A little more about Deacons…

Apparently deacons haven’t gotten a lot more popular with some people since the time of St. Stephen Protomartyr. (Hmm… and while we’re on that point: it’s worth remembering that what got St. Stephen in such trouble was preaching the Word after the apostles had prayed, and laid hands on him. [Acts 6:6])
The first ordination which Dr. Martin Luther performed after the break with Rome was that of Georg Rörer in 1525, when Luther ordained Rörer as a Deacon— and thus Rörer is remembered as the first man ordained as a Lutheran pastor.
The English words “Deacon” and “Minister” are equivalent terms from diakonos— who do you think we’ve been praying for all these generations in the General Prayer: “Most heartily we beseech Thee so to rule and govern Thy Church Universal, with all its pastors and ministers, that we may be preserved in the pure doctrine of Thy saving Word..”? For what it’s worth, this specific terminology antedates the Synodical Conference’s transition to English, and can be found in the General Synod’s 1880 Book of Worship in the precise same phraseology one finds in the 1912 Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book and the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal.
There’s no small irony in the fact that those same people who rail against that grade of the one office of the holy ministry which the Church calls “minister” or “deacon” have been praying for the deacons their whole lives.