wfn.org | [ENS] Fund provides needed security to retired deacons (Daybook)

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

April 19, 2005 - Tuesday To Note & To Read

Fund provides needed security to retired deacons

by Dutton Morehouse

[Episcopal News Service] The deacon has had a long career working
faithfully
at several parishes. Now retired from active ministry, widowed, and in
failing health, she finds herself suddenly with no funds except Social
Security and no family able to contribute to her support. Her situation
is
desperate and she feels that there is no answer.

However, she confides her predicament to a fellow deacon who tells her
about
the Fund for the Diaconate. Today, thanks to a monthly check from the
Fund,
she is able to pay her rent, and buy the prescriptions she needs without
having to go without food.

The history of the Fund for the Diaconate began in 1927 with the
establishment of the Retiring Fund for Deaconesses at a meeting of the
Conference of Deaconesses at St. Faith's House, New York City. It was
created in response to the Church Pension Fund's lack of provision for
deaconesses upon retirement. The deaconesses had a small emergency fund,
but
this was insufficient to assist the number who would need security for
the
future.

With the ordinations of "Permanent Deacons" in the 1950s and 1960s, and
the
beginning of the recovery of the historic diaconate in the early 1970s,
the
landscape of the diaconal world changed. The 1970 General Convention
declared deaconesses to be within the deaconate and changed canon law to
permit women to be ordained deacons under the same regulations as men.
These
changes went into effect on January 1, 1971.

In April, 1990, after changes in the by-laws were approved by two-thirds
of
the membership, the Retiring Fund was opened to male deacons. In 1998,
the
name was changed to the Fund for the Diaconate to better reflect its
mission
and focus.

The Fund's officers and Board of Directors, who approve and allocate
payments to the recipients, are composed of ten deacons, with two
laypersons
serving as president and treasurer.

Funds are distributed to deacons in need in an effort to make up the
difference between income and necessary expenses at retirement or at the
time of illness or an emergency. In 2004, the Fund assisted 13 deacons,
with
grants totaling some $86,000.

The only contact most deacons have with the Fund is the mailing they get
once each year - sent to all deacons in the Episcopal Church who are
canonically resident in a diocese - asking them to vote for the Board of
Directors, three of who are elected each year. Nonetheless, the need for
funds and applicants is ongoing.

To request an application for a grant write to Deacon Horace M. Whyte,
170
West End Ave, #30N, New York, New York, 10023.

Tax deductible gifts to the Fund may be sent to the Fund for the
Diaconate,
33 Old Fort Drive, Hilton Head, South Carolina, 29926.

The officers and directors of the Fund are:

President, Mr. Christopher H. Gardephe, New York
Vice President, Deacon Linda Cappers, Rhode Island
Secretary, Deacon Ellen M. Ross, Nebraska
Assistant Secretary, Deacon Horace M. Whyte, New York
Treasurer, Mr. Allerton D. Marshall, South Carolina

Directors:

Deacon Linda F. Cappers, Rhode Island
Deacon W. Douglas Carlson, Atlanta
Deacon Edwin F. Hallenbeck, Rhode Island
Deacon William O. Jones, Southern Virginia
Deacon W. Keith McCoy, New Jersey
Deacon Dutton Morehouse, Fond du Lac
Deacon Pamela McAbee Nesbit, Pennsylvania
Deacon Ellen M. Ross, Nebraska
Deacon Katherine Salinaro, California
Note: The following titles are available form the Episcopal
Book/Resource
Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY  10017; 800.334.7626 or
212.716.6118; http://www.episcopalbookstore.org/.

To Read: MANY SERVANTS: An Introduction to Deacons by Ormonde Plater
(Cowley
Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004, 193 pages, $15.95.)

>From the publisher: In this newly updated and revised introduction to
the
permanent diaconate, Ormonde Plater includes a history of deacons in the
early church, a survey of deacons from the Reformation to the present,
stories of modern diaconal ministries, including firsthand accounts, and
a
discussion of the formation, training, and deployment of deacons. A
basic,
essential text for discernment committees and commissions on ministry,
and a
comprehensive look at a vital ministry in the church today.

Ormonde Plater is a liturgical scholar, the former editor of Diakoneo,
and
the former president of the North American Association for the
Diaconate.
Plater is currently Archdeacon of the Diocese of Louisiana and serves as
deacon at Grace Church in New Orleans.

To Read: DEACONS AND THE CHURCH: Making Connections between Old and New
by
John N. Collins (Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2002,
158
pages, $10.95.)

>From the publisher: Is the deacon a minister for our times? Written for
deacons of all denominations, this book has implications for the whole
church as the issues it raises go beyond the diaconate and touch on the
nature of the church itself, on its ministry and its use of the
scriptures.
It is essential reading for bishops and members of synods with
responsibilities for deacons as well as for those who develop or deliver
programs for deacons, for those who might be considering becoming a
deacon
and for all those who like to be informed about what is going on in the
church today.

John N. Collins pursued biblical studies in Rome and Jerusalem on the
eve of
the Second Vatican Council. Further research in the 1970s at King's
College,
London led to his investigations into early Christian ministry. He lives
in
Melbourne, Australia, where he teaches at Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak
and
at Yarra Theological Union within the Melbourne College of Divinity.)

-- Dutton Morehouse is editor of Diakoneo and a deacon at St. Luke's,
Sister
Bay, Wisconsin.

___________________________
To SUBSCRIBE to enslist, send a blank email message, from the address
which
you wish subscribed, to: join-enslist@epicom.org

Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org.

The enslist is published by Episcopal News Service:
www.episcopalchurch.org/ens