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Sep./Oct. response: Bearers of God’s Light, Love, and Justice
Deaconesses, Home Missioners Consecrated
by Audrey Stanton-Smith
Photo by Paul Jeffrey/United Women in Faith.
The theme of love, justice, and service filled the community gathering space in dance and in word on the first day of Assembly 2026 as nearly 3,000 people celebrated the consecration of 22 deaconesses and home missioners.
The commissioning followed a powerful message by the Rev. Stephanie York Arnold, the event’s theologian in residence and the general secretary for the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women for The United Methodist Church.
“We are meant to be bearers of the light who dream a different way of being, a more abundant life for all, and we are meant to be the workers who build it!” Arnold said in her message about the Good Shepherd.
And that’s what the 2026 class of deaconesses and home missioners committed to do.
But first, dancers from Indianapolis-based Seda Negra/Black Silk Dance Company shared an open-to-interpretation story of crossing boundaries or the need for social justice and the journey of immigrants and those who help them.
Deaconesses and home missioners with United Women in Faith’s Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner followed the dance with verbal reminders about the importance of the commissioning.
Deaconesses and home missioners are theologically and vocationally trained laypeople who have committed themselves to a lifetime of love, justice, and service. They carry out full-time ministry as part of a lay order of The United Methodist Church.
“As part of our ongoing work to train and support leaders, United Women in Faith has the honor of administering the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner,” Deaconess Renee Hayes explained to the audience. “Each does different work, but all share a common mission of love, justice, and service.”
Home Missioner Scott James-Vickery, executive for the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner, added further explanation. “Often there is some confusion about what a deaconess is not. A deaconess is not a female deacon. We are not lay supply pastors, nor is our title something that disappeared when women could be ordained. I am a home missioner. We are still here, and our work continues.”
“Today, deaconesses and home missioners continue to serve in a vast variety of roles: as advocates, chaplains, teachers, social workers, healthcare providers, and more,” added Deaconess Megan Hale, executive for Candidacy Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner.
Three performers from Dance Kaleidoscope, also based in Indianapolis, represented love, justice, and service as a voice recited poetry.
“To minister to the poor, to visit the sick, to comfort those in sorrow, to organize for justice, to mobilize for mission. This was the call of the Holy One,” the lyrics stated, before poetically summarizing the 135-year history of the deaconess and home missioner movement as the three dancers interpreted. “ … These women took hold of the light and raised it high on a lampstand.”
Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, who, along with Bishop Lanette Plambeck, consecrated the candidates, talked about the importance of lay ministry.
“Their witness reminds us that ministry does not begin at the altar—it is lived out in the streets, in systems, in institutions, and alongside those who are too often pushed to the margins,” Smith Malone said. “Together, these expressions of lay ministry affirm a profound truth: when laity [is] equipped, empowered, and sent, the whole Church is strengthened, and the mission of Jesus Christ is made visible in tangible and transformative ways throughout the world.”
Audrey Stanton-Smith is editor of response.
