Ecclesiastically, a deacon is a person in the lowest degree of holy orders. The office of deacon was instituted by the apostles, and seven persons were chosen at first to serve at the feasts of Christians, and distribute bread and wine to the communicants, and to minister to the wants of the poor. In the Roman Catholic Church the deacon is the chief minister at the altar. He assists the priest in the celebration of mass, and on certain conditions can preach and baptize. In the Church of England the deacon is the lowest of the three orders of priesthood, these being bishops, priests, and deacons. The deacon may perform all the ordinary offices of the Christian priesthood except consecrating the elements at the administration of the Lord's Supper, and pronouncing the absolution. In Presbyterian churches the deacon's office is to attend to the secular interests, and in Independent churches it is the same, with the addition that he has to distribute the bread and wine to the communicants.
In Scotland, a deacon is the president of an incorporated trade, who is the chairman of its meetings and signs its records. Before the passing of the Burgh Reform Act the deacons of the crafts, or incorporated trades, in royal burghs, formed a constituent part of the town-council, and were understood to represent the trades as distinguished from the merchants and guild brethren. Research Deacon
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Research Deacon
