Service as a deacon
Whether or not I am ordained as a deacon doesn’t make any difference to my commitment to serve the people of God. To serve Jesus is always enough.

But it would be amazing to be able to celebrate the sacrament with the young people I prepare for First Communion. It would be a great privilege to conduct weddings and funerals for the people I have worked with over many years in the parish. It would be something else to use my voice and read and preach the Gospel to our congregation gathered on a Sunday as well as in the many other forums God has granted to me.

I would be willing to serve as a deacon if the Church so called me. Above all, I would welcome the capacity that diaconal ordination would give me to offer more of the service that Christians need from their churches in order to go out and fulfil their mission in the world. So would thousands of other women.

Please, Pope Francis, the Commission on Women and the Diaconate, priests, deacons, bishops, people of God, please let us be part of this conversation of our times. If the time isn’t right we will go on waiting patiently until it is. But what if the time was right now?

Colette Joyce
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire