George Martin, Ellinwood, was reinstated to the Sacred Order of Deacons by the Rt. Rev. Michael Milliken on Sunday, Feb. 26, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Great Bend. The Rev. Milliken is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas.
“I had been absent from that ministry for 26 years. A need arose, and I was reinstated,” Martin said.
“The Diaconate in the Episcopal Church is an Ordained Ministry which is done more in the world outside than inside the church,” Martin explained. “We deal with the marginalized. Our job as deacons is to tell the church the needs of the world. (It is not a popular ministry.)”
It is also an in-church ministry of teaching and preaching, and assisting the priests and bishop with sacraments and services at the church.