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Sisters and brothers in faith, especially LWF member churches and their diaconal ministries: we greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, the deacon par excellence, who came to serve and not to be served!
From November 3-7, 2002, under the auspices of the three departments of the Lutheran World Federation, over 80 of us from Lutheran churches throughout the world have gathered in Johannesburg South Africa for a Global Consultation on Diakonia. As we met under the theme, "Prophetic Diakonia: For the Healing of the World," we anticipated the 2003 Winnipeg Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, where we expect some of the following concerns to be pursued further, as well as within our own churches and diaconal ministries.
Participants in our consultation are involved in a wide and diverse range of diaconal work: international relief and development work, domestic diaconal or social ministry work, diaconal institutions, deaconnesses and deacons, pastors and lay members of local congregations, church-related public policy advocates, and those who teach in educational institutions.
We acknowledge with gratitude the many kinds of diaconal work that the Church has carried out through the centuries, and which necessarily continue in our own day. This work is now challenged to move toward more prophetic forms of diakonia. Inspired by Jesus and the prophets who confronted those in power and called for changes in unjust structures and practices, we pray that God may empower us to help transform all that leads to human greed, violence, injustice and exclusion. We want to share with you our findings and invite you to consider the implications in your particular context.
Diakonia and its Prophetic Calling: Theological Perspectives
Diakonia is central to what it means to be the Church. As a core component of the gospel, diakonia is not an option but an essential part of discipleship.
Diakonia reaches out to all persons, who are created in God's image. While diakonia begins as unconditional service to the neighbor in need, it leads inevitably to social change that restores, reforms and transforms.
We are shaped to serve others through worship, where we celebrate God's gifts of grace in the Word, in water, in bread and wine, and glimpse the fullfillment of God's promise. In this broken world where sin and injustice abound, God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit shapes us as a gathered community. Thus, we become agents of grace, hands and feet of Christ for the healing of the world.
All Christians are called through baptism to live out diakonia through what they do and how they live in their daily life in the world. This is the first and most fundamental expression of diakonia. More organized expressions of diakonia occur at the congregational level, as well as through those who are specifically set apart for diaconal ministry. More specialized forms of diaconal work are organized to carry out what individuals or congregations are unable to do on their own.
Because of the holistic mission of God, diakonia is deeply interrelated with kerygma (proclamation of the Word) and koinonia (sharing at the Table). Diakonia is witnessing through deeds. It is rooted in the sharing of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion.
The mutual sharing inherent in the communion of the church can transform the unjust power relations that often are present in diaconal work, such as between "wealthy givers" and "poor recipients." In diakonia, those served and those serving are both transformed. At the same time, we insist that the purpose of diakonia is not to proselytize.
Diakonia is more than the strong serving the weak, which can lead to paternalistic assumptions and practices, and imply that some churches are unable to engage in diakonia because of their lack of resources or expertise. We challenge this assumption. Diakonia is part of the calling of all churches and all Christians in the world.
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