Pfarrer Jürgen Gohde

Präsident des Europäischen Verbandes für Diakonie EURODIACONIA

The trend is obvious. Social services including initiatives of the churches are more and more involved in economical competition. Even services dealing with people are subject to the laws of supply and demand. The state retires from its responsibilities and the tendency towards privatization in the field of health care and social services is growing.

Expanding merchandization could mean better chances, more participation. But expanding merchandization can also mean increasing marginalization and commercialization of services. Diaconia has made the experience that privatization of life risks is only partly feasible. The powers of the individual and of the market are not sufficiently capable of meeting the risks of life which people are exposed to. A great majority of people is not able to take preventive measures against sickness, handicaps, old age or unemployment. The process of opening social service to the market or reduction to the lowest level hits those people worst who have no financial resources for preventive measures against risks. The remedy of commercialization of social services leads to a selective society. Therefore it is necessary to care for European standards in order to prevent migration to escape poverty. The consequences of globalization have reached Europe. The wealth of few must not feed from the poverty of many. More globalization shall mean: more social justice.

The trend towards privatization has also reached religion. Diaconical institutions, initiatives, deacons and deaconesses are living and working in a secular, atheistic environment. However, Diaconia also means to live Christianity in public. Thus the motivation to social activities, the development of a culture of compassion and sympathy, of courage and commitment is a public issue which must concern everyone to prevent privatization of faith and social motivation.

Therefore we need an eloquent and competent diaconical work which is willing to engage in fighting for the truth. It is the sign of a church willing to grow, willing to accept the challenges of people searching for orientation.

The significance of social services is growing and makes new demands on the social network and its development. This process is also due to a greater mobility and individualization, to the situation of families and children and to still existing unemployment. The importance of neighbourly assistance of families as well as the importance of Christian communities and social networks is also increasing.

We need guidelines for competent services which represent a promise of Christian hope, spirituality of solidarity and the community of the reconciled.

Places to live for children or for people with handicaps whose dignity and right to live is threatened, places in which refugees find protection and the victims of violence peace, places in which the strength of religious conviction, respect for human life and dignity can be learned and where it is possible to live, life fragmentary as it is; places where unemployed people do not lose courage, but learn afresh the significance of solidarity and where they rediscover their personal strength.

Places in which the truth about a person is not hushed up and where fear, failure and guilt need not be hidden, because in Jesus Christ a fresh start is possible. Places in which new orientation is to be found. How then will we distribute the limited resources? What is to be done? Questions of economy are not purely questions of economy, but questions regarding the quality of life. How do we overcome the absence of a vision inherent in a purely economic solution and how to structure services on which the individual person can depend? How to make sure the services are in agreement with the request? The dream of the perfect life has come to an end.

• Places of reconsideration and renewal, in which people have a chance to change and become aware of their fellowmen and women and their anxieties, in which people needing advice will find people prepared to share their life's experience. Places in which people with the help of bible and church services can have their own experience.
• Places of brotherly/sisterly love, where indifference and coldness are out but solidarity towards and among each other can be found and practised, places where attention is extended to those who are ill and confused.
• Places where living in hope is possible. Space of freedom. Freedom and obligation. Self development and obligations are not opposites. Space for voluntary involvement and a chance to help shaping society. Place for encouragement in which a vision can be searched and found for a purposeful structuring of communal life, a place in which one can ask: what best serves life. Places of permanence and a form of living together which ensures time to live. Places of dependability, a union in service built on trust in which forgiveness has a meaning. A place for the protection of those who need care, a place not to be sacrificed for a presumed autonomy or even less to economical consideration.

Increasing merchanization and competition require new economic control mechanisms. If economical control fails ethical control mechanisms are needed. This is a great challenge to the diaconical work to act contrary to economical and political controlling. The main question is: What is serves to life?

• How can people be treated with respect and dignity?
• How can people find protection, attention and care?
• How are individual responsibility and solidarity balanced?
• How should social and cultural infrastructures be organized?
• How should we be involved in the process of identification of relevant indicators of social reality of people.

Ethical problems not only show up due to limited financial resources but are also part of basic issues of life itself: such as the problem of humane death, the reality of cloning for therapeutical reasons and genetic research. People influenced by the tradition of enlightenment or the Jewish-Christian tradition have to find a common way. Increasing progress must include and promote ethical progress and should not privatize orientation on spiritual values.

Ethical and economical control mechanisms must be able to develop well balanced: „Test everything and keep what is valuable".

Access to social services must be possible to everybody regardless of wealth, social position or religion.

„According to our Christian faith we are committed to shape a humane and social Europe where human rights and basic rights in peace, justice, freedom, tolerance, participation and solidarity are respected. We emphasize the respect for life, the values of matrimony and family, social commitment for the poor, the readiness to forgive and charity in everything" (Charta Oecumenica).

Care should be taken to avoid marginalization not only in the field of social services but also by the quality of social life. Central to Diaconia is the intention to work with rather than for people, aiming for empowerment and transformation. Competition should be controlled, voluntary work should be promoted and the issue of our work should always be: What is useful for life? Or put differently: What can support the respect for life?