A Deacon Catechism

William Shishko, longtime pastor of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Franklin Square, New York, casts the essentials of the office into twelve short questions and answers. He defines the deacon as an official representative of Christ the great Servant, traces the office to Acts 6, and sums up its work as freeing the elders for prayer, the Word, and government while the deacons manage the church’s temporalities and ministries of mercy.

Later questions cover the qualifications of Acts 6:3 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13, the board’s collective decision-making under Scripture, the training and testing of candidates, and the deacon’s responsibility to the poor, the providentially impoverished, and widows and orphans.

Two answers turn to the congregation: respond to the deacons’ appeals as if Christ himself were calling, and receive their assistance as if it came from Christ himself. The brevity makes it a natural teaching tool for a diaconate or a candidate under examination.