By Thea Jarvis

Leaden skies and rain-soaked highways failed to dampen the spirits of those who drove to middle Georgia to see Michael Campbell and Michael McWhorter ordained to the transitional diaconate.

Family and friends, fellow seminarians, priests and Religious of the archdiocese, as well as local parishioners filled historic Sacred Heart Church in Milledgeville for the June 13 ordination.

Bishop W. Thomas Larkin, retired bishop of St. Petersburg, Florida, who last visited the diminutive, century-old church 35 years ago, ordained the new deacons.

"The diaconate is known primarily as an order of service," Bishop Larkin explained to the congregation in his homily before laying hands on the men. "The deacon doesn't shoulder the burden inherent in this work alone," but depends on Christ who "sweetens the yoke" of service to the church that deacons bear.

Assisting Bishop Larkin at the ordination Mass were Sacred Heart pastor, Father John Farrelly, vocations director Father Don Kenny, Fathers John Adamski, John Kieran and Stewart Wilber. Seminarian Greg Goolsby was master of ceremonies and Deacon John Shoemaker proclaimed the Gospel.

"I'm speechless," said the newly ordained Campbell at a reception in Flannery O'Connor Parish Hall following the ceremony. He served at Sacred Heart last summer and "didn't realize how many friends I had made."

Rev. Mr. Campbell's 93-year-old mother, Bridget, who flew in from New Jersey for the ceremony with family friend Rose McDonald, was a special guest as were two of Campbell's five children.

"If he's happy, we're happy," said Campbell's daughter, Mary Ceballos, who with her sister, Michelle Campbell, joined others at the reception prepared by the parish women's club.

Michael McWhorter said the day was "a completion, a final coming to fruition (of) the work, prayer and study" he has pursued for five years.

A convert to Catholicism, Rev. Mr. McWhorter said he received a baptism in the Spirit at the age of 11, the day before he was to be baptized in water at his Baptist Church.

Since that time, "I knew I wanted to serve the Lord, but I didn't know then I'd be doing it as a Catholic priest," he laughed.

Dorothy McWhorter, who with her husband Billy, younger son, Shawn and his wife, Amanda, drove from Stone Mountain for the ordination, said her son Michael had been born almost a month prematurely and hadn't been expected to live. She said she feels God gave him a special job to do.

"I have to believe that," she said, adding that the new deacon "has really been our teacher," in his parent's own journey into the Catholic faith.

In remarks to the congregation following the ordination, Father Farrelly thanked Bishop Larkin for presiding at what he believed was the parish's first ordination.

Although he has been at Sacred Heart less than a year, he said, the church itself is "almost 120 years old" and the diaconate ordination was a first of the parish.