Abstract:
This research presents an analysis of the situation regarding community diakonia in the IECLB and explores the phenomenon of the community encounter with contexts of injustice and suffering, as an event that potentially triggers the sensitivity and diaconal awareness of the members and communities of this church. The research explores aspects of the history of community diakonia in the IECLB, understands how the community diakonia is organized and articulated in this church, identifies and analyzes the main community diaconal expressions, diaconal actors and the predominant profile of community diakonia in the IECLB. Finally, based on the analysis of the situation developed in the first three chapters, it identifies the phenomenon of the community encounter with contexts of injustice and suffering as the main finding potentially triggering the sensitivity and diaconal awareness of IECLB members and communities. The initial hypothesis that diakonia tends to occupy a peripheral place in the communities of the IECLB was confirmed. It was possible to conclude that, from the congregational period of the IECLB to the present day, the predominant profile of the community diakonia articulated in the IECLB has undergone few changes. Its main features continue to be marked by assistentialism, spontaneism, generally understood within the dimension of subservient intra-community service. In this context, the finding of the phenomenon of encounter, while offering an explanation for the current framework of community diakonia in the IECLB, by sustaining that one of the obstacles to the development of community diakonia is the distance between members and community with contexts of injustice and suffering, represents a promising proposal in the horizon of awakening the sensitivity and diaconal conscience of the members of the IECLB. In methodological terms, the research is constituted as bibliographical and documental mixed with descriptive and explanatory social research, with a qualitative approach, with quantitative support.
