Jesus made careful preparations for the continuance of His earthly ministry following His Ascension in two main areas:--

Firstly, He chose and trained the twelve men who at that stage are best described as "disciples, that is, learners.  He gave them what we call today "formation"’

Secondly, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, those men properly became "Apostles," that is, men sent out with a message .... that Jesus was the Son of God who had defeated the powers of death and was Himself now Risen, Ascended and Glorified.

Those Apostles firmly believed that The Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth and on that basis they set about the preaching and teaching as recorded in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.

Fine, but it didn’t quite work out as simply as that, mainly because so many people came crowding into the new society. Soon it became clear that delegation was needed and in Acts 6, we find the Twelve appointing seven men of good reputation to look after the day to day running of the daily food distribution because, they said, "it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables"  (6.2).

This first development of the extension of the Church’s ministry in the appointment of seven deacons appears to have more to do with the care of people in God’s Name, than with the care of the Church as a worshipping community.   The short life of St. Stephen which follows shows that this is not true -- there was, in fact, no break intended between the two sides of the work. So "diakonia" cannot be restricted to the work of the deacon -- we are all deacons in Christ’s church, just as all believers share a type of priesthood.  The ministries of the Church, both in her worship and in her work in the community, are not separate, they are closely related -- they are two sides of the same coin, and, as the life and death of St. Stephen show, they are always fraught with danger.

So much for the first century of the Church’s life. As we enter the last month of the 20th century, let us look at just one aspect of the church’s ministry of "diakonia" during that century in the far-off and war-torn country of Korea.  Our Church was founded in Seoul in the early years of the century by Russian missionaries.  All went swimmingly until the first world war and the October Revolution put an end to any more aid from Russia, and the struggling Church was left to fend for itself until about 1980.  Then another priest came, Fr Sotirios Trambas, and he takes up the story:-- "Our history" he says, "is made up of the struggle to spread the message of salvation and to serve one’s fellow human being, "for whom Christ died."  (Romans 14.15)

Fr. Soterios makes an important point here, not only for mission but also for the wider question of diakonia: we who have so much, often consider that what we are able to send to help struggling communites is "hardly worth while."  We forget that it is not only the thought that counts; it is the love and the prayer and the moral support as well, which are all important.  That is diakonia in action and it is the ground-base of mission, and both go hand in hand with our worship.

I hope that you are not bored with Korea, because at this juncture, Fr Soterios makes what would be to the Protestant, Western mind, a very strange claim.  He says:---

"Together with God’s help, we were recently able to open the first Orthodox monastery on Asian soil: the convent of Our Lord’s Transfiguration, sixty kilometres from Seoul, with four Greek nuns. .....A monastery had to be founded in order to remind us that the pre-requisite for mission is unceasing prayer, that is, the unbroken glorification of the life-giving Trinity.  Besides, there was an urgent need for providing a different form of witness in our secularised society, a testimony emphasizing, at the same time, voluntary abstinence from the enjoyment of material goods, and, the desire to offer up these goods to God.

Alongside all this, the sisters achieved something else :- the harmonising of their witness with that of the Church, and to give new believers in particular the picture of a Christian community whose chief concern is service to one’s neighbour.  They organise retreats; the recieve all and sundry with loving kindness; they chant Mattins and Vespers; they help the priest and the catechist in their work; they prepare and serve the meals; they clean the cells; they speak words of encouragement to each person; they smile at everyone.  In other words, they share joyfully that which they have and are thereby revealing the secret of Christian existence." Fr. Soterios sums up :-

"The example of diakonia reveals the fact, that a living relationship with Christ, frees us from our narrow interests, constantly stirring up in us the spirit of sacrifice, and constantly urging us to struggle for justice and fraternal love."

"The greatest blessing which God could bestow on us was the small Korean flock’s not hugging jealously to itself the Gospel message, the secret of diakonia, and the joy of being a member of the Orthodox family at large.  Indeed, it gives, and is still giving, testimony to its faith within the society in which its lives, so that "believers are added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women". (Acts 5:15).

By trying faithfully to follow the path laid out in Acts of the Apostles, the infant Church in Korea is, I believe, teaching us how to pass on "that which we have believed"  (1 Corinthians 15.1) through our "diakonia" / service to God and His people..

Fr. John-Mark

[Quotations from "You Shall be My Witnesses", ed. by George Lemopoulos, Tertios Publications].