Among you as one who serves

Today marks my anniversary of being ordained a deacon back in 2002 at Our Lady of the Lake Episcopal Church in Laguna Park, TX. Since that time, it has also been my pleasure to serve on the Committee on the Diaconate for the diocesan Commission on Ministry.

For the occasion, my future wife Melisa made me a framed cross-stitch gift of a verse from the epistle reading at the ordination: "Having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not loose heart" [2 Corinthians 4:1]. And I still remember the message preached by my friend, Fr Keith Roberson, "Beware of lacy-ness."

Commenting on the harmony of the various orders in the Church, St Ignatius of Antioch once wrote: "Let the faithful take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God and with the priests in the place of the Council of the Apostles, and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ who was with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest."