A patron of social entrepreneurs

Chris Moerdyk notes (November 26-December 2) as a new trend among Church bodies that they have “gone into business”.

The Church has always been in business. I have heard it argued that the Church is the world’s oldest, richest and most successful multinational corporation. The sale of communion wafers and wine alone would put most businesses to shame, not to mention the property holdings owned by the Church in almost every country.

But this coffee new fad, as Mr Moerdyk calls it, is a change in our way of doing things. It involves the growing power of social entrepreneurship — a term coined by Bill Drayton in the early ’80s when he founded the Ashoka Fellowship, a movement supporting people who put their entrepreneurial skills to the service of the the common good.

It may be argued that Thomas Aquinas praised the virtue of such social entrepreneurs when he considered magnificence thus: “The intention of magnificence is the production of a great work. Now works done by men are directed to an end: and no end of human works is so great as the honour of God” (Summa theologiae, 134).

These people Chris refers to are creating social value (a great work) and sustaining Church bodies (the honour of God) through enterprise. They need to be recognised for the work they do. They are literally building sustainable organisations dedicated to bringing the Kingdom of God into being. We need to support and encourage them.

We need a patron saint of social entrepreneurs!

Douglas Racionzer, Pretoria