Ecumenical diakonia.

Boseto, Leslie ; Mshana, Rogate ; Pamboukian, Seta 等

At its meeting in January 1994, the World Council of Churches' central committee approved a recommendation urging its member churches and related bodies "to engage in a form of theological reflection entitled Putting Action into Faith". This decision was based on a recognition that "sharing and service need to be grounded in biblical and theological reflection, interrelating theological reflection and faithful practice".

Over the years, to be sure, diakonia has already been the subject of a good deal of ecumenical ethical and theological reflection. A recent brochure from the WCC Programme Unit on Sharing and Service sets forth eleven characteristics of diakonia as it has come to be understood ecumenically. According to this summary, ecumenical diakonia

(1) puts the least advantaged first;

(2) is mutual (those who serve the needy accept their own need to receive and the ability of the needy to give);

(3) acts with those it claims to serve, not for or about or over them;

(4) respects the needy's judgement of what their needs are and how to meet them;

(5) adds to the power of the needy to control what happens to them;

(6) responds to immediate needs while understanding, resisting and transforming systems which create and aggravate them;

(7) shares the resources that promote life;

(8) remains faithful and refuses to desert the needy;

(9) acknowledges the inevitable cost as well as gain;

(10) gives an account of itself to those it serves;

(11) sets no boundaries to its compassion.

The short pieces which follow come from several persons who were invited to respond to this list on the basis of their own experience.

1. Leslie Boseto

The eleven interrelated characteristics of diakonia as understood ecumenically present the holistic mission of the Triune community of the community-creating God, locally and internationally. The focus is on response to God's love in action. To summarize what I mean by the inter-relatedness of these characteristics in a holistic theology of mission and development, I share the following:

God the Father, the living source of all good resources and the promoter of life (7) is faithful to his promised blessing to the needy (8), as he is in solidarity with them (3); and in his compassion he shows no favouritism, but acts beyond boundaries (11).

Through Jesus the Son, God's kingdom puts the least first (1) and this costs Jesus' life on the cross (10), in order to give an account of their future to be at the right side of the great king and judge (9).

God the Holy Spirit, the life and power of the new covenant community, empowers both the least and the greatest (5) within mutual koinonia with the Spirit of diakonia (2), so that they respect each other's judgement (4), both to respond to immediate needs and to continue to work on a long-term commitment towards the manifestation of the transformed community out of the standard of this world.

This holistic presentation of the eleven characteristics of diakonia could be expanded by adding some biblical references:

God is the source of all resources of life (Romans 11:33-36). He offers and promotes life, not death (Deut. 30:15-20; John 10:10). Through the history of the Jewish people, God is faithful to fulfil his promised good news (blessing; Genesis 12:3). The promised gospel of blessing is Jesus of Nazareth, the descendant of Abraham (Gal. 3:16). God is in solidarity with his oppressed, poor and alienated people under political, economic and racial institutions (Exodus 3:7-12). God is a God of compassion; therefore he has no barriers and boundaries (Amos 9:7).

Jesus Christ carried out God's programme of action (Luke 4:18-19). Through Jesus, the law of the kingdom (James 2:8) puts the least (my neighbour) first before myself (cf. Luke 10:25-28). This programme of being in solidarity with the least cost Jesus his life on the cross (cf. Matt. 16:21-26). Diakonia with the least cannot be worked out only by a mission board or missionary council, because their future has already been determined by what has been done for them in solidarity with their suffering king (Matt. 25:31-40).

The Holy Spirit gives birth to the promised covenant community (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The Spirit of Christ liberates (2 Cor. 3:17) and empowers each one for a mutual sharing within koinonia (Acts 2:43-47), with the motivating spirit of wider diakonia (Acts 6:1-6). Within our household of faith (Gal. 6:10), let us respect each other (Romans 12:10), by carrying one another's burdens as we each carry our own loads (Gal. 6:1-5), so that our diakonia responds both to immediate needs, without spending too much time in church meetings and church worship (Luke 7:18-23; 10:29-37), and to long-term commitment for transformation from the standard of this world (Romans 12:2).

Such a holistic presentation of the eleven characteristics of diakonia underscores the fact that the WCC Programme Unit on Sharing and Service, in its practical commitment to "putting action into faith", must not do so in isolation from other parts of the WCC. Paul's proclamation of salvation by faith and James's teaching that faith without action is dead belong together.

Let us turn now to two of the characteristics of diakonia which I see as important and relevant to the starting point of putting action into faith within my contextual situation.

... shares the resources that promote life

The main resource for the survival and security of life in our traditional and present context is people. Promoting and maintaining the life of the whole village-based community takes place within each family unit. Therefore parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, etc., are the main resources at the very base of our human community. This traditional reality has been affirmed by texts such as 1 Timothy 5:8 and Ephesians 6:1-4. I think the holistic growth of Jesus (Luke 2:52) took place because of the help which was provided from his parents and others within his extended family unit. Diakonia starts from there, for without a human basis of diakonia there is no feeling. Jesus within his human base is guided to see God's will within the wider community, nation and world (Matt. 12:48-50).

In my island of almost 20,000 people there are more than 300 tribal groups. Most of these tribal entities relate to their own areas of customary land. Therefore, our Choiseul Province is made up of more than 300 tribal bases. The important leaders at the human base of our context are not ordained ministers and pastors in the church, but tribal chiefs/leaders. I have been and am working with grassroots leadership because I am convinced that this is the level where Jesus of Nazareth spent most of his years on earth. Our Lauru Land Conference of Tribal Community is now being registered, so that our prophetic voices on behalf of the least advantaged will be given close attention by politicians and national officials. These leaders must be accountable more and more to the grassroots, where 90 per cent of the population in the Solomons live. So I see my place as a grassroots person, but not as a grass-skirts person!

... sets no boundaries to its compassion

Unfortunately, one destructive thing done by those who introduced different denominations and Western civilization to our islands was to assimilate our tribal entities into their doctrines, cultures and systems. This means that our human base has been fragmented and weakened. Those of us who are leaders of our churches and governments become servants of the oppressive institutions and systems that are serving ourselves, but are not serving the least advantaged neighbours of our nations. We will continue to preach, research and discuss their oppressed and deprived situation from isolated and comfortable places, but cannot live with and among them. So we can easily create grass-skirts entities.

If Jesus were to come back in his human form, he would see that we are in much the same situation as two thousand years ago. The parable of the Good Samaritan, the Priest and the Levite (Luke 10:30-37) explains to us that leaders who always pray and preach about how to help the least, but never come down to be with them lack feeling. All three saw the dying man, but the first two did not feel anything. The Good Samaritan was filled with compassion. Jesus always feels with compassion when he sees the oppressed, the worried, the lost and the helpless (Matt. 9:36). To feel with compassion means to me to listen to the cries of those who are looking for neighbours, to accept them and be in solidarity with them, even if they are our enemies. Compassion challenges our theological, denominational, economic, political, legal and racial boundaries. Compassion represents the presence of the Lord of koinonia. Koinonia without compassion is like grass-skirts, and is dead because it has no grassroots.

The Larnaca Consultation in 1986 said: "Diakonia is carrying God's mercy into a merciless world." Let me indigenize and localize this by saying: "Diakonia is manifesting God's kingdom by putting the least-advantaged first within our grassroots base."

2. Rogate Mshana

Diakonia is traditionally considered to deal with the assistance of victims of abnormalities. Among Christians, charity and philanthropy became the underlying responses to such abnormalities, often with reference to the over-preached parable of the "Good Samaritan". Diakonia was indeed associated with the ministry of St Stephen and others to provide social welfare to the widows (Acts 6). But the trend to create sharp dichotomies between sacred and secular, religious and political, "this world" and "the world to come", development and evangelization has led to the separation of the work of diakonia from the holistic ministry of Christ described in Luke 4:18-19. The focus on diakonia as simply the provision of services to the disabled, disadvantaged, poor and marginalized, as an end in itself, could be termed "fire brigade diakonia".

But diakonia should go beyond fire brigade action to become dynamic, reflecting a commitment to social change through change of structures. It should enable the victims of oppressive systems to understand and grasp the root causes of their problems. Central to this type of "transformative diakonia" is social analysis, exploring the appearance of problems, their root causes and the broad structures of economic, political, social and cultural institutions. The interpretation of the scriptures will therefore be re-examined as well. Transformative diakonia views the Good Samaritan example differently. Whereas fire brigade diakonia will emphasize charity and speedy relief for the victim, which is quite necessary, transformative diakonia will go beyond to ask why there are robbers around in the first place. Why should a system produce robbers?

The ecumenical movement is called to a new vision of diakonia which is holistic, rejecting dualisms and accepting the integral unity of the service of faith and promotion of justice. Holistic diakonia is committed to social change through change of structures, in addition to personal conversion, and insists on the need for value discussion in public discourse, for instance by raising human questions in economic policy debates. In the case of Africa, it should be concerned with the current challenges of promoting political and economic democracy, demanding government accountability and transparency, recognizing that business as usual is leading African countries and the world to imminent disaster. It should be concerned about the distribution of power in the church and the participation of the laity in social transformation. These elements of a new theological vision imply rethinking also the praxis of diakonia.

The elements of a transformative diakonia are based on the premise that the sacred and the secular cannot be separated, especially in Africa. Since it deals with victims of injustice, natural disasters and human oppressive systems, this type of diakonia heals individuals and their systems. The means for exercising the healing of systems is the use of advocacy.

Advocacy is basically political spirituality. It is a comprehensive concept that encompasses the search for justice, peace and integrity of creation. So whereas traditional diakonia depicts Joseph as a good steward in Pharaoh's household for filling his stores with grain which he used to purchase the Israelites as slaves, transformative diakonia asks why this power monopoly was blessed. Why was too much food available in Egypt and not in all surrounding countries? Why is the West rich and Africa poor? How do we interpret Genesis 47:20-26, which reports that Pharaoh took all the land of Egypt except that of the priests? In such a situation what type of diakonia is needed for the landless?

Transformative diakonia is impossible if the scriptures are detached from presentday life. A first step is to avoid repeated or routine preaching which caters for personal salvation, for the Christian life, while intensely personal, is always communal. The privatization of piety, which is not part of the African Christian tradition, undermines the Christian life. It is necessary in promoting transformative diakonia to move from private to social conscience.

We must note that this move involves a rereading of the scriptures. A typical example is the familiar passage in Isaiah 1:18, which most Christians are familiar with (and many could quote from memory): "Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." When this is read out of a privatizing spirituality, the thrust of the immediately preceding verse is ignored. It reads: "learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow"; and it could serve as a base for transformative diakonia. But the churches' bias in selecting scriptures that stress inner salvation weakens advocacy, which is the means for promoting transformative diakonia.

While the Bible says a great deal about the poor, it is the non-poor and the powerful who seem to get the most attention in the church and usually end up running things. It is they who become the official interpreters of the scriptures and manage to take most of the challenges directed to them out of the passages dealing with the poor. Poverty is spiritualized as "spiritual poverty", wealth is spiritualized as "the kingdom of heaven" and rewards are after death. Transformative diakonia must change such false teachings.

The concept of sustainable development in the world, defined as meeting the development needs of the present generation without sacrificing the needs of the next, is part of transformative diakonia. The ecumenical movement is called to promote this. Human beings are greedy. This selfishness will destroy the earth under our feet, the source of our existence. Transformative diakonia is therefore imperative. Its content should be as follows:

* promote ways of attaining sustainable development in the world and within nations;

* promote education for democracy and human rights, so that the civil society is aware of its rights;

* work out with the civil society strategies on how to demand a accountability, transparency and participation from states;

* encourage Christians through the rereading of scriptures not only to pray for peace but make peace by working for justice;

* continue to assist victims of injustice, but go beyond it by researching the nature of systems and forces that are responsible for the misery of victims.

3. Seta Pamboukian

My introduction to the World Council of Churches was in 1987 through the world consultation on the ecumenical sharing of resources (El Escorial). Shortly after that I became a member and later the moderator of the Middle East Resource Sharing Group. Presently I am a member of the commission for the Programme Unit on Sharing and Service (Unit IV). I begin in this way to emphasize that, as one of the El Escorial consultation participants, I have committed myself to the guidelines for sharing which include the eleven characteristics of ecumenical diakonia outlined by Unit IV. Since the El Escorial consultation, I believe, we have been repeating ourselves on the subject of diakonia and resource sharing. Whatever was said at El Escorial was all-inclusive and perfectly adequate. What remains is for the ecumenical community to implement those guidelines.

My reactions to the characteristics of ecumenical diakonia are best summarized in the introductory paragraphs to the "Guidelines for Sharing" drafted at El Escorial:

"Out of abundant and outgoing love, God has created the world, and has given it to all humanity for faithful use and sharing. As recipients of God's gift of life, we are called to see the world through God's eyes, offering it in blessing through our own acts of love, sharing and appropriate use.

"But, because of our sin and selfishness, we have misused God's gift. We have allowed the interests of a few to diminish the life of many. It has led to the rise of unjust structures which perpetuate dependence and poverty for the majority of the world's people. This surely is contrary to the purpose of God.

"It is in the midst of this sinful reality that in Jesus Christ God offered God's very self for the life of the world. Jesus' self-emptying love on the cross leads us to repentance. It becomes the power and pattern of our sharing.

"The presence of the Risen Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to break down barriers and renew structures, preparing for the coming of God's kingdom of justice and peace.

"The new life given by the Holy Spirit in Christ creates us as a new people -- members of one body, bearing one another's burdens and sharing together in God's gift of life for all.

"In the eucharist we offer to God ourselves and the whole of creation in its brokenness, and receive all things back anew. The eucharist sends us back into the world to be Christ's body, broken and shared for the life of the world.

"As the first-fruits of the new humanity, the church is called to stand in solidarity with all people, particularly with the poor and the oppressed, and to challenge the value systems of this world."(1)

Among the different characteristics of ecumenical diakonia, the one that has struck me most is that of putting the least advantaged first. The least advantaged -- whether a group, a community or a church -- are always in need of a helper, a catalyst or an enabler to give a push towards further developing, organizing, fulfilling, self-realization and acquiring self-dignity.

But it is very difficult for the least advantaged to attract the attention of the enablers, because they are not trained or equipped to speak up for themselves in a way acceptable to the "civilized" -- and deafened -- world. The least advantaged are not informed of the possible resources and the channels to reach to those resources.

It is up to the ecumenical community with its different mechanisms of partnership to look for the least advantaged and enable them, train them and develop them. The ecumenical community has to be sensitive to the needs of the least advantaged. On this point the words of the 1993 world conference on Faith and Order offer a fitting challenge:

The church as koinonia is called to share not only in the suffering of its own community but in the suffering of all by advocacy and care for the poor, needy and marginalized; by joining in all efforts for justice and peace within human societies; by exercising and promoting responsible stewardship of creation and by keeping alive hope in the heart of humanity. In so doing it shows its vocation to invite all people to respond in faith to God's love. Diakonia to the whole world and koinonia cannot be separated.(2)

4. Park Sang Jung

The history of the ecumenical sharing of resources has passed through a number of stages since the time when the "Herrenalb categories" were set by the mission agencies and the diaconal organizations of Western countries.(3)

Ecumenical awareness of and emphasis on the place of "development" in working for international economic justice challenged the churches to redirect their priorities and their resources. A number of structural adjustments and experiments were implemented by the donor agencies and a number of third world countries, as well as large and small intermediaries such as the WCC and some regional ecumenical organizations.

In reviewing these developments, one still finds the phenomena largely dictated by the mood and the quality of the bureaucratic structures and personnel of the agencies generating material and financial aid. The involvement and participation of third world churches and agencies became more apparent in the process, but this is rather deceptive, because it largely reflects the increased flow of resources from the North to the South.

The demise of socialist regimes in eastern and central Europe, geo-political realities after the Gulf War and the realities of the third world after the events in Tienanmen Square in 1989 have precipitated massive changes in the world. The GATT Uruguay Round and a number of initiatives undertaken by global monetary and financial agencies tend to uphold the historical advantages of the industrialized countries, oblivious to the detrimental consequences of these for third world people. People around the world are also becoming quite conscious of developments in the African continent, especially the political changes in South Africa. One consequence has been rising expectations among Asian people for democratization at all levels in their societies.

These changing realities all demand creative reflection on the part of the churches around the world, and on the face of it the paradigm which shaped the development ideology seems no longer appropriate.

Before we undertake any consultative process to restructure present ecumenical arrangements, however, it is absolutely imperative to plan for a new network of communication among the local groups and support agencies both in the North and the third world countries, as a preliminary step towards global realization of the covenant relationship between the churches and groups for justice, peace and the integrity of creation. This seminal idea was first articulated at the Asian Forum on Justice and Development, which was called jointly by the WCC's Commission on the Churches' Participation in Development and the Christian Conference of Asia in November 1984. It is, I believe, still a valid concern which the ecumenical movement should find it worth listening to.

It has been three years since I returned to my own country after a long period of service with the WCC, CCA and North American churches. To one who is once again involved in local ecumenical initiatives, the so-called traditional and existing network of ecumenical structural relationships -- national, regional and global -- seem surprisingly strait-jacketed and inflexible. Probably the ecumenical diaconal structure is not an exception. Though this is an old Asian question, it sounds very fresh in my local situation.

5. Staccato Powell

Participation in the performance of diaconal ministry is not optional, but rather a prerequisite for Christian discipleship. In Matthew 25 we find a clue to God's purpose for diakonia, which has been marvelously illuminated in a recorded sermon by Samuel D. Proctor. Matthew relates in summary form three years of Jesus' teaching. In accordance with his profound pedagogical style, Jesus states the diakonia principle succinctly and vividly in a parable. The principle serves as an apparatus for measuring true discipleship.

Jesus said that when the son of man comes to pass judgement upon the nations, he will separate them as a shepherd divides sheep from the goats. On the right hand, he will place the sheep. He will say to those on his right, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me" (Matt. 25:35f.). In utter amazement, the sheep will ask when had they seen him hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison. He will reply, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it unto one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (v. 40).

Then, turning his attention to the goats on his left, he will say, when I was hungry because of famine in my land, you gave me no meat. When I was thirsty due to a drought, you gave me no drink. When I was naked and exposed to the world, you gave me no clothes. When I was sick, due to disease in the land and lack of medical supplies, you were too occupied with political propriety to aid me. When a stranger and refugee in need of somewhere to go, you refused to take me in. When a prisoner, unjustly incarcerated due to an oppressive regime, you would not visit or stand in solidarity with me. In abject astonishment, the goats will enquire when they had seen him as a hungry, thirsty, diseased and sickly refugee and failed to assist him in his pathetic plight. He will answer, "Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (v. 45).

He bids both the sheep and goats to depart for the same duration. The difference is in the destination. He sends the goats on the left "into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (v. 46).

Sometimes it is embarrassing how we have cloaked diakonia in such complex garb. Whereas we are challenged to reflect on "diaconal ministry", the "equitable sharing of resources", the "development of human resources", "new models for sharing" and to promote "comprehensive diakonia", Jesus was direct. Straight-forwardly he establishes diakonia as a fundamental and essential requirement of God for his people. Samuel D. Proctor, quoting from the familiar King James Version of this passage, comments: "And yet Jesus, in simple charity, gave us the bottom line: 'I was an hungred and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was stranger, and ye took me in; Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.'" That is the essence of diakonia.

There are points at which we seem to be estranged by the pragmatism of diakonia. Most of us are not close enough to the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick or the imprisoned. Though we are all citizens of this global village, "the least" among us seem to be a distant reality. They appear to us as voiceless, faceless and nameless entities. Yet, in the final analysis our eternal destination will be determined by our participatory role in diaconal ministry, not our theological reflection on it.

This is not to deny that our efforts ought to be premised upon prayerful thought. It could become clumsy if all of us attempted to care for the world's neediest on a purely spontaneous, personal, uncoordinated charitable basis. Yet we must never become stuck in the quagmire of the "paralysis of analysis."

Our care of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and the diseased is divinely mandated; but we are not finished when we say that. This God-given mandate requires caring and compassionate Christians to remain on the case. Persons who participate in diaconal ministry must provide faces for the faceless, names for the nameless and voices for the voiceless. Our ears must be sensitive to the silent screams which resonate from hunger-pained bellies.

Diakonia never blames the victims who go naked, hungry and thirsty. The diseased and imprisoned are not to be held responsible for their own condition. There is gross ignorance abroad in the world on how the poor have become poor, on how deeply entrenched discrimination has been and on how much hatred and rank hostility many people have had to endure while attempting to maintain a little human dignity.

The ultimate requirement for diakonia is a caution against hedonism, devotion to our personal delights and narcissism, against being lovers of self before everyone else. Diakonia by definition allows space and time for the "least of these".

Contributing funds for the furtherance of diaconal ministry is significant, but it is no substitute for participatory engagement. Sometimes it is less costly to give money than it is to give of oneself. Sending money is often perceived as exoneration from the necessity of coming into direct contact with the "least of these". Many hungry, thirsty, naked strangers may benefit from our generosity, but the divine mandate remains unfulfilled. If we are to escape the searing indictment "I was a stranger and you did not welcome me", we must be willing literally to take the stranger in.

The call to diaconal ministry is caught up well in the lyrics of an African-American gospel song:

May the service I give speak for me.

May the service I give speak for me.

When I'm resting in my grave and nothing can be said,

May the service I give speak for me.

This is the bottom line.

NOTES

(1)Sharing Life. Official report of the El Escorial consultation, ed. Huibert van Beek, Geneva, WCC, 1989, p.27.

(2)T.F. Best and Gunther Gassmann eds, On the Way to Fuller Koinonia, Geneva, WCC, 1994, p.233.

(3)These categories, named after the place in Germany where a 1956 consultation was held by the WCC's Division of Inter-Church Aid (DICARWS) and the International Missionary Council (IMC), specified the types of projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America which would be supported, respectively, by the IMC and by DICARWS.

(4)Leslie Boseto is a bishop of the United Church of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and a president of the World Council of Churches.

(5)Rogate Mshana is development secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

(6)Seta Pamboukian of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Lebanon) is a member of the commission of the WCC's Unit IV on Sharing and Service and has frequently represented her church at international meetings.

(7)The Rev. Dr Park Sang Jung is director of the Christian Institute for the Study of Justice and Development, Seoul, Korea.

(8)Staccato Powell is pastor of the Washington Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in St Louis, Missouri, USA, and a member of the commission of the WCC's Unit IV on Sharing and Service.