The WCC is a fellowship of churches, now 349 in more than 110 countries in all continents from virtually all christian traditions 
WCC > Resources > Documents > WCC commissions > Faith and Order commission > I. Unity: The Church and its mission > (Previous stage) The Nature and Purpose of the Church: A stage on the way to a common statement
(Previous stage of study) The Nature and Purpose of the Church: A stage on the way to a common statement
Faith and Order Paper no. 181, issued in 1998
This text, from the Faith and Order study on Ecclesiology, was issued as Faith and Order Paper no. 181 in 1998. Now superseded by The Nature and Mission of the Church, Faith and Order Paper no. 198, issued in 2005, it is included here to enable comparison of these two texts.