Diaconate as model of ministry for urban locations

Abstract

Urbanisation takes on different forms, including industry expansion, technological innovation, modern architecture, new business forms, and new infrastructure. However, in many city centres, such development is accompanied by uprooting people, splitting families, identity loss, and increased poverty and health and mental complications. It is within this juxtaposition that the church is called to exercise effective ministry and mission. The dialogical retrieval of the ministry of the deacon or diaconal ministry is both liturgical and social. The tension between the two-pronged ministry of liturgy and social responsibility makes the deacon an interlocutor for effective urban ministry. The research investigates how the church, as an interlocutor between urbanisation and local communities, creates a safe space for meaning-making.