Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HOP Vol XX Special Number

1968 No 2- 54

(07696)

now have not placed the questions of ideology into the centre, hut we have dealt vdth specific questions of common interest and with common tasks.These, however, have furthered mutual understanding and conveyed to us the experience that a dialogue which is an end in itself and designed only to induce the state of cultural and spiritual satisfaction is fruitless* By saying this, we by no means belittle the significance of the dialogue which is conducted on the level of principles* Yet we must not belittle such dialogues either which take place in the course of our weekdays by virtue of the fact that the members cf the church live in the community and our churchgoers bring with than to the services of worship the problems of the weekdays* In our church gatherings, the problems of social life, the morale cf work, our attitude to property, the questions cf marriage and family life are raised in the same manner in which they arise and are discussed under the new social conditions. The right reply to these questions, the practicable solutions offered, might serve as good examples to others. Thus the dialogue, although not in a sensational form, is carried on continually in mary other farms* In this dialogue, our Christian faith gives us openness and inventiveness in order that we may serve in love«

f) The Law of the Diakonia Within and Outside the Church

The spirit of the Diakonos Christos determines the relation of the church members to one another* This means that the members of the church cannot recognize any factor discriminating or setting up walls cf separation between them« v

It was primarily in the fellowship of those belonging to him that Christ revealed, by every gesture cf his, the fact that He was offering his life for them* Tlx: Church is loyal to her Lord if she is filled with the spirit of service toward everyone of her members. This means that, according to the logic cf the diakonia pattern, all falso,unjust, baseless distinctions, frontiers and walls of separation must disappear« Christ brought into being the,,third race", the Church, in that he "hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his fleái the enmity", by his cross, by his sacrifice (Ephesians 2:11-22)« Haice no human antagonism <<r discrimination is justified in the Church* In the past two decades we have learned both in the "eastern" and "western" part of the Church that the Heed, cf the Church, Jesus Christ, does not give his sanction on ary discrimination, on whatever grounds, in the relation of the churches and church members to one another*

In the ministry of his Church, the Diakonos Christos does net set up a frontier between the Church and the world; his ministry having a uni-* versal scope and a work to be done without ulterior motives*