for Revd Frances Hadfield

delivered by Revd Professor Bill Loader at Floreat Uniting Church, 11 June 2000

Frances

We have ordained you as a Deacon.

By this act the Presbytery has placed you within an ancient order of women and men whose task has been to lead the Christian community in service and reflection on that service in the world. All ministry is service. All Christians are called to the service of ministry. Within that ministry some are called to particular functions which equip the ministry of all.

The ministry of Deacon and the ministry of the Word belong to these special functions. They overlap. One has its focus in leadership of worship and interpretation of the ancient traditions as it leads people to hear and live the Word in today’s world. The ministry to which you are called has its focus in leadership of acts of service and reflection on those actions in the light of worship and the ancient traditions of our faith as it leads people to hear and live the Word in today’s world. Both belong together, yet both have a distinctive shape.

Your role is to lead by example and also by enabling people to give expression to their faith in acts of love in the world. You are not called just to be a helper, a carer. You are called to exercise leadership in caring. It will be your task to think about structures that make caring possible and structures that prevent it, even where those structures may be attended by most caring and compassionate people. You will pray for the people and lead them in prayer. You will celebrate with them the elements of hope. You will tell the truth. You will lead as one of them.

You will lead the geese out and lead them home. You will trumpet at injustice and others will follow. You will stride out with grace into the complex world of human need. Do not be silenced when your heart cries in pain and compassion for those who suffer. Do not allow yourself to be penned up by those forces who would reduce your ministry to niceness and kindness. You will tread streets which once knew the thud of a heavy cross. You will walk alongside those who are celebrated and despised. You will be frightened by powers that want to destroy and have no patience with fine definitions, but prefer to crucify people in convenient clusters. Even those who see you march home will bid you jump from the pinnacle, perform for the comfort of those who have the bread, and rest on the hillside just to look at the all the nations of the world and not to be involved.

You will need the nourishment of faith, the inspiration of scripture, the prayers of those who can and cannot join you, the support of the structures of the Christian community. You will not march alone. The burden of human need is overwhelming. It is not for you to carry it. The work to be done is endless. You can do only your part. The human predicament is critical. You are not its saviour. The ministry of the compassionate heart is the ministry which does not need to love, does not need to serve, does not need to succeed, but is prepared to walk where it can, only as far as it can, only as well as it can. The ministry of the compassionate heart knows self care and self nurture, knows to take time to let the feathers settle and be preened.

Frances,

We have not ordained you to a life of faith and work, for that is the life of Christ in all the baptised;
We have not ordained you to become engaged in the struggles for justice, that light may shine in darkness, for we are all to pray, ‘Your kingdom come!’
We have not ordained you to hold the hand of the needy, sit with the dying, weep with the bereaved, for the Spirit everywhere urges the fruits of compassion.

We have ordained you
to lead the people of God in caring service,
to equip the people of God for their ministries,
to enable the people of God discern the spirits of injustice and oppression.
We have ordained you to sound the trumpet of jubilee in the world.

We have ordained you as a Deacon in the Church of God.