The deacons shall perform the ministry of mercy. They shall acquaint themselves with difficulties; visit, help and encourage where there is need, and urge church members to render assistance where necessary. They shall collect and manage the gifts of the congregation, and after mutual consultation, distribute them where there is need. The deacons shall give account of their policies and management to the consistory.
The ‘serving tables’ of Acts 6: 2 is a matter of care for the indigent, and not of assisting in the celebration of the Mass, as, e.g., in the Church of Rome.
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Our Church Order calls it “the ministry of mercy”.
This ministry shall be performed not only to the ‘poor’. This
article speaks of “difficulties”, which can be of some different
kinds: older or lonely people may need help in dealing with ‘odd
jobs’, etcetera.
Therefore the deacons must visit, help, and encourage where there
is need, and urge church members to render assistance. They do
not have to do all these things by themselves - or with the help
of their wives! They have to ensure that the congregation is
indeed in this respect a ‘communion of saints’ according to
Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 21.
Because part of their duties has a financial aspect, they have to
collect the gifts, take care of them, and distribute them where
there is need. The latter shall be done after mutual
consultation, for which purpose they shall regularly come
together (Article 40).
The collection of gifts normally takes place during the worship
services. However, in urgent cases the deacons may have to visit
the members of the congregation, or some of them who are
well-off, and ask them for some extra gifts.
We cannot deal with the liturgical aspect of the collections, but would like to make one relevant comment: The number of circulating collection bags is to be increased as soon as the collection of the offerings exceeds two or three minutes.
From the description of the task of the deacons it may be clear
that this office has its own significance and difficulties.
Therefore we should not consider it a promotion when someone who
before used to be a deacon is appointed and ordained as an
elder.
After having served for the appointed time (Article 23) a retired
deacon shall be given the same period of rest as retired elders,
and not immediately added to the names of elders for possible
election.
For the same reason the deacons shall not be requisitioned just
from among the younger members, but simply as compared with the
average age of the elders.
Our Church Order does not count the deacons among the members of
the consistory, with the exception of what is mentioned in
Article 37.
The question whether this is in harmony with Article 30 of the
Belgic
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Confession of Faith cannot be dealt with here. It seems as if the
Confession considers the deacons as full members of the
consistory. However, this does not mean that according to our
Confession the deacons are expected to attend all the meetings of
the ministers and elders that are arranged to discuss their
respective tasks as they are explained in Article 30 B.C. Our
Church Order makes mention of certain consistory meetings whereby
the deacons are supposed to be present (Articles 11, 36 and 37).
It is a tradition that the deacons are present when the annual
budget of the church is tabled by the Committee of Management,
and is discussed.
In practical church life this discrepancy between the formulation
of our Church Order and that of our Confession is not a real
problem.