Family backing ‘essential’ to deacons

Sydney
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Family backing ‘essential’ to deacons

Pictured, from left – top: Jim Phelan (Parramatta), Joe Formosa (Parramatta), Elaine Housen and Harry Housen (Broken Bay student); middle: Louis Azzopardi (Sydney), Brian Myers (Parramatta); front: Pat Phelan, Betty Formosa, Mary Myers

Permanent deacons from across Australia and New Zealand met in Adelaide recently for their third conference since they became an official part of the Australasian Church in the early 1970s.

More than 50 participants, mostly deacons and their wives, met at the Passionist Retreat Centre in Glen Osmond for the three-day conference, which was also attended by representatives of the Anglican and Uniting churches.

When the first conference was held in 1993 there were only 17 permanent deacons in the Catholic Church in Australia. Now there are more than 40, with 20 more deacons in training.

Deacon Roger O’Donnell, of the Canberra/Goulburn diocese, presented a report to the conference on draft guidelines for the permanent diaconate in Australia.

Speakers addressed aspects of the scriptural, sacramental, and historical approaches to understanding the diaconate.

Bill Harris of the Uniting Church told of the developmnent of the diaconate in his church.

Mike Ryan, one of two Catholic deacons in New Zealand, spoke on the developing diaconate program in his diocese.

Deacon Graeme Ramsden, military ordinariate, told of his experiences as one of the first chaplains in East Timor with the Australian Army.

Another highlight of the conference was the debut of We’ve Been Called, a song written especially for deacons.

Wives were not forgotten. A session was devoted to discussing their role in assisting their husbands’ ministry.

“The support wives and families give deacons is an essential element for their ministry to be effective,” said Deacon Brian Myers, who works as a full-time hospital chaplain for the Parramatta diocese.

“Without your wife by your side and supporting you, you’d be lost,” he said. “You’d feel very let down and very lonely.

“You’re always getting called out to things; there are weddings and other things on the weekends, and visiting people to prepare for weddings or funerals.

“The whole family has to support you or it can lead to marriage breakdowns.

“Priests don’t have that problem.”

Brian said the conference was most valuable for fostering the camaraderie among the deacons and for participants to hear of the many ministries in which deacons are working.

He became a permanent deacon in 1991. That was after “the Holy Spirit kicked (him) up the bum”.

“I was school teaching when Bishop Bede Heather (then Bishop of Parramatta) decided he would like to have permanent deacons in his diocese and I thought that was my vocation, to serve people (that way),” he says.

“Then things just fell into place.”

The order of deacon has a long history, beginning when the apostles appointed seven men to carry out pastoral work so as to leave the apostles more time for priestly ministry (Acts 6: 1–7).

It lapsed, becoming mainly a step on the way to priestly ordination, but was restored after Vatican II.

Now a growing ministry, the diaconate is open to single and married men who have discerned a vocation to serve the Church but are not called to be priests.

Sydney Archdiocese has five permanent deacons and Parramatta has four with four more in training.

Training includes at least three years of study and some pastoral experience in parishes.

Five deacons are training in Broken Bay diocese.

A copy of the talks given at the conference and the music for the deacons’ song can be found on the web at
www.deacons.asn.au.