One of our fundamental beliefs is that God’s love is for all people. We ourselves experience this liberating love of God and so we in turn seek to help those who are in need and thus proclaim the love of God with both our words and our actions. We raise our voices on behalf of those who are denied one.
For example, during the Third Reich, the Baptist congregation in the Mollardgasse in Vienna helped Jewish people and Arnold Köster, the preacher at the time, was critical of the regime in his sermons throughout the entire period.
This commitment to human rights continued as our churches helped refugees after the Hungarian uprising.
Refugee work has always had an important place in our churches. Now many of our diaconal projects are joined together as part of Austrian Baptist Aid. Our aid association is a member of Diakonie Austria and a state-recognised development aid organization.
We as the Baptist Union of Austria are one of Diakonie’s five supporting churches.
Our projects within Austrian Baptist Aid and with other registered associations and the Diakonie include the areas of children’s and youth work, the student housing project – Haus Bethel, the Donauhof – a community social and events centre, development aid work in Mozambique, South Africa, Cuba and India, refugee integration work throughout Austria, counselling and supervision, and cooperation with Herzwerk, an initiative against human trafficking and forced prostitution.
