. When we have people stabilized to that point then we have the opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. And sometimes there are some difficult parts of the Gospel we might have to talk about. For example, if you are dealing with folks in drug or alcohol abuse, we are forced into taking a hard line that these things are not okay. Yes we can assure people that "Jesus loves you for who you are, but if you are going to truly follow him, you are going to have to pick up your cross in order to be worthy of Him (Mt. 10:38) or to be counted as one of His disciples (Lk. 14:6)". We are all sinners each and every one. We can come to the meal of Holy Communion and worthily take the bread and wine (body and blood) when we have confessed our sins and turned to lead a new life following the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. |
| Why Cell Phones Should Be Turned OFF in Church! I recently saw someone intently looking at their email messages on their cell phone on their way into church. I gently tapped them on the shoulder and reminded them to turn the phone off before they walked into the sanctuary. Their reply to me was “oh, I don’t have to do that, I can put it on vibrate” as they strolled on in to take a seat. As I later considered what that person said to me, it dawned on me that perhaps that person did not know why I had asked them to turn the phone off. Then it further dawned on me that perhaps other parishioners might not know why the clergy ask them to please turn off their cell phones. I am going to guess that you might think we ask you to turn off your phones because we don’t want you to disturb the worship service or we don’t want you to disturb the congregation during worship with your phone ringing. If that is your thinking, then you are about 25% correct. If that is all that the clergy cared about, we could indeed just tell everyone to put their phones on vibrate or in some other silent mode. But to believe this reason is to wildly miss the mark of why we insist that people TURN OFF your cell phones: we ask you turn them off because we care about YOUR SALVATION! Yep, you read that right, we care about your salvation. Let’s say you put your phone on vibrate. Whether it is connected to you (men) or hidden in your purse (women), you will be cognizant of its little vibrations as an email or call comes in. This will distract you from worship, no doubt about it, and research has demonstrated that people do not synch back up with their original activity when so interrupted. Now, let’s say you really have put your phone in silent mode. Somewhere in your brain, you still know it is on and receiving. You might wonder whether any messages have come in. You might be tempted to sneak a peak to see. In either case, you are distracted just like the example above. Only by turning the phone electrically off are you freed from its constant beckoning for your attention! Okay, so you may be wondering what in the world all this has to with your salvation? Recall from basic theology that God created us so we could worship him. He wants all of our attention and adoration. Jesus experienced the distractions of the world, so God knows we can’t be 24/7 for Him. But dear people in Christ, if you can’t give ONE HOUR of your life per week totally over to Christ in worship of Him, His Father, and the Holy Spirit then I pray you will ponder seriously about your commitment to God and your hope for salvation. You can hide the cell phone from the pesky clergy, but God knows full well who hasn’t turned it off. What He thinks of that will be revealed to you at some point in your future. |
| Pentecost |
|
| What does Scripture say about the works of the Holy Spirit? |