Deacon
Explore
If you are a full-time student at Moore College or Youthworks College or in full-time Anglican lay-ministry and hope to serve the Lord in vocational ministry for the rest of your life, then ordination may be right for you. To make an application to become an ordination candidate as a deacon the following steps are involved. This process can be paused or stopped at any time by you or the MT&D staff. Contact Claire Pritchard at MT&D and request a Confidential Questionnaire form (claire@mtd.org.au). Claire will email the form to you and make a time for you to come in for an interview.
1. Initial interview
An initial interview with our Assistant Director, Steve Rockwell, or for women, Archdeacon Kara Hartley. They will be keen to know about how God has been working in your life and what encouragement you have received to consider ordination. They will also go through a Confidential Lifestyle Questionnaire with you and make a preliminary assessment of your readiness for ordination candidacy. This meeting will also provide you with an opportunity to explore any questions you might have about Anglican ministry here in Sydney or the nature of ordination candidacy. Following this interview, if the decision is to proceed, The Office of the Director of Safe Ministry will conduct some checks to enable you to continue in the process and you will be given some forms for you and others to complete.
2. Psychological assessment and interview
You have a psychological assessment with one of the psychologists at The Mindspace. This involves completing some online questionnaires and meeting up with a psychologist who will write an assessment for us to discuss together. Your spouse also has a conversation with one of the psychologists.
3. Interview
A subsequent meeting with the Assistant Director or Archdeacon for Women to read through and discuss your psychological assessment. The assessment will be sent to our office and we will contact you to arrange this meeting. If you’re married, it will be important for your spouse to come to this interview.
4. Selection Conference
You and your spouse (if married) attend a Saturday Selection Conference. This will consist of a series of interviews including the Archbishop’s ordination panel.
5. Recommendation
A recommendation is then made to the Archbishop who will write to you himself to let you know the outcome of the process.
If you are accepted as an ordination candidate, you begin the two-year discernment process. Over this period, we will seek, with you, to explore if you have the convictions, character and competencies to serve as an assistant minister in the Diocese of Sydney.
Normally this will involve full-time study at Moore College or Anglican Youthworks College, serving as a Student Minster on the weekends in a local church, regular meetings with an Ordination Chaplain appointed by MT&D to discuss your progress and any questions you might have about ministry. At the end of each year, we will ask for a report on your life and ministry from your rector or supervising minister, three lay-leaders in your church and your College. These reports will be discussed in your end of year panel interview where you will also provide a Ministry Development Plan for the following year. After this interview, a recommendation will be made to the Archbishop on your candidacy and you will receive a letter from him telling you the outcome of the process.