Over 40 people will be made deacons this Saturday at the Cathedral. Praise God for such a wonderful display of answered prayer for more workers to be sent into the harvest and pray that there would indeed be a plentiful harvest from their ministries! Let’s pray that the service would be a great encouragement and witness and for John Woodhouse as he preaches.

Thanks for the notice, Mark. Its especially helpful for us who are outside the Sydney Diocese!

I think that one of my friends is to be ordained on Saturday. I’ll certainly be praying for the new deacons and the service as you’ve outlined.

Cheers,
Andrew

Please pray for the family and friends of the Ordinands who will be coming along who do not yet know Jesus in a saving way.  Pray that God would work in them through the Holy SPirit and use the prayers, confessions, creed and sermon as well as the conversations after to stir them to recognise that the God that we are promising to serve for the rest of our lives is their God, who made them and sent his son to save them. 

I know that I have many non-Christian family and friends attending, I pray that they would hear the truth and understand it.

Simon.

Mark,

Will someone be taking photos and uploading them on this web-site? I hope so.

John Woodhouse used to preach at the church I attended in Sydney. I haven’t seen John in over 15 years but if I did I think tears of gratitude would swell (as they are now) for the years of faithful, clear and heart rendering preaching. 

I have just prayed for John, the deacons and the whole occasion. Thank you for providing the opportunity to do so.

There were photos taken a couple of years ago (and they are still seen here on random photos - at least before the redesign). I think it would be great. How about it Jeremy??
And yes - I too am thankful for John… I still remember having him for Greek weeks about this time 23 years ago (Oh that is scary!)

M

Please remember this ordination in prayer!!

Praise God for answered prayer. It was a great time and although I didn’t see it, I believe there was good television coverage by Channel 7 in their evening news.

Here are some photos:

Now let’s keep praying for their ministries!

Praise God indeed for all the people being drawn into the diaconate (I see several friends of mine in the photographs...)

On the same afternoon, at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, another 20 people were ordained deacons, again including many friends.

If they keep churning them out at this rate the Anglican church in Australia will, like, have a future!

Matt,

That’s good, no I correct myself, that’s GREAT news.

Thanks for letting us know. Makes me wonder about Brisbane. I’m sure God has the whole eastern seaboard in His sights, not just the Opera House and Bondi Beach ;)

Looking forward to the day when your ordination photo will be on this or Melbourne’s website.

cheers
Angela

Hey Angela - what about the western half of the country?  I don’t know, these people in NSW and Qld think they’re the only ones in the country....;)

One thing that concerns me about the ordination service is that some might see the initial publicity as a bit misleading. When you hear the message that:

Dr Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney will ordain 40 men and six women candidates to the Diaconate in the service, and one other women will be commissioned as a Diocesan Lay Worker.

However, when I read the feature story The New Face of Ministry (5/2/07), you discover that only 26 of the ordinands are actually recent graduates of Moore. The rest were in full-time ministry work already, but just changed titles to become deacons.

I realise that no-one intended to mislead anybody, but in this age of “spin” we need to be especially careful that we aren’t seen as gilding the lily.

Regards

Roger

Speaking of misleading, the current main page of the website says:

Changes to the structure of ministry in Sydney Diocese in line with the diocesan Mission, means a new role of ‘permanent diaconate’ has been introduced, allowing the Diocese to recognise and support people in full-time ministry who don’t plan to become senior ministers of parishes.

A new role of ‘permanent diaconate’?

Shall you tell them or shall I?

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my diaconate will not pass away.

So, I’ve come up with a brilliant idea.

By constructing an even curved perimeter that always retains a standard distance from its centre, I believe, with propulsive energy, we could enable a perpetual forward journey that never departs from the ground.

Riding on my new invention, I exclaimed with delight until I was winded on a tree. I think I’ll call it...’whee-ul’