Fund Provides Needed Security to Retired Deacons
Episcopal News Service. April 19, 2005 [041905-2-A]
Dutton Morehouse, , Editor of Diakoneo and a Deacon at St. Luke's, Sister Bay, Wisconsin
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.)