La iglesia como comunidad sanadora : desafíos para la Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba

Abstract

The main goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the communities researched in the Episcopal Church of Cuba (IEC) are not passive beings that receive the action of others (be they lay leaders or clerics) but are healing communities that carry out the ministry of pastoral care through various pastoral actions. This will be demonstrated through the results of the field research done in the aforementioned communities and their correlation with the theological presuppositions about what defines a healing community as well as through the contributions discovered during the investigation that can help guide the reflection about the practice of pastoral accompaniment in the communities of the IEC. The dissertation is structured in three chapters. In the first chapter the different perspectives that can help discern what is meant by a healing community will be considered. I explore what it means to be a Christian community reaching back to its biblical foundations in close relation with koinonia, diaconia and liturgy; as well as the theological categories that are considered marks of the church as a healing community: the people of God, the body of Christ and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Besides this I will enunciate the implications that these perspectives have on Pastoral Care carried out by the healing community. The second chapter situates the IEC in its historical and sociological context. It offers an insight into its denominational tradition based on its history as a church as well as into the implications that this historical context has had on its mission. Through interviews carried out in three communities of the IEC, I seek to discover if they understand that the church has been a healing community, as well as try to find out which pastoral practices express this healing dimension of the church. The third chapter once again takes up elements of the field research under the categories of strengths and challenges for the healing work of the church and relates them to theoretical contributions. It establishes connections between the results that emerged from the field research with the theoretical elements from the bibliographical research. This made it possible to corroborate that many of the presuppositions, the starting points about what it means to be a church as a healing community, form a part of the practice of those communities, just as the challenges that it presents for theological education.