The Deacon

James M. Willson, pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Philadelphia, published this essay in 1841 as, in his own words, something of a pioneer on a subject “remarkably overlooked.” He argues across five chapters that the deacon is a standing, divinely instituted office, ordinary and perpetual in the church, yet largely missing from congregations that confess it in their standards.

On the nature of the office he takes a broad view: against the Episcopal notion of the deacon as a preacher and the Congregational one that limits him to poor relief, he holds that the deacon both cares for the poor and manages all the temporal goods and finances of the church, so that ministers and elders are freed for the ministry of the word.

A long central chapter attacks boards of trustees as an unscriptural and dangerous substitute for the diaconate. A final chapter insists that the deacon is not an independent officer but is subordinate, in the discharge of his office, to the session and the higher courts of the church.

Willson writes in explicit dialogue with Samuel Miller’s essay on the ruling elder, extending its shorter treatment of the deacon into a fuller argument.