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Order of Deacons


The Baltimore-Washington Conference Order of Deacons welcomes you!

Currently there are 33 full-member Deacons (including retirees) and seven provisional Deacons serving throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference in settings inside and outside the local church.

Deacons serve:

  • Within a UMC local congregation, charge or cooperative parish (15 deacons) as ministers of Christian educators and youth ministers;
  • In agencies and settings beyond The United Methodist Church (ten deacons) including chaplaincy, advocacy, and higher education; and
  • In UMC schools or agencies (three deacons) such as the BWC, Wesley Seminary and the General Board of Church and Society.

Twenty-five deacons are certified in specialized ministry: nine in Christian education, one in music ministry, four in youth ministry and one in pastoral counseling.

Across the denomination 60 percent of Deacons serve in the local church, 32 percent beyond the local church and eight in other. In the BWC, full-member Deacons serve almost equally in local churches and in the world, beyond the local church.

Rev. Janet Craswell is presently the Chair of the BWC Order of Deacons. This position is filled every four years (quadrennially) having been nominated by the Bishop and the cabinet and elected by the Order of Deacons. (Paragraph 308, Book of Discipline.)

The continuing goals of the Baltimore-Washington Conference's Order of Deacons are to:

  • Be a resource for the District Committees of the Board of Ordained Ministry;
  • Connect and nurture those in the candidacy process -- including relating to students at Wesley Seminary as they consider the Deacon track;
  • Include all people in the ministry of the diaconate as much as possible; and
  • Connect with and support the diakonia in small and ethnic churches.

If you are considering pursuing ordination in The United Methodist Church and would like more information regarding the Order of Deacons, in addition to the Book of Discipline, we also recommend:

  • The Ministry of Deacon (General Board of Higher Education and Ministry)
  • A Deacon's Heart: The United Methodist Diaconate by Ann Crain Margaret and L. Seymour Jack (Abingdon Press)
  • The Deacon: Ministry Through Words of Faith and Acts of Love by Ben L. Hartley and Paul E. Van Buren (General Board of Higher Education and Ministry)
  • Deacons and the Church: Making connections between old and new by John N. Collins (Morehouse Publishing)

DeaconsFor more information (lectures and papers, positions/persons available, and other good content) regarding the Order of Deacons we encourage you to visit GBHEM.

(above, left) Members of the BWC Order of Deacons at the 2007 Diakonia gathering sponsored by GBHEM.       

Content for this page is provided by Rev. Doris E. Warrell. If you have suggestions or comments regarding this page, please send them to dew818(at)starpower.net.