Blue Diakonia: The Sea, the Poor, the 'Spirit'

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"Blue Diakonia: The Sea, the Poor, the 'Spirit'"

by Elia Maggang

An invitation to consider the sea as 'diakonia' and 'diakonos': as having agency to serve others, as much as having the need to be served.

As Christian churches in Indonesia need to engage in efforts to overcome the ecological crisis at sea, this paper offers “blue diakonia”, which acknowledges and supports the sea as an active participant in the Trinitarian Spirit’s work by feeding the poor and giving life to all that rely on the sea. For this mission of the churches, I present two main arguments deriving from the connections between poverty and the ecological crisis, and the significant place of diakonia in Indonesian Christianity. First, to be anchored to the emerging discourse on diakonia and the ecological crisis, I argue that the sea should be a recipient of church diakonia. This idea is necessary as a corrective given the negative perception of the sea in Christian scripture and the sea’s marginal place in Christian theological discourses, especially in Indonesia. Secondly, based on the encounter between Christian theology of diakonia and Indonesian maritime culture navigated by a Trinitarian pneumatology of creation, I argue that the sea should also be perceived as diakonos. This perception is crucial for highlighting the sea as a subject/participant in God’s creation and challenges anthropocentrism and its manifestations that are at the heart of destruction of marine life.