The Deacon's Bench
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The role of deacons in the Church will be discussed by an international ecumenical gathering in Regina, Canada, next year, in a programme bringing together Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Catholics. The Revd Canon Michael Jackson, a deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada, described the gathering as “an academic conference about the diaconate” and said: “We hope lots of deacons are going to come . . . but it’s a conference about the diaconate, and anyone who’s interested in the diaconate is welcome to attend.”
The Anglican-Roman Catholic-Ukrainian Catholic Conference on the Diaconate will take place from May 10 to 13 next year at Campion College in the University of Regina. It is being sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of Qu’Appelle and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. Speakers and panellists from Canada, the US, England, and Scotland will address the liturgical role of deacons, women and the diaconate, the prophetic role of the deacon, and relationships between deacons and other ordained ministers.
Related: Details on 2018 Deacon Congress in New Orleans
Jackson has served as an Anglican deacon for four decades, and is the longest-serving deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada. He is the Anglican co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Covenant Implementation Committee. He hopes that the conference would lead to a better awareness and understanding of the diaconate, which he described as a very “current topic” in light of the revival of the permanent diaconate in the Anglican and Catholic churches.
“The diaconate is still not fully understood in both our communions, and I hope we’re going to get a better theological basis for the diaconate, a better understanding of it, and what deacons can do and their potential in the church,” he said.
Photo: Sts. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church
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