Page 217 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

M I S S I O N : T H E C H U R C H I N T H E W O R L D
and expressing it, and this may be reflected in different creeds
and liturgical customs.
For this reason, the Church as a distinct community with-
in the world exists in constant dialogue with what lies beyond
her visible boundaries. What we used to call “mission” is bet-
ter rendered by the notion of reception. The Church offers
herself to the world rather than imposing herself upon it. The
Son of God “came to his own, and his own did not receive
him.” The Church exists in order to give what she has received:
the love of God for the world, incarnate in Christ and given in
the Holy Spirit.
In the Orthodox tradition, in which the Eucharist stands at
the center, the world is brought into the Church in the form
of natural elements and the everyday concerns of her mem-
bers. If communion is the key to ecclesiology, then mission
cannot be understood as placing the Gospel over against the
world, but as its incarnation within it. Theology must seek
ways of relating the Gospel to the existential needs of the
world and to whatever is human. It must first discern what
every human being longs for in the depths of his or her being,
and then show how the Gospel gives meaning to that longing.
This relationality is not limited to human beings. It extends
to creation in its entirety. The Church as koinonia relates to the
animal and material world as well. One of the most urgent
tasks of the Church today is to proclaim that there is an intrin-
sic koinonia between the human being and the natural envi-
ronment—a communion that must be brought into the
Church’s very being if it is to reach its fullness.
Thus, worship and life, sacred and profane, are not separate
domains. The Church and the world are not divided in their
being. The problems of the world are also the problems of the
Church. Mission is not an attitude toward the world, but a
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