Stewards and diakonoi of Jesus Christ in the face of poverty: The task of the Anglican Churches in the Diocese of Matlosane

Abstract

This study examines and critically reflects on the practices of care by the Anglican parishes to the poor people in communities within the Anglican Parishes in the Diocese of Matlosane, the Diocese being part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA). The study is a pastoral care theological investigation of parishes' practices of care for the poor. The study starts with the presentation of the experience of the researcher on the care for the poor in various parishes in the Diocese of Matlosane followed by the interpretation of the practices. The study also focuses on how incumbents in parishes, assistant priests and parish council members can better be equipped to deal with issues of poverty in the communities they serve. The study was done by using Osmer's methodology which includes four tasks: * The descriptive-empirical task: 'What is going on?' * The interpretive task: 'Why is it going on?' * The normative task: 'What ought to be going on?' * The pragmatic task: 'How might we respond?' An inductive qualitative approach was used for the completion of the descriptive-empirical task. The researcher sought to understand and identify whether Parishes are doing something about the state of poverty in the communities they serve and whether they do everything within their means to alleviate poverty. The researcher also used the interpretive task to investigate the relevance between the empirical results and literature review. The results of the empirical study were interpreted in the light of a literature study of relevant material in the Old Testament, the New Testament era and how the government in South Africa and the Anglican Communion address poverty currently. The normative task was done by using applicable passages from the Old and New Testaments to gain normative insights into how to address the needs of the poor where the researcher found biblical principles on how to deal with poverty. Lastly, the pragmatic task was used to propose guidelines to assist the various congregations in the Anglican diocese of Matlosane on how to alleviate poverty in the communities they serve. On the whole, the study has shown how parishes can better alleviate poverty in the communities they serve. The aim of this study was researched and the central theoretical argument was proven.