New perspectives on diakonia.

Dongsung, Kim ; Phiri, Isabel Apawo

The idea for an issue of The Ecumenical Review focused on new perspectives on diakonia or Chrisdan service came from discussions at the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013. There, Ecumenical Conversation 21 was entitled "Compelled to Serve: Diakonia and Development in a Rapidly Changing World." The conversation included reflections of the churches, specialized ministries, and ACT Alliance, working together to understand the changing context of diakonia work and to identify new ways of cooperation and coordination among the churches and ecumenical partners informed by sound prophetic theologies. This issue is a testimony to collaboration between the World Council of Churches and the ACT Alliance, exploring what walking together in the pilgrimage of justice and peace may look like.

The new perspectives on diakonia in this issue also need to be understood in contrast to the traditional understanding of diakonia as the church's ministry of service and witness in the world. For much of the ecumenical movement's history, this was understood as engaging in various projects and activities on behalf of those who were suffering, both within the Christian church community as well as in the world at large. As such, diakonia meant large-scale initiatives that relied on significant resources in terms of finances, expertise, and skills. In many instances, local congregations became the objects toward which diakonia projects were oriented and to which diakonia resources and expertise from outside were given. As a consequence, ecumenical diakonia became more and more distant from the everyday life, witness, and ministry of the local congregations.

However, recent deliberations on the nature and theological foundations of diakonia have begun to reverse this paradigm by starting with the local congregations as the subjects of diakonia. In reaffirming that diakonia is an essential character of being church in the world today, the understanding of ecumenical diakonia has once again begun to re-establish the links with proclamation of the good news of God's reign and specific acts of pubic witness against the structures of evil and injustice in the world. Recent discussions on ecumenical diakonia have begun to recognize that the so-called margins that had been the recipients and beneficiaries of diakonia can actually be lifted up as the rightful subjects and actors of diakonia in their communities. Ecumenical diakonia is, then, no longer simply an attempt to articulate or formulate an ecumenical institutional response to the needs of the world. Rather, it has become a movement to recognize the value of spontaneous responses to crises and injustice in different contexts and communities by diverse agents of God's reign in the world, the local congregation, the body of Christ in that community.

The articles in this issue of The Ecumenical Review provide diverse narratives of the various ways in which the Christians and churches are responding to the multiple crises threatening our world. The articles present theological and theoretical explorations of the issues at hand which illustrate how the church's diakonia seeks to respond. The goal of these articles is not to present a definitive answer to the challenges we face in the world today. They do not offer grand ideas, cutting-edge theories, or "how to" projects for addressing the various causes and symptoms of injustice, suffering, pain, and threats to life. Rather, they seek to explore and explain some of the promising initiatives within the ecumenical movement and to invite readers to think along with us on how we, as rightful members of the body of Christ in the world, the church, which is both universal and concretely local, can creatively respond together. The articles serve as an invitation, a calling for "all people--young and old, women and men, differently abled, people of different faiths--to engage their God-given gifts in transforming actions, together."

The articles in one way or another are also engaging with the WCC 10th Assembly affirmations of Ecumenical Conversation 21, which were as follows:

1. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must continue to network and form alliances across denominations in order to work together and add value to our diaconal work in a rapidly changing development context in which the private sector and new actors are increasingly playing a role in development and in times where migration is changing the global demographics.

2. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must respond to the shrinking political space even where it may be a new role for churches. We must claim our space through common action, advocacy, and building awareness together with other faiths in civil society.

3. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must respond to the signs of the times by developing a common diaconal language. We are faith-based and rights-based and we need to identify what this means in practice, including defining our mandate and our core values and by mapping our diaconal assets.

4. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must be in closer contact with local congregations and support diaconal work at the grassroots level.

5. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must respond to the social impact of gender, economic, and climate injustice through networking, developing the capacity for policy analysis, and transnational advocacy in order to promote equitable and sustainable development.

6. The participants affirm that churches, ecumenical partners, and the WCC must continue to engage in new ways of biblical and theological reflection in order to reveal and articulate a transformational vision as outlined in the two background documents: "The Changing Development Paradigm: An ACT Alliance Discussion Paper" and "Theological Perspectives on Diakonia in the 21st Century," in order to undergird our diaconal work in a rapidly changing world.

We are aware that this body of knowledge did not articulate adequately how each of the affirmations will be expanded and implemented. Yet we hope that this focus on new perspectives on diakonia will stimulate further discussion and interaction on ecumenical and local diakonia for our day.

DOI: 10.1111/erev.12114

Editor

Theodore A. GILL, Jr.

Guest Editors

KIM Dongsung

Isabel Apawo PHIRI

Kim Dongsung

Isabel Aparn Phiri

Kim Dongsung is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Korea and currently serves as the Programme Executive for the World Council of Churches in Diakonia and Ecumenical Solidarity.

Isabel Apawo Phiri is a Presbyterian theologian from Malawi. She is Associate General Secretary for Public Witness and Diakonia of the World Council of Churches; honorary professor and former professor of African Theology; Dean and Head of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa; former moderator of the WCC Commission on the Ecumenical Formation and Theological Education; former General Coordinator of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians; and editor of the Journal of Gender and Religion in Africa.