Deacons from around Australia will gather in Adelaide next week for the 2025 National Deacons Conference. Source: The Southern Cross.
South Australian and Northern Territory deacons are hosting the biennial conference from February 27 to March 2 at the Adelaide Hills Convention Centre in Hahndorf.
Permanent deacons are the fastest-growing ordained ministry worldwide.
A cross created by Aboriginal artist Vicki Clark will be the centrepiece of the conference and in the lead up has been on display at a number of Adelaide parishes as an expression of thanks for providing their financial support.
Conference convenor Deacon Paul Crowe said the conference was locally funded, relying entirely on nationwide registrations and generous sponsors.
The richly symbolic cross was presented to the National Association of Deacons at an earlier conference (held in Melbourne in 2015) by Ms Clark, who was one of the speakers and was coordinator of Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Victoria for 25 years.
Australia’s Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Balvo will attend the conference and the keynote speaker will be Deacon Bill Ditewig from the United States.
Ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Washington DC in 1990, Deacon Ditewig retired from the US Navy as a commander in 1993.
Since then, he has served in a variety of Church ministries in a number of dioceses, and for more than five years served as the executive director of the Secretariat for the Diaconate and the Secretariat for Evangelisation at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington DC.
He and his wife of 54 years, Diann, have four children and 14 grandchildren.
Deacon Ditewig’s two presentations at the conference will explore ways for deacons to deepen their role as ministers of hope during the Jubilee Year of Hope and will reflect on the practical appreciation and application of the gifts of the diaconate.
Adelaide theologian Fr Michael Trainor and Deacon John Collins from the Parramatta Diocese will also speak at the conference.
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Spotlight on deacons (By Jenny Brinkworth, The Southern Cross)
