Indonesia is the biggest archipelago on the earth. It consists of a staggering 17,000 islands, with 70 p.c of the inhabitants dwelling in coastal areas. Many take into account the nation a diver's haven, as it’s residence to dwelling coral reefs teeming with colourful fish, and it additionally has the biggest mangrove ecosystems on the planet.
Nonetheless, my nation is dealing with a severe marine ecological disaster at this time attributable to harmful fishing, air pollution, local weather change and greenhouse gasoline emissions. Our ecosystem of mangroves, sea grass and coral reefs is declining. Fish populations are additionally declining, whereas different sea creatures are sometimes poisoned by air pollution from land.
This disaster is a severe risk within the Indonesian context, the place ecological and social lives are sometimes inseparable. Greater than half of the inhabitants's annual protein consumption comes from fish and seafood, and round 7 million persons are closely depending on the ocean for his or her livelihoods. However now greater than 2.5 million Indonesian households concerned in small-scale fishing are susceptible to shedding their livelihoods and sources of revenue. Fishing areas are more and more restricted, inflicting conflicts between conventional fishermen.
The poor folks in our coastal areas have suffered probably the most due to their survival at sea. Many use conventional strategies and tools reminiscent of pudding—fishing weirs that convey fish to a selected location —a differentfish traps manufactured from bamboo, to gather several types of seafood throughout low tide to feed.
Nonetheless, the marine ecological disaster is more and more destroying their meals supply. Additionally it is an erasure of our tradition of caring for the needy, as coastal communities usually give choice to the poor relating to gathering provides from the ocean.
In different phrases: The ocean provides us meals and cultivates compassion for the poor amongst us. However each its livelihood and communal care at the moment are in danger.
Contemplating the normal practices of Indonesian coastal communities and church buildings, I supply the idea and follow of “blue” Deaconess (pronounced “dee-ak-on-ee'-ah”), the Greek phrase for service and repair, from which the English phrase deacon.
Australian scholar John N. Collins's examine of diakonia within the New Testomony and historic Greek sources emphasizes that service and repair carried out by folks factors to God's fee to look after the poor. The Danish missiologist Knud Jørgensen additionally sees diakonia as an invite to take part in God's work of caring for and liberating the poor, marginalized and oppressed.
Most Indonesian believers take into account diakonia to be primarily a human affair, manifested by caring for the poor by offering them with meals or monetary assist. Nonetheless, such an understanding doesn’t embody the methods by which creation itself caters to the underprivileged.
For my part, we have to develop a blue diakonia that acknowledges and helps the ocean – which feeds the poor and offers life to all who depend on it – as an energetic participant within the triune work of God.
A harbinger of the dominion
A 2023 survey by the federal government company Statistics Indonesia discovered 25.9 million folks dwelling in poverty within the nation. This makes diakonia a key follow among the many devoted, who make up 11 p.c of the bulk Muslim nation's inhabitants.
Based on Indonesian theologian Yosef Purnama Widyatmadja, there are three fashions of diakonia which can be broadly accepted in Indonesian Christian communities: Diakonia karitatif (charity), diakonia reformatif (particular person/group improvement via coaching) a transformational diakonia (structural/social transformation). Incorporating the environmental disaster into how Indonesian church buildings follow diakonia is a promising new improvement. In actual fact, there’s a rising curiosity within the theological discourse generally known as ecodiaconiawhich seeks to make sure that nature continues to precise its company, particularly as a supply of meals, and that poor folks have sustainable entry to this meals.
However in blue diakonia, Christians search to serve and defend the ocean particularly – not nature extra broadly. The waters that cowl the face of this planet are God's good creation, in addition to all of the creatures on it, which he blesses and empowers to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas” (Gn 1,10). 20–22). The ocean and its creatures expertise God's love as He cares for and restores them (Ps. 104:24-30; 145:9).
Furthermore, the ocean and its creatures are usually not outcasts, however a part of the approaching kingdom of God. Because the American theologian J. Richard Middleton says, the phrase there was no extra sea in Revelation 21:1 there may be excellent news as a result of the ocean will now not be utilized by the Roman Empire as a method of increasing its exploitative financial energy. As a substitute, the ocean will take part within the worship of God as a brand new creation: His creatures will be part of others in heaven, on earth and below the earth to sing “to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb” (Rev 5:13). ).
By this attitude, church buildings can proclaim the gospel (Mark 16:15) by letting the ocean and its creatures style the approaching kingdom of God. Preserving and restoring the ocean in order that it continues to embody its position of offering meals, particularly for the poor, is the harbinger – and the consequence – of blue diakonia.
Within the province of East Nusa Tenggara, the Evangelical Church Gereja Masehi Injili di Timor (GMIT) has been attempting to enhance the marine circumstances in its neighborhood for the previous 5 years.
In 2020, the church partnered with the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to transplant corals into the Savu Sea Nationwide Marine Park, situated within the province, restoring the park's ecosystem. As of 2021, GMIT can be planting and caring for mangroves on Savu Island. The mission is “an expression of our religion as we protect God's present of life, restore and defend mangroves, simply as mangroves defend us from cyclones,” mentioned former GMIT Synod Moderator Mery Kolimon.
“We simply can't let the mangrove ecosystem. [be] destroyed – we now have to assist restore it as a result of that’s our calling as God's folks,” added Rowi Kaka Mone, one of many mission leaders.
Different Indonesian church buildings conduct ministries geared toward defending the waters round them. For a few years, two church buildings specifically – Gereja Protestant Maluku (GPM) and Gereja Kristen Injili di Tanah Papua – carried out conventional sustainable fishing practices sea saltwhich preserves marine ecosystems by holding an space freed from fishing actions for a time frame starting from three months to 2 years.
Individuals usually name the follow GPM sea salt below one other identify: Sasi churchor “Church of the Sasi”. This idea “carries the blessing of the native church and, for believers, the worry of God. To interrupt the 'church sasi' is to commit a sin,” mentioned a Forest information message.
Caring for widows and orphans
Nonetheless, viewing the ocean solely as a recipient of diakonia – Christian service and ministry – will not be sufficient, as this attitude may overshadow the company of the ocean in creation.
It’s true that the ocean wants folks to maintain it. However the sea additionally has decisive elements that we should always acknowledge. The ocean will not be a passive object that’s totally depending on man. Analyzing how the ocean performs a significant position in fulfilling God's mission, even in recovering from anthropogenic injury, helps us understand that people are usually not simply doing one thing. for the ocean, but in addition with it.
Which means the ocean may also be thought of as deacons, a deacon or minister who cares for the poor by offering them with meals. Indonesia's coastal communities see the ocean as a dwelling entity that nourishes and sustains their lives with bodily nourishment. For instance, sailors from Lamalera in East Nusa Tenggara name the ocean ina fae white or soo basa at this time lolophrases that describe how the ocean is an all-loving mom who carries and nurtures her youngsters and provides them with every little thing they want.
A extra concrete depiction of the ocean caring for the poor is present in a 1997 examine by Indonesian theologian and anthropologist Tom Therik on the fishing actions of Pantai Rote, a maritime group on Semau Island. It’s referred to as the poor within the native language and in conventional poetry fold (widows) a I'm poppy (orphans). Twice a day, these widows and orphans exit to reap aquatic crops and marine animals at low tide. This can be a broadly accepted cultural norm locally, because the poor can’t afford boats or sufficient fishing tools and may solely depend on the bounty of the ocean for day by day sustenance.
The ocean shapes a well-liked tradition of caring for the poor: The waters of this space are a part of the Coral Triangle, also referred to as the “Amazon of the seas” as a result of it comprises probably the most marine biodiversity on the planet. House to 76 p.c of coral species, in addition to six out of seven sea turtle species, it serves as a fertile tuna spawning floor and nursery.
Perceiving the ocean as an energetic agent of God, as I argue right here, will not be overseas to our Christian religion. The Bible expressly does so. In Genesis 1:22, God blesses the ocean creatures and instructions them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas.” In Genesis 4:11–12, the earth is depicted as standing towards evil by opening its mouth to obtain Abel's blood and refusing to present its harvest to Cain.
These biblical personifications of creation additionally enable us to acknowledge the numerous position of the ocean in God's deliverance of the Israelites from their oppression in Egypt (Ex 14:20-21). The ocean recedes and accumulates to permit the Israelites to move via on dry land whereas stopping Pharaoh's military from pursuing them, says Indonesian biblical scholar Margaretha Apituley.
The notion of the ocean as a diakonos – an envoy of God's work – is due to this fact a part of the biblical framework. Simply because the Sea of Galilee facilitates Christ's work by offering two fish together with 5 loaves to feed the multitude (Mark 6:30-44), the Indonesian seas facilitate Christ's work by providing every little thing that swims and grows in them as meals for folks. the poor within the coastal communities of the archipelago.
In its essence, blue diakonia is a mission for and with sea. It acknowledges and respects the ocean as an energetic participant in God's work. As church buildings promote the flourishing of the seas as a method of feeding the poor, Christians and the ocean also can turn into co-deacons, or co-servants of God.
Encounters between Indonesia's conventional maritime cultures and Christianity may be an vital alternative for church buildings to handle the marine ecological disaster and its adverse results on the poor. I hope that blue diakonia is usually a mission that belongs not solely to Indonesian church buildings, but in addition to church buildings everywhere in the planet, simply as Jesus commanded his disciples: “Give them one thing to eat” (Mark 6:37).
Elia Maggang has a PhD from the College of Manchester within the UK. Primarily based in Indonesia, his theological work revolves across the intersections of Christianity and indigenous traditions, notably their theology and follow of the ocean and other people's relationship to the ocean.
