A discussion of the historical development of the order of deacons, its theological basis in the Western and Eastern Churches, and the relevance and significance of the diaconate for the Church in the twenty-first century.
Frederick C. (Fritz) Bauerschmidt is a deacon of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore (ordained 2007) and Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of several books, including Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason, and Following Christ (Oxford University Press), Catholic Theology: An Introduction (with James Buckley, Wiley Publishers), and The Deacon’s Ministry of Liturgy (Liturgical Press).
Anne Keffer was consecrated a Lutheran deaconess in 1964. As Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry, she served large urban congregations in Ontario and a rural team ministry in Nova Scotia. Receiving her MEd in Counselling, she was a university chaplain in Saskatchewan and Ontario. While she was the Executive Director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism in Saskatoon, she was called by the Deaconess Community, ELCA, to be its directing deaconess in Chicago, where she served for seven years.
Maylanne Maybee has been a deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada since 1978. She is an educator, social justice activist, ecumenist, and writer on the diaconate and ecclesiology. She was Principal of the Centre for Christian Studies, a theological school in Winnipeg for diaconal candidates, and is now Interim Principal at the United Theological College in Montreal. She edited and contributed to All Who Minister: New Ways of Serving God’s People (ABC Publishing, 2001).
George E. Newman, ordained to the Roman Catholic diaconate in 1987, served as Director of Diaconate Formation in Toronto from 1992 to 2002. He established a diaconate formation programme in the Diocese of St Catharines in 2003, retiring from this position in 2017. Deacon Newman currently assists Newman Theological College in Edmonton as instructor in diaconate programmes. He has assisted with the establishment of diaconate programmes in a number of dioceses.
Alison Peden was a medievalist at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, before moving to Scotland in 1990, where she taught at the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling. She trained in the Scottish Episcopal Church and at Edinburgh University for her ordination in 2002. When serving as Rector of Holy Trinity, Stirling, she became involved in the formation of ordinands. She was appointed Provincial Director of Ordinands in 2011, with oversight of recruitment and selection for ministry throughout the Scottish Episcopal Church.
