James L. “Jim” McDonald was ordained deacon on Sept. 30 at St. Michael’s Church in Waynesboro, Ga. Eight days later, his funeral occurred in the same nave.

Deacon McDonald, 66, was so weakened by cancer that he could stand only during the moment of his ordination by his bishop, the Rt. Rev. Henry I. Louttit. For the rest of the service, he sat in a wheelchair.

Deacon McDonald’s survivors include his wife, Charlotte Robinson McDonald, of Sylvania, Ga.; a daughter and son-in-law; three grandchildren; a sister; his mother-in-law; several nieces and nephews; and fellow Episcopalians who were humbled by his servant’s heart, even as he fought cancer.

The Rev. Frank Logue of Kingsland, a member of the diocese’s Commission on Ministry, wrote on his weblog, Irenic Thoughts, about his sense that Deacon McDonald already was functioning as a deacon before he was ordained.

Fr. Logue recalled, in an interview with The Living Church, that as Deacon McDonald began receiving chemotherapy he also began circulating among his fellow patients, listening to their accounts of suffering and offering them comfort and encouragement.

In time he became a chaplain. “That helped him because he went room to room as a chaplain, and he didn’t have to reveal he was a patient. He considered it a success when he didn’t have to tell people he was also a patient,” Fr. Logue said.

“I wasn’t surprised by his reaching out the way he did and serving the way he did,” Fr. Logue said. “Suffering reveals the character that’s already there.”

It was just as important to the Diocese of Georgia, Fr. Logue said, to ordain Deacon McDonald before his death, as an icon of what Christians mean when they speak about the ministry of deacons.

“We say that deacons have a particular responsibility of being a servant. He was a lens of the diaconate,” Fr. Logue said. “I really feel the one holy catholic and apostolic Church is better for his having been ordained a deacon.”

The Rev. Geri Lee Nelson, who helped found the diocese’s Deacon School for Ministry in 2005 and has coordinated it for the past two years, also was moved by the deacon’s care for his those around him.

“It was such a wonderful thing to watch him bloom,” she said. “Cancer is so horrible, but God can bring good out of it. He was so devoted to his studies and his fellow students and his community.”

Deacon Nelson attended his ordination service, and she described the nave at St. Michael’s as packed.

“He just radiated,” she said of seeing Deacon McDonald at his ordination. “Jesus was all over him. He was unable to serve at the altar, but he gave the dismissal. We were all weeping for joy and thankfulness.”

Earlier in the service, she said, “I saw in the pew watching him being ordained, and the image that came to my mind was of him dancing into heaven, wearing his red stole. He is face to face with his Lord and Savior. Yes, I think he’s a deacon there.”

Douglas LeBlanc

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