God's beloved community flourishes when people bear responsibility for the upliftment of one another. In this community, people participate in the building of God's Kindom and in the realization of God's project of liberation. Empowerment is the transforming and liberating character of participation. An empowered participation is transforming when it addresses inequities and imbalances in the access to and use of power and resources. Empowerment democratizes the playing field of participation, and thus makes it liberating Participation is liberating when it empowers the weak and the vulnerable, enabling them to participate in decision making with their dignity and their rights intact.
Participation is a process where people take an active role in shaping their lives and communities.
Power, transformed and liberated, becomes democratic and participatory. When people are called to participate in the social development of their communities and nations, they too are called to challenge any policies that are economically exploitative, politically oppressive, and culturally repressive. Naming our neighbors, identifying their needs, being in solidarity with them, and working to help resolve their struggles, are acts of upliftment and capacitation. The neighbors we need to love like ourselves are many and growing. Social development must be foremost for them.