{"id":10283,"date":"2022-08-24T00:06:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T00:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/?p=10283"},"modified":"2023-01-10T00:03:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T00:03:23","slug":"help-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/help-her\/","title":{"rendered":"\"Ay\u00fadenla a ella, quien ha sido mi benefactora\""},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is [also] a minister [diakonos] of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well. (Romans 16:1-2)<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Four years ago I heard these verses from St. Paul\u2019s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 16 for the first time.<\/p>\r\n

It was on a Thursday night in early September, when thunderstorms dominate Durham afternoons. I was sure that the parish trailer we used for meetings at Immaculate Conception would be empty. As we got near to 7pm, people came in dripping wet, and we kept adding chairs to the semicircle until 40 or so folks filled the room.<\/p>\r\n

Luke Hansen<\/a>\u00a0proclaimed the scripture, and helped set the context: the\u00a0early church had women deacons<\/a>; women that have always been a part of Jesus\u2019 ministry; the changing roles of women in society and in the church; a\u00a0papal commission<\/a>\u00a0underway considering whether now might be a time to restore this ministry for women.<\/p>\r\n

Then I shared my own story. It felt a little risky \u2013 a taste of what\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0might feel as they come out to their church community. Will they think I\u2019m being unfaithful? Will they receive me? Will they look at me differently, now that I\u2019ve shared\u00a0this quiet prayer<\/a>\u00a0for women to be restored to the diaconate that had been turning over in my heart?<\/p>\r\n

A I looked out and saw priests I worked with daily respond to my testimony with encouragement. I saw my supervisor, a dedicated woman in ministry for over 40 years, with tears in her eyes and a lament from deep in her spirit swirling up close to the surface. I saw young women studying theology listen with suspicion, hesitant to be hopeful. I saw men, discerning their own diaconal vocations, thinking about their own privilege and grappling with how to be in solidarity as they seek to serve Jesus with their whole hearts.<\/p>\r\n

I didn’t know\u00a0who St. Phoebe was<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

I didn\u2019t know she had a feast day or was celebrated in a\u00a0beautiful, solemn, Orthodox liturgy<\/a>. I didn’t know that Origin and\u00a0St. John Crystostom referenced her<\/a>\u00a0as one of the reasons justifying women serving as deacons in their own time.<\/p>\r\n

I did know that I was not as alone as I thought I was.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

St. Phoebe\u2019s Feast day is drawing close. A time to bring to mind all those in our own path who have been the face of Jesus, the one who came to serve and not to be served. And to ponder anew: what does it mean that Phoebe was a benefactor to St. Paul? What might it mean that he tells others to help her, with whatever she requires of them?<\/p>\r\n

How might we be compelled, this next year, to help St. Phoebe? What does she ask of us? How does she invite us to proclaim the Good News? Who does she want you to encounter? How is she nudging you to serve, and be generous? And where is she standing on the threshold, distributing the gifts that are being poured out in abundance, in order to help the Church minister to everyone\u2019s needs and to be a place of welcome for all?<\/p>\r\n

Perhaps you\u2019ll join us for our\u00a0virtual liturgy<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday, September 3 \u2013 it will be different from\u00a0last year\u2019s<\/a>, and from our\u00a0inaugural gathering in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nFor the first time, some of us will be gathering in person<\/a>\u00a0at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Walking together, singing, breaking bread, celebrating Mass. And at 8:30 pm ET we\u2019ll fire up the zoom connection and invite you to join us as we pray, as we share our stories, as we seek out the intercession of St. Phoebe together with Our Lady of Guadalupe, all those deacons and saints who have gone before us \u2013 knowing again that we do not walk alone.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCasey Stanton\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is [also] a minister [diakonos] of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[],"witness-tag":[],"class_list":["post-10283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10283"},{"taxonomy":"witness-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/witness-tag?post=10283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}