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Faith and Order Paper No. 224.

This document invites the churches to explore the ways that “pilgrimage” can help the churches deepen and express the commitment to oneness in their work.

A gift to the ongoing work of reconciliation among Christians, the textual fruits of ecumenical dialogue over the last decade are presented here in complete documents. The vast yield is here collected in two volumes, incorporating bilateral and multilateral dialogues of the churches across the Christian confessions—Orthodox, Catholic, and Reformation traditions—and evinces not only agreements and disagreements but also the new insights that dialogue itself reveals.

Faith and Order Papers 218

The common study of the sources of authority shows that the church cannot exist without, beyond, or above authority. The church sustains the authority of God. And here comes the clash with the secular world.

Living and witnessing to their faith in the first centuries after the New Testament, the men and women of the early church—theologians and bishops, ascetics and martyrs—have exerted a profound influence and authority in the subsequent theological and ecclesial periods and traditions.

“New refreshing insights on our understanding of the gospel in the 21st century from our ancient past—this is the surprising impact of what is captured in this small book in which the thoughts of early church figures are brought alive in a new way.” —Setri Nyomi, World Communion of Reformed Churches, General Secretary

At once the instrument of and obstacle to Christian unity, the identity of the church itself has often been the subject of debate and division in Christian history. Yet, despite such diversity and the steep challenges presented by the present context, The Church: Towards a Common Vision presents a genuine ecumenical convergence of understanding on the fundamental character and mission of the Church from a variety of communions, traditions, and regions.

The historic ecumenical journey of the Commission on Faith and Order towards the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship led them to the island of Crete in 2009 and to a fresh appreciation of many facets—historical, doctrinal, social, spiritual—of what it means to be called to be one Church today.

This stimulating volume gathers a rich array of presentations and reports from the Crete meeting, focused especially on the doctrine of the Church and the changing shape of the “visible unity” that Christians seek. Chief among its study projects, and the central focus of this volume, is rethinking the nature and mission of the Church in light of new contextual insights from around the world, deeper appreciation of the early Church’s ecclesial legacy, and highlighting the prophetic and missional roles of the Church today.