Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2014 Issue | Page 5

Our Homegrown Deacons
The Rev. Deacon Barbara Ambrose
The Rev. Deacon Emmetri Beane
The Rev. Deacon Don Cady
The Rev. Deacon Carey Chirico
The Rev. Deacon Mary Beth Emerson
The Rev. Deacon Christina Garcia
The Rev. Deacon Frederico Garza
The Rev. Deacon Marty Hager
The Rev. Deacon Holly Hanback
The Rev. Deacon Harrison Higgins

Photo: Emily Cherry

The Rev. Deacon Don Cady consults with Bishop Johnston.

The Rev. Deacon Ed Jones
The Rev. Deacon Linda Murphy
The Rev. Deacon Kathryn Thomas
The Rev. Deacon Danny Wilmoth

The transition from ad exec to deacon was actually a bit
more seamless than one might imagine. “In the advertising
business, I was a salesman,” says Cady, which meant “having
to understand dealing with people [and their] needs, hear what
they have to say, and communicate back.” It’s a similar process in
the diaconate.

Cady serves at Emmanuel, Greenwood, where he works in
pastoral care and mission roles. His newest job at Emmanuel is to
help plug parishioners in to different outreach programs. But his
primary ministry as a deacon – and the area in which he seeks to
connect church and community – is in veterans affairs.

Cady’s work with veterans wasn’t the first ministry path he
explored as a vocational deacon. He had expressed an interest
in creating an inter-connected network of Episcopal school
chaplains. But the Committee on the Diaconate encouraged
him to explore other options. So Cady got to thinking. He had a
cousin who lost his life as a pilot during World War II, as well as a
son-in-law who is a retired Navy SEAL and a son who is a career
naval officer. “There is a huge community, particularly here in
Virginia, that needs services for veterans” says Cady.

So Cady began volunteering at the local Veterans Affairs
hospital, and talking with military chaplains and veterans in the
Diocese. Today, he’s working on building resources and providing
education for churches interested in serving veterans, active-duty
military and their families.

What Cady emphasizes about his work – both in his specific
ministry of veterans outreach, and in his more general ministry
as a vocational deacon – is the importance of communication.
“As a deacon, that’s what I’m called to do,” says Cady: “To
hear people, to be able to hear directly what they say, and hear
what’s behind what they say, and then pastorally to be able to
respond.” Plus, he added, “We as deacons need to be out there
telling our story.”

Serving the Helpless

The Rev. Deacon Emmetri Beane’s story starts with her
career as an attorney, where her focus was on families and
children who were affected by poverty and legal troubles. “Even
though I took early retirement due to illness, I never lost that
passion for that population,” says Beane.

The Book of Common Prayer tells deacons that “at all times,
your life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving
the helpless, they are serving Christ himself.” That’s a charge
that Beane lives out in her ministry as a deacon at St. Gabriel’s,
Leesburg. “All the ministries I work with kind of reflect the spirit
of Matthew 25,” says Beane: “For I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me
clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and
you visited me.”

At St. Gabriel’s, Beane focuses her attention on several
ministries. Mobile Hope is a program that provides goods and
services to the “precariously housed” – those who are at high risk
for homelessness. She’s energized by Kairos, the Episcopal prison
ministry, as well. She also identifies part of her job as helping
others understand the unique order of the deacon.

“I’m excited about seeing my parish understand more about
what the diakonia means in the parish context,” says Beane.
“The way to show that is by living it out as one of them.” In other
words, the best way to understand the ministry of a deacon is to
see one in action. “I’m an icon of servanthood,” says Beane. “It’s
not something you explain. It’s something you live.”

Cady and Beane are just two of the 14 “homegrown”
vocational deacons living out their servant ministries in the
Diocese of Virginia (see sidebar for the complete list). But for
the entire group, an important part of being a deacon, as Beane
explains, is the emphasis on process and journey. “I spend a lot
of time prayerfully considering, ‘What is my ministry today?’ And
that’s an important question we all have to ask. Not next month
or next year – what is my ministry today?” And today, Beane says,
“I am very content because I see God at work every day in what
I’m doing.” t

Summer 2014 / Virginia Episcopalian

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