The Church Towards a Common vision
Saturday, October 28, 2023
8:20 PM
World Council of Churches. The Church Towards a Common Vision: Faith and Order Paper no. 214. WCC Publications, 2013.
The World Conference of Churches Faith and Order papers seek to express a common, ecumenical consensus on Theological matters.  The Church Towards a Common Vision is a third document in a series of reflections on the Church along with The Nature and Purpose of the Church (1998) and The Nature and Mission of the Church (2006).  It is a synthetic document that reflected responses drawn from the churches to the preceding documents.  
The Church Towards a Common Vision begins with an affirmation that the Church draws its character and purpose from the character of the Triune God.  "The Church, as the body of Christ, acts by the power of the Holy Spirit to continue his life-giving mission in prophetic and compassionate ministry and so participates in God's work of healing a broken world" (p. 5).  The documents frequently references eucharist as an essential quality of the church.  It also identifies the work of care, support, solidarity with the poor, evangelism, and seeking systemic change toward justice as elements of God's work in the world.  The Church is identified by its participation in God's work in the world and in seeking to model itself as a godly (not god-like).  
Chapter 2 devotes significant space to the understand of the Church as modeled on the Triune God through the Greek term koinonia and by extension affirms that the Church came into being at God's initiative.  It summarizes previously developed understandings of the Church (prophetic, priestly and royal people; body of Christ; holy, catholic, apostolic; sign and servant of God's design for the world."  In the final move of that chapter, it focuses  on the nature of the local church.  They quote a report from the World Council of Churches dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church that saying, "Most Christians could agree that the local church is 'a community of baptized believers in which the word of God is preached, the apostolic faith confessed, the sacraments are celebrated, the redemptive work of Christ for the world is witnessed to, and a ministry of episkope exercised by bishops or other ministers in serving the community'" (p. 17 quoting, World Council of church and the Roman Catholic Church, "The Church Local and Universal," #15, in Growth in Agreement II, p. 866).  
Andy's Note:  This particular definition of the local church raises questions for me in terms of how we understand the relationship of authorized ministry of those who serve in institutions as chaplains, the academy, in non-profit organizations, and in denominational service.  
It expresses the relationship between the local church and the universal church saying, "Each local church contains within it the fullness of what it is to be the Church.  It is wholly Church, but it is not the whole Church.  Thus the local church should not be seen in isolation from but in dynamic relation with other local churches.  From the beginning communion was maintained between local churches by collections, exchanges of letters, visits, eucharistic hospitality and tangible expresses of solidarity (cf. 1 Cor. 16; 2 Cori. 8:1-9; Gal 2:1-10)" 