Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)
1968-06-01 / 2. szám
HOP Vol XX Special Number 1968 No 2 48 (07690) Church and, on the other hand, partly anticipates what then became the special ministry to the poor cf the charitable work cf the Church* Either a$ a nőmén action!a or as a nomen aoti, the wcrd diakonia, chiefly in the Pauline writings, denoted in the first place all the ecclesiastical ministrations (Acts 6:14; 20:24; Romans 11:15; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Ephesians 4(12; Colosaién« 4:17; Rev* 2:9)* - Secondly, the word diatonia denotes a gpecial branch of church ministry, the activity to help the poor, specifically in the passages relating the action of the Gentile Christians to help the impoverished Jerusalem congregation, by sending them the receipts at a collection, thus manifesting the ecumenical unity of the two main branches — already in the process of achieving independence from one another - of the Christian community (Acts 6:1; Romans 15:31)* It is this narrower 3ense of the word that anticipates the later usage of which we spoke above - the usage which finally mates the word a technical term to denote the charitable service of the Church. v In the way of summing up we may say that the key concept in the New Testament to the understanding cf the varied meanings carried by the word group diakonos, diakonein, diakonia is supplied by the diakonia of Christ the Diakonos. Yet already the New Testament usage lays the foundation for the subsequent interpretation of the diakonia as an institution of the Church and, at the same time, contains the germinal' sense of what then developed into the use of the word as a technical term for the charitable activity of the Church* However, in the basic sense, diakonia in the New Testament denotes the ministry cf Christas life in the sense of His giving to the Church, His Body, a share in this ministry and, at the same time, making the demand on the Church to engage in the meet comprehensively understood diakonia, in the service which the Church owes to all men. ‘b) Historical Review We axe to speak of the experiences which we hava made of the diakonia pattern in our society* But to do this, we must first review the ministrations of our churches in the past. It is not natural and something simply to betaken for granted that the Church lives and serves, that she can live and serve in this way in cur sooiety in vhich the building up cf the social order proceeds according to the principles cf Ifexxism. Por we must not forget how this society came into being: the churches,chiefly the Roman Catholic Church, but, in her footsteps, the Protestants churches also had done their utmost to prevent this type of social order from ocming into being* Hungary between the two world wars, after the liquidation of the Republic of Councils, kept on preserving that fonn cf the feudalistio and capitalistic order which, even in the eyes at the liberal democracies cf Europe,
