Young LWF council member keynote speaker at the LWF Virtual Conference on Diakonia

“Stand up and Walk”!  The quote of Jesus when he heals the lame man in Mark 2 is the basis for the first LWF Virtual Conference on Diakonia on 5 June 2013.

Speakers from around the world are going to introduce basic concepts of Diakonia (the church’s service for the needy), share ideas and discuss new approaches.

One of the Keynote speakers will be Mami Brunah Aro Sandaniaina. As university student in Madgascar, she coordinates the youth committee of the Lutheran Communion in Eastern and Central Africa and is also a young member of the LWF council. She is going to talk about what the church needs to do in order to address the specific challenges of young women in the Africa contexts.

Some 500 pastors, diaconal workers and lay leaders are expected to engage with one another via the Internet on new trends in how churches and their related organizations respond to human need. Registration is free and open to all those who are interested..

DMD director Rev. Dr Musa Panti Filibus says  the conference aims to share experiences that will help support lay leaders, pastors and diaconal workers in strengthening the social service care and support that churches provide at community and other levels. The meeting also seeks to connect diaconal workers with colleagues undertaking similar work globally.

Muna & Hadiyah dancing whilst receiving dialysis treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital two times a week /photo by Karin Alexandra Brown

“We believe this innovative conference will be a major opportunity for the member churches to strengthen our joint service,” Filibus said.

“Churches around the world do tremendous work in fighting poverty and standing with the marginalized. But how much better can we become in our joint diaconal ministry if we learn from each other?”

The conference languages will be English, Spanish, French and Indonesian. It will be accessible on computers with Internet connection, smart phones and other hand-held devices and the methodology used will allow people with slow Internet connections to participate.

Participants can sign up for the conference as individuals, or join in groups of pastors, church councils or diaconal and other committees to discuss together issues that are relevant to their respective contexts.

And for your information: You can meet us online even twice this year. For October this year, we are also preparing another Virtual Conference for young people in the Lutheran communion: an online climate journey around the world, exploring ecological and climate justice.

Best wishes and see you soon, Caroline