社區型宗教組織之社會服務

Social Services of Local Congregations

臺灣在1990年代初期逐漸受到公共服務民營化與社區化影響。在社會福利供給上，政府也推動福利社區化與社會福利民營化。這股潮流最主要展現在政府逐漸撤退服務供給的角色，轉而扮演服務購買者的角色。當政府撤退之後，立即衍生的問題是誰來承擔公共服務供給的角色？因此，各國政府將各種公共服務轉移給民間的營利與非營利部門。而在非營利部門當中的宗教型組織，特別是社區的教會則被賦予極高的期待。雖然，宗教組織提供社會服務的歷史悠久，過去第三部門的研究也不乏宗教型組織的研究。但是有關社區型教會之社會服務的相關研究則是最近這幾年來才蓬勃發展。十餘年前臺灣有極少數關於寺廟參與社會服務的研究，近來相關文獻則較少。本文以埔里地區的寺廟與教會為研究對象，探討埔里地區的寺廟教會參與社會服務的現況。埔里地區的教會寺廟所提供的服務與國外的研究發現相似，多數的教會寺廟大都提供短期性的服務，像是急難救助、冬令救濟、清寒獎學金等。只有三座社區型的教會寺廟提供長期性的專業服務，另外有些寺廟贊助社區發展的工作是有別於國外的特色。埔里地區的教會寺廟投入社會服務工作，除了天主教與基督教的教會面臨經濟上的困難之外，寺廟則經費寬裕。教會寺廟投入社會服務程度的差異關鍵在於領導人與服務人力。多數寺廟的領導者仍趨於保守，對新興的社會服務議題不熟悉，大多保守既有的傳統慈善工作。教會寺廟的領導者不是不關心新興的社會問題，只是教會寺廟沒有足夠的能力來解決這些問題。如果政府與社會期待地方型教會寺廟協助解決現代的社會問題，那麼社區型教會寺廟的能力建構應該是當務之急。

Since at least the early 1990s, there has been a trend in Taiwan of the privatization of public services. Under this global trend, the state has shifted its responsibilities of service provision to for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Among the nonprofit organization, rising expectations extend to faith-based organizations, particularly to local congregations. Yet the link between social services and religion has deep historical root in most countries. However, little attention has been given to the social service provision role of the local congregations. Due to the secularization of religion and the welfare reform of USA, the role of local congregations has been recognized again. There were a few studies on services of local temples in Taiwan more than 10 years ago. But the policy environment in Taiwan has a sea change plus a lot of emerging social problems in the past 10 years. We need to recovery the new role of local congregations and temples on service provision. This descriptive research applies qualitative method to explore the social services of local congregations and temples at Puli. Like local congregations as in the USA, the local faith-based organizations at Puli also provide temporary or one-shot social services, most of them are traditional charity relief work. Only one Taoist temple and two churches recruit social workers to provide professional and on-going services. The barrier of local faith-based organizations of providing social services is not financial problem. Leadership and human resources are critical factors that affect capability of service provision. The capacity building may be needed for local faith-based organizations at Puli for providing social services.