Detroit — Two men were ordained permanent deacons for the Archdiocese of Detroit last Saturday, Oct. 2.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron presided at the ordinations of Kenneth Bark and Lenard Butler at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, with the spouses and other family members and friends of the new deacons in attendance.
Also at the ceremony and Mass were Cardinal Adam Maida, Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss, and many priests and deacons of the archdiocese.
Deacon Bark, 64, a member of St. Andrew Kim (Korean) Parish in Northville, has been assigned to serve at St. Patrick Parish in White Lake Township, while Deacon Butler, 65, a member of St. Angela Parish in Roseville, has been assigned to serve at Our Lady of Hope Parish in St. Clair Shores.
In his homily, Archbishop Vigneron discussed how ordination, like the other sacraments, is a form of “mystery” — “God in the world, acting to his purpose of saving us, and yet sometimes seeming to veil his activity.”
And he said the mystery of diaconal ordination “is, in fact, the same mystery that is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, in the first chapters, when the Apostles, recognizing the need for the Church to receive assistance — service — understood that the Holy Spirit empowered them to give a share of their own work to seven wise and upright men: deacons.”
The archbishop stressed that “this mystery, which happened in Bible times, continues to happen in every age.”
“We are not play-acting; this is not a re-enactment like what the Civil War re-enactors do at Gettysburg. Mysteriously, this is the same as what we read about in the Bible. This is a mystery, because God is about to act,” he said.
Although it would be the archbishop who conferred the sacrament of ordination through the signs of the laying on of hands, the gesture of calling down the Holy Spirit and recitation of the prayer of ordination, he made the point that their ordination was not really accomplished by human agency.
“It is Christ Who makes you deacons, not me; but Christ acting in me,” he said.
And Archbishop Vigneron made the point that God had already been active in the lives of the candidates about to be ordained: “What God does here, in ordaining you, builds on what God has done from before you began to be, in the plan, in the destiny God has had for you, His call for you.”
The Church’s call to the new deacons only confirms the call they had already received from God, “spoken in your hearts by the Holy Spirit,” the archbishop continued.
And he told the two candidates that the consecration they were about to receive would alter them, so that all of their relationships would be reconfigured to Christ, the servant.
“So that your life can no more be compartmentalized – some days, some hours you are a husband, at others you are an ecclesiastic. No! In your marriage you are a deacon; in caring for your children, you are are a deacon; in your entertainment, in your leisure —whitewater rafting or collecting stamps, I don’t know your hobbies – you are a deacon.
“This is who God is about to make you to be – you are consecrated,” Archbishop Vigneron said.
Deacon Bark, a native of South Korea, completed his education in this country, and has worked as a self-employed engineer and businessman.
He said he was nervous during the ordination ceremony, “but it was great.”
“I really thank God for calling me to serve the Church and the faith community,” he said.
He and his wife, Kyung Hye “Kathy” (Lee) Bark, have two children.
Kathy Bark called the ordination of her husband to the diaconate a “blessing and wonderful.”
“We had a long journey from the beginning (of the formation process) to ordination. I prayed to God with confidence for my husband to be a good servant,” she said.
Deacon Butler, originally from Goodrich, is manager of Central Land Agency LLC. He and his wife, Judy (Price), have eight children.
Deacon Butler said the ceremony was “beautiful.”
“Everyone was telling me afterward it was a long Mass, but it didn’t seem long to me at all,” he remarked.
Deacon Butler has spoken of the circumstances surrounding his conversion.
“On Thanksgiving Day 1968, I still had not decided what religion my family and I would follow; but by that weekend our conversion to the Catholic faith had begun — it was the feast of Christ the King.
“My wife, who was born Mormon, and I, with no religious affiliation, and our two daughters started instruction in the Catholic faith at Our Lady Queen of All Saints Parish, Fraser. On Holy Saturday 1969 we were baptized and received into the Catholic Church,” he said.
“From 1968 to date, our conversion has been a grace filled experience and we have greatly desired to share this blessing with all whom we can,” Deacon Butler added.
