I firmly believe that the Church is losing out on the gifts of half of the community by not uplifting women. People of all genders are ready to serve God in many varied ways, including as deacons, so why is our church getting in the way? 

As a college campus minister, diaconal ordination wouldn’t change how I encounter my students on the margins, but it would change how they encounter the Church through me. I wouldn’t be only Julia, their campus minister who tells them that God loves them unconditionally, but an official representative of a Church that loves them too. If I was permitted, I would jump at the chance to serve in this ministry, for them, and for myself.

I strive to be a person of hope in my ministry and in my dreaming of a more just world. My hope is not grounded in a dream that my church will magically transform overnight, because I would be too disappointed and burn out. Rather, my hope is for the long-term, that those of us committed to gender justice in our church at all levels will, with the help of the Spirit, make our earthly church more closely resemble the Kingdom of God.