Twenty-Nine New Deacons ordained for Diocese of London

Twenty-Nine new deacons were ordained for the Diocese of London at the annual Ordination ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral on Saturday 26 June. Ten women and nineteen men were ordained by the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.

The Rev Canon Martin Warner, Canon Pastor of St Paul’s Cathedral gave the sermon for the ordination. He told the congregation about a time when he was walking in Central London in his clerical gear and came across a group of punks. He shared his thoughts on how different they were in appearance, and pointed how dissimilar such things as their hair styles were. Surprisingly though, the Canon then went on to tell how there were also many similarities between them. They were all wearing black, and even wearing dog-collars (even though the punks’ were leather and had metal studs around it). A punk then gave a comment that Warner thought summed up his thoughts on London; “What are you like?”

“As we celebrate the ordination to the deaconate of these candidates who are our family, our friends, our work colleagues, our contemporaries from school or university, our brothers and sisters in Christ, this question is one to which we together and they particularly must give answer. They must tell what it means to be a deacon, that is servants, whose ministry is modelled on that of Jesus Christ. They must begin to do so by speaking about themselves, about Jesus, and about the world, and they must begin to enable those among whom they minister also to speak of these mysteries in whatever ways may be possible and appropriate,” said the Reverend.

Canon Martin Warner continued, “We share a world in which we are more closely related to each other than ever before. And in the international diversity of people for whom London is home the Church, by its very calling to be the gathering of the human race as the people of God, is committed to being composed of every part of that diversity. As we seek to respond to God’s calling of us, it is vital that in the exercise of every form of our ministry we strenuously encourage and support the participation of all who represent the diversity of our life.”

The Canon then appealed to the newly ordained Deacons to “Worship – never, please, be reduced to holding a service – worship is the activity and disposition of mind and spirit in which what is time-conditioned is lifted and presented in the eternal context of adoration of what is ever-greater than ourselves. This is how we become a people marked and seared by the burning holiness of God, whom we worship within the astonishing resonance we heard described in the reading from Isaiah. That resonance echoes from the heart of this and every Eucharist, as one calls to another, earth to heaven, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”

He proclaimed, "Worship is the inner dynamic of sacrifice and servant hood in the ministry of Jesus Christ. So it must also be the source of daily self-offering for those about to be ordained. But praise given to God in worship is not an activity that makes us remote from the world, or one that diminishes us in God’s presence. As Rowan Williams has recently observed: “Praise is about forgetting myself...so that the sheer beauty and radiance of something beyond myself comes alive to me.”

The Rev Canon Martin Warner concluded, "To this work of servant hood you are now sent, in the name of Jesus Christ whose ministry you share and extend on earth, and for the sake of those for whom he died. Love them as his. Love them with the understanding of your own humanity. Love them joyfully. Love them for themselves. Love, esteem, seek to understand, serve and suffer with this modern age. And as you stand on the brink of new ministry, and new identity, seeking to relate the eternal word of God to our complex modern world, remember that love is the meaning of His law. Worship is the distinctive quality of our life and work. And glory is the destiny to which the human race is called."

The new deacons will now go on to serve as curates for three years in London parishes. After the first year most will then be ordained as priests.