Book Review: Unexpected Consequences: The Diaconate Renewed

Abstract

Unexpected Consequences: The Diaconate Renewed. By Susanne Watson Epting. New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015. 208 pp. $24.00 (paper).The title is one thing I particularly appreciate about this thorough and much needed book in which Susanne Watson Epting curates and interprets a wealth of fugitive sources concerning development of modern diaconate. Not only is phrase Unexpected Consequences provocative and easy remember, it also genuinely points heart of Watson Epting s thesis. She argues, and this reviewer would agree, that revived recognition of importance of deacons in Episcopal Church grows directly from central importance put on baptism in 1979 Book of Common Prayer. She also suggests that role of deacons in bringing light injustice and entrenched privilege, both inside and outside church, is an inevitable consequence of ordination instruction deacons to interpret Church needs, concerns, and hopes of world. Watson Epting's thesis, presented cogently and convincingly in her preface, is that both of these were unexpected consequences of the new prayer book.Susanne Watson Epting is almost uniquely placed have written a history of modem in Episcopal Church. Just a year after launch of 1979 Prayer Book she began her discernment for ordination as a deacon. During following thirty-five years she has lived into and been part of shaping modem diaconate, particularly in her role as long-time Executive Director of Association for Episcopal Deacons (formerly North American Association for Diaconate). Unexpected Consequences incorporates careful, scholarly research, but its real authority is grounded in Watson Epting s long experience working as a deacon at margins of church and society.Early on I would like offer one caveat. I would not recommend Unexpected Consequences as an introduction ministry of deacons nor even as an introduction history of modem diaconate. It is densely written and includes lengthy citations from primary sources, many of which most of us would never have an opportunity read were it not for Watson Eptings careful and time-consuming research. A better first book on is Ormonde Platers Many Servants: An Introduction Deacons. In fact, Watson Epting explicitly builds on Many Servants, including adopting Platers framework of waves of diaconate as a way of presenting historical evolution of ministry of deacons. …