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O r t h o d o x y
Koinonia: The Heart of the Church
If the very being of God is koinonia—communion—and if
the Person of Christ, in whom humanity and the whole
creation are saved, is Himself communion, then this faith
must shape our understanding of the Church at its deepest
level. What, then, does it mean to say that the Church is koi-
nonia? How does this affect her identity, her structure, her
ministry, and her calling toward unity? And how does it illu-
minate her mission in the world and her relation to the whole
of creation?
These questions do not arise from theory, but from the very
life of the Church. They invite us to rediscover what already
exists among us—though often only partially—and to con-
front those divisions that obscure the fullness of communion.
The Identity of the Church as Communion. The identity of
the Church is fundamentally relational. In the New Testa-
ment, the term ecclesia never appears in isolation. It is always
expressed in relation: the “Church of God” or “of Christ,” and
at the same time the Church “of ” a particular place—Corinth,
Thessalonica, Judea.
There is no Church that exists in herself. The Church exists
only in relation—both to God and to the world.
The expression “of God” reveals that the Church derives
her being from the life of the Holy Trinity. She is called to re-
flect, in her very existence, the way God exists: as communion
of persons. To confess that the Church is koinonia is to affirm
that her life is nothing other than a participation in the com-
munion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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