B. THE DIACONATE IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
1. Deacons In the Early Church
The diaconate as such is explicated in the earliest Christian sources outside the New Testament in The First Letter of Clement (pre 96-A.D), The Shepherd of Hermas. the Didache, and in Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians. where the diaconate is considered to be an office and the deacon is listed among the leaders of the church. To them was entrusted the· care of the poor, orphans, widows and the visitation of the sick and they also acted as assistants to the bishops. In the Western church they were peremitted to baptize and preach. Though subordinate to the presbyters. the deacons frequently stood in close relations with the bishop, and exerted a greater influence. Hence they not rarely looked upon ordination to the presbyterate as a degradation.46 There is evidence that sometimes they were allowed to vote in their own name at provincial and consistorial synods.47
A synodical study report says, “we see that the deacons played a vibrant and many-faceted role in the life of the early church. They are regarded in the earliest sources as belonging to the major offices of ministries of the church. even though it is apparent that their role very soon evolved into being the bishop’s assistant.”48
2. Deaconesses
The earliest extra-canonical literature referring to deaconesses is by Pliny who wrote: “I have judged it necessary to obtain information by torture from two serving women (ancillae) called by them ‘deaconesses’ (ministrae).”49 Deaconesses or servants of the church are mentioned first in the Didascalia Apostalorum. They were charged with a ministry to women because of social conventions and acted as a son of liaison between the bi shop and women seeking his counsel. Deaconesses were by no means a universal entity, since if no deaconesses were present. any woman could serve to assist women in the anointing which preceded baptism. The Didascalia states they could not baptize, nor teach, “except for advice she was invited to give a neophyte leaving the baptismal waters.”50
A special form for consecration of deaconesses has come down to us from the Apostolic Constitution which has this beautiful prayer: “Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of man and woman, who didst fill Miriam and Deborah and Hannah and Huldah with the Spirit, and didst not disdain to suffer thine only–begotten Son to be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle and the temple didst appoint women keepers of thine holy gate: look down now upon this thine handmaid, who is designated to the office of deacon, and grant her the Holy Ghost . . .”51 Although deaconesses were consecrated to office, there has always been a dispute whether the deaconesses belonged to the laity or clergy, since their tasks were separated from deacons.
In the West they were shorn of their clerical character by a prohibition of ordination passed by the Gallic councils in the fifth and sixth centuries. With the rise of monasticism during the Middle Ages women found an avenue of service through monastic orders. “The adoption of the care of the poor and sick by the state, and the cessation of adult baptisms and of the custom of immersion . . . made female assistance less helpful.”52
3. The Middle Ages
In the Western church the diaconate steadily declined in importance, until during the Middle Ages it simply became a stepping-stone to the priesthood.53 At the Council of Trent (1563) the Roman Catholic church advocated a diaconate which included a ministry of material and spiritual assistance to the needy and all owed deacons to act as assistants to bishops. With the sharp demarcation between clergy and laity the diaconate simply became a rung on the ladder to priesthood in a hierarchical clergy system. Vatican II reactivated the importance of this office in its original intention.54
4. Non-Reformed Churches
In the Anglican system deacons usually assisted priests in worship by assisting and administering the sacraments, teaching and even preaching. Administering alms was pan of their official duties.
Lutheranism down played the diaconate until the nineteenth century, since the administration of diaconal services was carried out by the civil government. Pietism revived the diaconate, and was very influential in the development of the diaconate as a parachurch, professional service organization, so that both deacons and deaconesses functioned as employees of the church, a christian organization, or the state. The Kaisersworth movement, associated with its founder Theodor Fliedner, spurred the deaconess movement and contributed to a similar nineteenth century movement in major American Lutheran bodies, Mennonites, Episcopalians and Methodists.55
Early Baptist confessions recognized only two offices. The office of pastor, bishop, elder or teacher was considered one and open only to males. The office of deacon was open to both men and women, but had little status. They served tables, assisted at liturgical functions and carried out some benevolent tasks. Today in Baptist churches there is usually one elder-minister, assisted by a board of deacons, who act mainly as church administrators. Where deaconesses still exist, they are usually organized into separate boards, engaged in practical service.56
The history of non–Reformed churches shows a diversity in the way the diaconate has been viewed. The conclusion that we can draw is that until the twentieth century, usually where men occupied the office of deacon they were considered part of the ruling body. Where women functioned as deacons or deaconesses they either were separate from that of male deacons or their work was distinguished as that of deaconess, a separate ministry, apart from the offices of the church.
5. Reformation Churches
T he views of the Reformers must be seen against the background of the social and political developments of the age, where the state played an influential role in church life. Luther let the state keep this role. Calvin affirmed early Christian church practice by restoring the dimensions of mercy as an integral part of the office of deacon. In Geneva the diaconate was recognized as an office but deacons were kept outside the church council which consisted of elders and pastors. Calvin recognized two kinds of deacons: deacons who distribute the alms and those ”who had devoted themselves to the care of the poor and sick. Of this sort were the widows whom Paul mentions to Timothy (I Tim. 5:9–10). Women could fill no other public office than to devote themselves to the care of the poor.”57 A recent study, based on original documents, gives evidence of a large-scale welfare fund for poor Protestant refugees from Roman Catholic France founded during the era of John Calvin and “run by the deacons of the Reformed Church of Geneva.”58 The records show that “this was an office of the Church, mentioned in the Bible, and the injunctions about deacons in the early Church were applied to their sixteenth-century counterparts.”59 Women , often the wives of the deacons, played a large part in the operation of this ministry, called “the Bourse francaise.” “So, although the diaconate was a man’s role in Reformation Geneva, there were a goodly number of women involved in the ‘Bourse’.”60
6. Dutch Reformed Churches
Church historians generally agree that the Dutch Reformed tradition was shaped by several lines of the Reformation . On the one hand there was the influence of the French and Walloon Reformed churches which has entered into the Belgic Confession, Articles 30–32. Here deacons are put on par with elders as part of the government of the Church. “We believe that this true Church must be governed by that spiritual policy which our Lord has taught us in His Word; namely, that there must be ministers or pastors to preach the word of God and to administer the sacraments; also elders and deacons, who, together with the pastors, form the council of the Church . . .”61 The French and Walloon churches did not enjoy civil approval and support. There was only one kind of deacon; they were elected like the elders and formed part of the consistory, and as such were delegated to the broader assemblies. T heir main task was to care for the needy, but they also catechized, conducted worship services, and performed weddings. Alongside this diaconate, apparently without consistorial representation, were deaconesses who lived communally.62
The influence of Johannes a Lasco’s form of church government among refugees in London can be seen upon the Dutch Reformed churches in the practice of excluding deacons from the church council. There was a restricted consistory, consisting of elders and ministers, and a general consistory which included also deacons.63 Deacons were basically helpers of the poor and were not part of the consistory.
This separation of the deacon’s office from that of the others is present in the Convent of Wesel of 1568. Chaired by Datheen, one of the nineteen statements follows Calvin by instituting two sorts of deacons in larger localities: one for gathering and distribution of alms and one to “care for the sick, the wounded.” Such persons must be endowed “with the gift of comforting and a better than average knowledge of the word.”64 Older women of proven ability and reputation could be appointed to be deacons. It should be noted that although women were admitted to the diaconate, they were excluded, together with all male deacons, from the consistory. Furthermore, Wesel had no binding authority on the Dutch churches and had an advisory character only.
A later Synod, that of Emden in 1571, included the deacons in the consistory. Clarification was asked about this decision at the Synod of Dordrecht in 1574, which provided for separate meetings and made a provision for places where there were few elders so deacons might be admitted to the consistory. This qualification was adopted by several more Dutch synods and finally became part of the Church Order adopted by the Synod of Dort (1618–19) in Articles 37 and 40.65
It should be remembered that the Dutch Reform ed Church was a national church and was always involved with the state. At the Synod of Dort (1574) there were complaints that the church could not take care of the poor both within and without the church because the civil government did not give the church its share of the income of property held in common by church and state . Says Bouwman: “From the beginning the Reformed did not keep the diaconate pure, and because of financial entanglements, occupied a dependent position regarding the state.”66 Its position as state church kept the Reformed Church from properly exercising the diaconate. In contrast with the Lutherans, however, it always struggled to maintain a Biblical practice of the diaconate.67
Deaconesses functioned as part of the ministry of the Reformed Church in Amsterdam. where in 1556 they operated a home for the aged and orphans and did house visitation , reporting to the deacons; they were under the supervision of the consistory. Voetius, often named in connection with the Synod of Dort (1618–19), discussed the work of women in his Politico Ecclesiastica and encouraged a type of women’s ministry as an auxiliary to deacons, either chosen by the consistory or by the deacons. T heir work should consist in ministering to the poor, sick, needy and children, and work which could not be carried out with propriety by the deacons. “He advised that they be charged by a committee which should then avoid any appearance of seeming to ordain them.”68
7. Presbyterian Churches
Churches standing in the Presbyterian tradition have never mixed the eldership with the diaconate. Deacons do not take part in the administration or governing functions of the church. Therefore, to admit women to the diaconate never presented the complication that Dutch Reformed churches faced. “There have been deaconesses for a long time but women deacons (with the same functions as men deacons) are a more recent phenomenon in the Church.”69
8. Women Deacons Today
The grounds given for opening the office of deacon in the CRC in 1978 is “the historical precedent (Synod of Wezel, 1568).”70 Synod 1978 declared “there is historical precedent for this in the Reformed tradition (see Calvin’s Institutes, Book IV, Chapter 3, Section 9, and the Synod of Wezel, 1568).”71 As we have seen, women who functioned in the diaconate never functioned in an office in the same way as men, or if there is some evidence they did. their work was distinguished from that of male deacons and they were never part of the governing council of the church.
In fact, the overwhelming evidence points to the fact that women were excluded from any ecclesiastical office which involved ordination. When a commission appointed by the Anglican Church in 1962 examined the question of women’s ordination, one of its arguments for excluding women from “Holy Orders” was that “it would be contrary to the tradition of the Church from the time of the apostles.”72 An authoritative commentary on the CRC New Revised Church Order of 1965 taught that “the induction of women into the ministry and the other ecclesiastical offices is an innovation of more recent date.”73 Yet, Monsma did recommend that women be involved in church work and “occupy a place of Christian leadership.”74
If there is anything that we can learn from the diaconate as it functioned in Scripture and the history of the Christian church it is that women were actively involved in the diaconate, howbeit not in an ordained office. This Scriptural and Reformational principle needs to be reapplied to today’s social conditions.
46. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III (Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 1977), p. 259.
47. Quoted in “Synodical Studies on Women in Office and Decisions Pertaining to the Office of Deacon” in Acts of Synod 1981 from The Indian Journal of Theology. Vol. 9) 1960, 59–66, p. 63), p. 501.
48. Acts of Synod 1981, p. 502.
49. Ibid., p. 501.
50. Roger Gryson, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1976), p. 43.51. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, p. 260.
52. Ibid., p. 262.
53. J.D. Douglas. Gen. Ed. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Deacon” by J. W. Charley (Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978), p. 285.54. Acts of Synod 1981, p. 503.
55. The Deaconess, World Council of Churches Studies No. 4 (World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland, 1966), pp. 58–63.56. Acts of Synod 1981, pp. 503–4.
57. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion. Vol. 2: John T. McNeill, Ed., Ford Lewis Battles, Transl. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), IV, iii, 9, p. 1061.
58. Jeannine Evelyn Olson, The Bourse Francaise: Deacons and Social Welfare in Calvin’s Geneva (Ph. D. Thesis: Stanford Univ., 1980), p. 1.
59. Ibid., p. 97.
60. Ibid., p. 101.
61. Ecumenical Creeds & Reformed Confessions (Board of Publication of the Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1979), p. 78
62. Acts of Synod 1981, p. 506.
63. Prof P. Biesrerveld et.al. Het Diaconaat (Hilversum: J. H. Witzel, 1907), pp. 138–39.64. P. Bitstervtld. Dr. H. H. Kuyper, Ecclesiastical Manual. Richard DeRidder, transl. (Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506: Calvin Theological Seminary, 1982), p. 33.
65. The Psalter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. P. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1927). Church Order, Articles 37–40, pp. 91 –2. 66. Dr. H. Bouwman, Het Ambt Der Diakenen (Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1907), pp. 40–41; translation F.P.67. Biesterveld et al, Het Diaconaat, p. 167
68. Peter Y. De Jong, The Ministry of Mercy Today (Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506; Baker Book House, 1952), p. 248.
69. Acts and Reports of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, 1968, pp. 156–57.
70. Acts of Synod 1984, p. 654.
71. Acts of Synod 1978, p. 104.
72. The Deaconess, p. 157.
73. Martin Monsmo, The New Revised Church Order Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967), p. 26.
74. Ibid., p. 104.
Mrs. Pronk, the wife of the pastor of Grand Rapids Free Reformed Church, is a student at Colvin Theological Seminary.