Diakonia (Christianity)

One of the three ways in which the mission of the Church is manifest, this refers to a state in which Christian love and compassion are extended in the service of man's needs, to the ministry of the Church in the world. In that material poverty and oppression may act as an obstacle to salvation, diaconia is the liberating means of salvation; but the term refers more to the intent and the quality of the loving and giving in the eucharistic sense.