December 14, 2011

JARVENPAA, Finland/GENEVA – In Finland snow provides light in the dark days of the Christmas season.

Lutherans from different parts of Europe who converged on Helsinki for a three-day workshop on re-forming community diakonia in the region were reminded of this important aspect of snow for Finns.

Rev. Jouko Porkka, rector of the Diakonia University of Applied Sciences in Järvenpää, noted during the workshop's opening worship that diaconal service provides similar light to needy communities.

"We are people who dwell in a land of deep darkness. We wait for the light to shine on us," said Porkka.

"We are all aware of this darkness. Because of this darkness, people in weak positions are suffering: children, the unemployed, old people, sick people, those with disabilities, Roma people, people from sexual minorities." The 7 to 10 December workshop, which focused on the theme "Seeking Conviviality, Re-forming Community Diakonia in Europe," was held near the capital city, at Järvenpää, on the campus of the Church Advanced Training College.

It was part of a three-year process that aims to develop holistic diaconal responses by The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches to growing poverty and marginalization in Europe.

The participants came from 14 countries in Central Eastern and Central Western Europe and the Nordic region, forming a core group for the duration of the consultative program.

The workshop, organized jointly by the LWF and the International Academy for Diakonia and Social Action Central and Eastern Europe in Ceský Te ... ín, Czech Republic, examined ways of strengthening diaconal actors in their work, relationships and communities. It also explored the theological and spiritual resources from which they draw.

Porrka read out a joint message from Rev. Dr Kimmo Kääriäinen, executive director and Rev. Dr. Tomi Karttunen, secretary for theology of the Church Council Department for International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. They spoke of the help the center originally received from the worldwide Lutheran communion.

"The most concrete symbol of the connection of this center and these buildings have with the global Lutheran world is the so-called ‘American hall' beside the dining hall. The name comes from the fact that the Finnish Lutherans received a great deal of help from America and from other Lutheran churches after the Second World War," he said.

"It helped us to locate ourselves more to be a part not only of the fellowship and global communion of the Lutheran churches but also a part of the wider ecumenical fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ." Rev. Dr Eva Sibylle Vogel-Mfato, LWF area secretary for Europe at the Department for Mission and Development, reminded participants that the breakdown of communism resulted in great economic hardship for people in Central Eastern Europe, because of the corresponding collapse of social security structures. Though the region had slowly recovered, the recent economic crisis has endangered the livelihood of many people, she noted.

"The basic concerns raised over the past decade continue to concern us, and have spread to all regions of Europe. There is existential insecurity and fear during the ongoing economic crisis, with unemployment and rising numbers of families living at the edges of poverty," said Vogel-Mfato.

"Seeking Conviviality" is to run until 2013 and is intended to strengthen the churches' commitment to transform these daily realities of poverty and marginalization, and to contribute to dialogue within the LWF on diaconal practice. More information on "Seeking Conviviality" is available at: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=571&L=126&F=T.

Lutheran World Information