Diakonia UCA

Credal statement
At the 2001 World Assembly in Brisbane, Australia, entitled ‘Hearts on fire in a new time’, a Credal statement was agreed to which picked up the themes explored during the Assembly. The creed is a way of expressing our standing, because if we think that diakonia is “Christian service to which all the baptized are called and which is part of the mission of Christ’s church in the world”,  we can as members of DIAKONIA express our common faith in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

We believe in God, creator and re-creator
Awesome mystery and ever present,
Rock and ground of our life.
We believe in God, 
Wide of heart and full of compassion,
Gathering us and embracing us in all our diversity,
Faithful, with us, loving parent of the world.
We believe in Jesus Christ,
Friend and forgiver, companion and redeemer,
One with us in vulnerability,
Full of grace and kneeling at our feet.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
Comforter and disturber, sustaining guide and liberator, 
exciting, leaping flame of life
And sacred space for our dancing.
We affirm our diaconal ministry.
With thankful hearts,
We celebrate in wonder and joy the safe place of our meeting
and the renewal of our passion for service.
In unity and diversity and in humble faith,
We commit ourselves again to justice and caring,
To seeing the world through the eyes of Jesus
and to moving towards the truly inclusive community
of a God who makes the impossible possible.
In faith, we will face the truth of our times,
with its powerful global forces and sweeping new technologies.
In Jesus Christ, we will discern the good and the evil, 
we will seek the struggling and the lost in all
and we will lift up in hope the dignity in the chaos.
We will be the splash which creates the ripples of transformation
and which point to the miracles of God.
We believe that Pentecost is renewed every day.
The fire of the Holy Spirit will burn within us
as the grand passion in the belly of our life,
sometimes gently flaming from the patient rubbing of the fire sticks,
sometimes sparking painfully as we dare to risk the costly friction
of coming very near to each other in our diversity,
Sometimes given as a gift as we sit warming ourselves
and resting by the fire of God.
We believe in the fire of life which always leaps free of us. 
Surprising and refining
Cleansing and consuming
Costly burning from the very heart of God
The fire which burns forever.

A prayer for Mark 1: 29-39
Jesus, you came to us in the synagogue and the home.
Jesus, you prayed in the bustle of the city and the quiet of the desert.
Jesus, you offered open-door ministry in the public realm and
reflected alone in the solitude of the private sphere.
We come to you in all manner of contexts:
rural and urban, young and old, strong and weak,
saying with Simon and his companions,
“Everyone is looking for you.”
In infinite variety we seek divine presence,
holy mystery, sacred beauty:
looking for your peace and grace.
searching for your hope and vision.
pursuing purpose and meaning.
At this time on our planet,
fear is a fever, despair is a demon, cynicism is a sickness.
Jesus, healer, take us by the hand and
lead us toward reconciliation.
Lift us up out of stereotypes. Exorcise our apathy.
Jesus, preacher, proclaim, again, your promise of another way.
Declare, again, your dream of justice and compassion.
Teach, again, your message of a non-violent, non-dominating realm of God.
(Diaconal Minister Ted Dodd, United Church of Canada)