Two are ordained deacons in Dec. 21 service

Matthew Bradley and Anne Vouga, seminarians who were taking final exams just a week earlier, were ordained deacons during a service at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Louisville.

The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick Jr., bishop of the diocese, was the celebrant and preacher during the evening service, attended by about 150 family, friends and clergy.

Basing his sermon in the gospel reading (Luke 12:35-38), the bishop told those gathered that all deserve glory and a chance to reveal it.  "Every living person is an icon of God in the world" and has "the exquisite satisfaction of revealing the glory of the one whose image we bear," he said.  The diakonia, those ordained to the order of deacons, are "all about mixing service and glory." Their destiny is to serve, he said, and that service, he added, "is about revealing another's glory, and can never be condescending." Addressing the ordinands directly as he closed the sermon, he told them joyfully: "Tonight we look forward to the glory that your ministries will bring to God."

Profiles of Matthew Bradley and Anne Vouga are being published in the upcoming Episcopal News but also may  be found online.(Click on their name, to read the profile.)  To see photos taken by Donald Vish during the service (and the rehearsal), click here.