organization and mission of the church. As Newman, Drey, and Möhler would readily admit, the journey of ecclesial development has been a bumpy one over the centuries, but it has been a journey the church has never been unwilling to take. The brief history of the diaconate that is laid out following shows another main point of Newman’s view of development, that is, that the historical movement of a great idea is from the implicit to the explicit. Therefore, the following trip through diaconal history