www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Diaconate - "step" to priesthood?

Dear Friends,

As I have related before, I am slated to make a presentation to diaconal candidates on the history of the diaconate, especially its decline in the West. Even though this is for a Roman Catholic audience, I thought it would be good to include a fuller perspective and address the office of deacon from the Eastern view. Some of you knowledgeable people have helped me in the past regarding this.

My new question to the forum members is this - is the diaconate seen as a preparation for the priesthood in the Eastern churches? For the Latin church, until recently, it was considered that exclusively - hence the strange nomenclature of the transitional diaconate .

PAX

Shlomo Benedictine,
Within the Maronite Church the Diaconate was seen as an office in and of itself.

Further, up until recently, since the Maronite Church was somewhat of a theocracy, many of our secular leaders served in the offices of sub-deacon, and deacon.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Dear Brother Elias, in the Byzantine tradition we have many things that are iconic of the Trinity, the sign of the cross three times, the Trisagion three times, etc. Likewise the Diaconate is part of a visible iconic "Trinity" of major orders, diaconate, priest and bishop in the Byzantine tradition.

All three are distinct, have their own unconfused roles and various charismata, but function together in a united way liturgucally and (hopefully) ecclesiastically in relation to each other. While there is a hiearchal relation with the Bishop at the head (iconic of God the Father) all three "major orders" impart a fullness of Holy Orders. When a deacon is ordained a priest, he can not take the deacon's parts of the Liturgy anymore if a deacon is present to take them.

The diaconate is not now, nor has really ever been seen in the Byzantine tradition, as just a step in the road to the priesthood. Under the influence of latinizations including an enforced clerical celibacy in the USA the diaconate did fall into some disuetude and took on more of a "transitional" nature but it never completely lost its traditional place or function, and has been greatly restored in the Byzantine tradition in the last 30-40 years.

The terms "permanent" or "transitional" are foreign to the Byzantine ethos when discussing the diaconate. One is ordained deacon, and later, if the Spirit is moving in that direction, the deacon can be called to the priesthood.

In my own Ukrainian Catholic Church we ordain married men to the priesthood, so married state is not necessarily an impediment. But the deacon can remain a deacon the rest of his life, perhaps becoming a protodeacon if married or an archdeacon if monastic, but still remaining a deacon.

Since the deacon had a very distinctive and respected liturgical role, it was very common for the Byzantine deacon to remain a deacon. Many bishops would never celebrate services nor travel to services without their trusted protodeacon/ archdeacon present who were very familiar with the hierarchal services, which can get complex in the Byzantine liturgical tradition. In the hierarchal (pontifical) Divine Liturgy it is the deacons, not the priests or bishop, who have the largest liturgical role.

So in the Byzantine tradition the diaconate is not a temporary step on the "priestly production line" he became in the post-medieval Latin church. But with the establishment of the permanent diaconate in the Latin church, the Latins have to some extent also moved away from that practice.

In the Byzantine Tradition the diaconate is not a "step" to priesthood. The deacon when ordained is a priest, but one that can only do certain things.

That is why in the East we call our Deacon's "Father Deacon So-and-So" There is one priesthood of Christ; we all share in it at certain levels as Christ and His Church call us. There are degrees or levels in that one Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The Deacon being a priest has only been ordained as a servant first to the Reigning Hierarch of the Eparchy and secondly to the Rector of the Parish and to the other members of the mystical Body. As a priest he does not have the power to confer the Mysteries, but in the divine services and in the community his role is of prime importance.