Koinonia as the Mission of the Church. In the Light of the Document The nature and the Mission of the Church of the «Faith and Order Commission»
Abstract
The issue of the Church’s mission has accompanied the ecumenical movement from the beginning, both in its practical as well as doctrinal dimension. On the theological level it is inseparably connected to the question of the nature of the Church—the fulfilment of the mission means being fully in accordance with one’s own nature.
In the discussed document of the Faith and Order Commission, the term used for both nature and mission of the Church is koinonia: the Church is and is yet to be materialized by koinonia— not only in the community of the believers, but also in the whole of creation, in order “to bring all things together under one head” (Eph 1,10). The mission is therefore expressible in various aspects of koinonia: it is a gift from God (the source of the Trinitarian mission, the proclamation of the Gospel, the eschatological realisation) and the concrete reality with its formal determinants (the Apostolic faith, baptism, Eucharist and ministry). The document The nature and the Mission of the Church is a synthesis of what the churches can say together in this subject and as well as of areas requiring further dialogue, or a change of attitudes.
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