Welcome to the Fellowship of Deacons
The Fellowship of Deacons of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) is a network for distinctive (permanent) deacons, ordinands and enquirers, and for clergy working with distinctive deacons. This website is the voice of the Fellowship, a place for distinctive deacons to find resources and examples of good practice, ask questions and get news of Fellowship activities. The Fellowship is a recognised organisation of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
The mission of the ACSA Fellowship of Deacons is to give support to deacons and to promote the full restoration and growth of the diaconate as a distinctive vocation (a vocation in its own right) of diakonia in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa at parish, diocesan and provincial levels.
Its ministry is to enable and support distinctive deacons in diverse dioceses to grow in faith, love and hope, so that they are enabled to minister within the parish, the wider community and interdenominationally as servant leaders.
About the Fellowship of Deacons
The Fellowship of Deacons was instituted in 2015 at a conference of deacons held in Grahamstown (Makhanda). The Fellowship grew out of a Diocese of the Highveld Fellowship of Deacons initiated by Deacon Gwynne Lawlor, who had been ordained as a distinctive deacon in 2012.
Subsequently, the Fellowship was granted recognition as an organisation of the Anglican Church and permanent deacons gained representation on the Provincial Standing Committee. The Fellowship had two more successful conferences in 2016 and 2018 (the latter which approved a Constitution).
With the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns the organisation went into something of a period of hibernation and is still emerging from this destructive period and has not yet been able to hold another conference. It has a small but active executive committee. However, the Fellowship's efforts were successful in prompting the Archbishop's setting up of a Commission on the ministry of the distinctive and permanent diaconate in 2022. The report of this commission has been accepted and is now available on the ACSA website.
The report findings identified a lack of understanding of the Diaconate, that has severely hampered the diaconal ministry of the deacon at parish, and diocesan levels. It has demonstrated in several instances, a number of negative perceptions and limited understanding that has grown within the Church, with limited knowledge or understanding of this ancient order of ministry.
These obstacles affect clergy, Fellowships of Vocation, layministers, and laity and are largely based on three things:
- a lack of understanding of the distinctive vocation of a permanent (and usually non-stipendiary) vocational deacon and its theological and ecclesiastical basis (as well as its practical usefulness in our time)
- The negative impression created by the dominance and perpetuation of the transitional diaconate as a probational period before being ordained to the priesthood. A person still remaining a deacon, in the eyes of the laity and many clergy, is seen as indicating that the person is not good enough to be priested, if not having moral and work failings.
- This lack of understanding severely hampers the servant ministry of the deacon, to which every distinctive deacon is called, that of Jesus who came “not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:43-45) and commanded his followers to do the same. John 13:13-17 is often referred to as defining the role of the deacon, with Jesus’ kneeling to wash the feet of his disciples, but his command is that everyone should wash one another’s feet: “ You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Communications from the Fellowship
The Fellowship has a mailing list. If you wish to receive occasional communications and newsletters from the Fellowship, please complete the mailing list form.
Joining the Fellowship
If you wish to join the Fellowship of Deacons, please complete the membership form.
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