Fresh Expressions of Church and the Mixed Economy

The term “fresh expressions of church” has been used since 2004 in the Church of England to refer to small contextual churches that start alongside but aim to be different to parish churches. What is characteristic of a fresh expression of church is not its newness, but its ability to pass on and contextualize inherited theology, ecclesiology, tradition, and spiritual experience. The ecclesiology of fresh expressions of church can be summarized as a dialogical‐relational ecclesiology that is focused on a theological centre. There may be around 2,100 of them in the Church of England, both urban and rural. During the past 15 years, the self‐understanding of the Church of England, a traditional state church with its parish structure, has changed. The mother church of the Anglican World Communion claims since 2008 to be a mixed‐economy church: one that supports and recognizes innovative ecclesial spaces (fresh expressions of church) as church, as well as parish churches. It is the goal to have an innovative diversity of churches in a pluralistic society. At the same time, these churches should be recognizable and contextual. It is the concept of the mixed economy that manages a fair cooperation between parochial and fresh expressions of church. In the meantime, the concept of mixed economy is received not only in the UK, but in different national and free churches in continental Europe, the US, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. Lately, the concept has been taken up by the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE).     

Studying ecclesiology in ecumenical perspective: the Finnish context: what does it mean to be ‘the same church in all directions’?

This article introduces the main international ecumenical contacts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). The article shows how the ecumenical contacts shape the unique ecclesiology of the ELCF. According to its own ecumenical strategy, the ELCF wants to be the same church in all directions. Unlike Lutheran churches in other Nordic countries, the ELCF is not a state church, but a folk church. Its status from a majority church in a national state is rapidly changing to a majority religious body in a multicultural society. This requires a new kind of ecclesiology, too. This article claims that there are four inter-related issues that shape the ecclesial self-understanding of the ELCF as an ecumenically active folk church. These issues are emphasis on doctrinal unity, communion within the LWF and Porvoo Communion, the status of a decreasing majority folk church, and internal debates on socio-ethical issues, especially those related to sexuality.     

Connected to the wellspring: ecclesiological capabilities of small groups of adolescents

The relationship between adolescents and institutional manifestations of church is often problematic. Nevertheless, adolescents still have a need to talk about and to experience faith together with other adolescents. When institutional activities are not available or do not satisfy the needs of the adolescents they sometimes create their own small groups and (informal) meetings to affirm their faith integrated in their (social) lives. Sociological studies also show the tendency to create their own small groups (tribes) besides existing groups of institutional organisations. In this article the question posed is how this more tribal way of being together can be seen as church. Is a (new) form of ecclesiology possible in a world of small groups, networks, social media? This article describes ecclesiological capabilities in a complex sociological environment for adolescents.     

Ecclesiological Research and Natural and Human Sciences: Some Observations of an Unconventional Phenomenon

This article is motivated by the absence of published material dealing with the rapprochement between ecclesiology and the sciences. It presupposes that there is a need to broaden the scope of ecclesiological research in order to integrate into it theories and methods from the social and natural sciences. Ecclesiological research in this wider sense has as its object, church, as a broad concept. The article suggests a threefold aspect for ecclesiology, conceiving it as the ecclesiology of the researcher, and the ecclesiology of both the object and of the result of the research. Furthermore, its purpose is to identify transparent ecclesiological theories which are able to engage with and integrate scientific theories and methods. An inventory of examples of modes of collaboration used between ecclesiology and different sciences is then offered as an illustration of the context in which ecclesiology may integrate or relate to science in different ways. Finally, the article concludes that there is a need for further clarificatory research into the possibilities which exist for ecclesiology to be made more fully the science of being Christian in community or church.     

Ecclesiology and Missiology: Reflections on Two Recent Documents from the World Council of Churches

In 2013 the World Council of Churches published two important documents, one on the church and one on mission. Beginning with the conviction that ecclesiology has to be missiological and missiology ecclesiological, this article reads each document from the basic perspective of the other. This reading is followed by a constructive critique from the author's perspective as a Roman Catholic missionary ecclesiologist.     

From state church to faith community: an analysis of worldly and spiritual power in the Church of Sweden

The aim of this article is to discuss the current legislation, and power structures in and between different levels of the Church of Sweden in terms of church–state relations and secularisation, with the help of theories from sociology of religion and ecclesiology drawn from José Casanova, Grace Davie and Avery Dulles. With themes from Lutheran theology, including the two regiments and the common priesthood of all believers, we analyse the current legislation and power structures from the perspective of the so-called ‘dual line of responsibility’. The underlying hypothesis is that the structures of the former state church are still deciding the power structures in the Church of Sweden. This creates obscurity concerning the role of the church in public society and negatively affects the ecclesiastical development of the church now that it has lost its earlier status as a state church.     

Truly Inclusive or Uniformly Liberal? An Analysis of the Politics of the Emerging Church

The emergent church movement has fashioned itself as an alternative for Christians who do not want to walk away from their faith, but feel uncomfortable with the dogmatic conservatism found in mainstream evangelicalism. The emerging church movement has portrayed itself as diverse and inclusive, which is a direct result of evading ingroup‐outgroup boundaries. However, despite the desire for a plurality of opinions, the movement's leaders have been known to take political positions that are largely left‐leaning. We use the first dataset known to gather this identity from a sample of Protestant clergy, and assess whether denominationally connected emergent church clergy do, in fact, present a distinctive political profile. Emergent clergy are what they say they are—diverse and inclusive—while they are, on average, more liberal than nonemergent clergy in the sample.     

The Moscow Council of 1917–1918

Following a period of decline beginning in the early eighteenth century, the Orthodox Church in Russia held a general council in Moscow from August 1917 to September 1918. More than 500 clergy and laity met, prayed and discussed numerous issues relating to the church’s life and witness. The Moscow Council was prompted by various trends of renewal which were growing ever stronger among the clergy and laity. Political circumstances at the time also made the Council possible: a preparatory preconciliar process was initiated in 1905, in parallel with the first revolution against Emperor Nicholas II, and the Council itself was convened in 1917, in parallel with the establishment of a Provisional Government. However, it was precisely such political events which led to the premature interruption of the Council. The main items on the Council’s agenda were linked to the reformation of church structures and the implementation of conciliar provisions at every level of church life: parish, deanery, diocese and autocephalous church. Special attention was given to the renewal of the pastoral ministries of priests and bishops, and to that of committed laity. In a way, the Moscow Council was a kind of ‘first encounter’ of Orthodoxy with contemporary societies, secularised or on the road to secularisation. Its legacy is therefore of great interest to all Christianity today. This article aims to analyse the Council and the main decisions made, in the light of ecclesiology, and to provide a primary bibliography at the end of the text.     

The Church is Permanently Underway

This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the unity of the human community in Japan, specifically Tokyo, where the 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed until 2021. This allows reflection on the issue of ecclesiology during this time of uncertainty. First, the article describes the critical response of the ecumenical leaders to the country’s first-ever declaration of a state of emergency. Second, it reflects upon the impact of the compulsion to conform to intolerant social order and the neoliberal “self-responsibility theory” that abandons the most vulnerable in society. Third, it explores the relationship between Tokyo and the Olympics, which has been inextricably linked to the aim of national unity. Finally, this article draws the conclusion that we must steer clear of any “unity” that conceals a deeper disunity. Therefore, the church must distance itself from both the “self-responsibility theory” and the enthusiasm of nationalism and instead work toward the restoration of the human community and the renewal of the church, which are currently the main issues of concern.     

Coalition – creation – church*

Taking the recent UN Report about extreme poverty in the UK as a point of departure, this article analyses and assesses William Cavanaugh’s political ecclesiology. Drawing on the interpretation of Martin Luther’s concept of creation in Scandinavian Creation Theology, I argue that creation destabilises the distinction Cavanaugh draws between what he considers to be church and what he considers not to be church. I account for creation as a web of vulnerability in which all creatures are vulnerable to both creature and creator. In contrast to Cavanaugh’s strong and stable church, I advocate for what I call “coalitional church”: a church that can enter into coalitions with Christians and non-Christians in order to call for conditions under which vulnerable life is liveable. The public and political task of churches is not necessarily to fight the state, but to hold the state accountable to its citizens, whether they are Christian or non-Christian.     

The Kingdom Anticipated: The Church and Eschatology

The idea that the church is an eschatological community, closely connected to the kingdom or reign of God, has not been prominent in ecclesiology. This article argues that the early Christian community understood its own existence in eschatological terms, as the ‘vestibule’ of God's reign (Bultmann). With the help of the concept of ‘anticipation’, it is argued that the church is an anticipatory sign of the kingdom, but that the relation between them requires nuanced statement. Central among the ways in which the church's eschatological character is instantiated is the Eucharist. However, such a view of the church also has pastoral, missiological and political implications.     

Trinity and Ontology: Colin Gunton's Ecclesiology1

Abstract: Colin Gunton argues that there is a need to develop an ontology of the church on the basis of the concept of God as triune. There is an analogy between the being of God and the being of the church. Against the monistic and hierarchical conceptions of the church, so common in the West, Gunton develops a communio‐ecclesiology based on his understanding of relationality as a transcendental. In addition, Gunton argues that we must move towards an ecclesiology of perichoresis in which the church as a community is the result of the mutual constitutiveness of persons.     

“Towards a Global Vision of the Church”

After the publication of The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV) in 2013, the major task and challenge for the Faith and Order Commission's Study Group II has been the progress of the multilateral ecumenical dialogue on ecclesiology. The two subgroups of Study Group II have been working in close cooperation with each other, focusing on two major ways to achieve this progress. The focus of Subgroup 2 has been to harvest the fruits of the official responses to TCTCV. This is being done by the collection and analysis of the official responses to TCTCV, the identification of some key themes and issues that emerge from them, and the evaluation of how they point to the next steps. So far 74 responses have been received; however, geographically speaking, there has been essentially no response from the global South (there have been no responses from Africa, no responses from Latin America, and one from Asia); and, denominationally speaking, roughly 10 percent of the responses come from churches or streams that have not been part of the “traditional” ecumenical movement. Nevertheless, the latter regions and denominational families are crucial: they represent the largest and fastest‐growing part of global Christianity, and thus it is impossible to have a really “universal” and contemporary‐sensitive approach to ecclesiology without substantial input from them. Many of them have also not always been clearly or strongly part of the ecclesiological conversation before TCTCV, and thus it is even more important to include them from now on, and be enriching the multilateral ecclesiological conversation with their contributions as well. Hence, the focus of Subgroup 1 has been to broaden the table of ecclesiological dialogue, by getting into more and wider conversations with ecclesiological perspectives from regions (especially from Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (e.g., evangelical, Pentecostal, Independent churches, etc.), and forms of being church (e.g., movements, new monasticism, online churches, etc.) “which have not always been clearly or strongly part of discussions on the way to TCTCV, and whose understandings of ecclesiology we want to discover and to enter into dialogue with” (Caraiman minutes, p. 55; cf. Krakow report p. 1).     

Churches as organisations: towards a virtue ecclesiology for today

This article is an attempt to offer insights from organisation studies to ecclesiology. To do so it draws particularly on the work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre to offer a virtue ecclesiology for today. The application of MacIntyre's conceptual framework of practices, institutions, goods and virtues to all kinds of organisations, which already exists in the field of organisation studies, is extended to the church as an organisation. It suggests that the church may be re-described as an organisation in which the practices of faith are housed within the institution of the church. On this understanding, the gift of the church to the world is not simply the practices of faith but the manner in which they are institutionalised.     

Conquest and the Western Church

This article examines the action of power relations in the church in pursuit of worldly advantage – political, economic, and social – in the formation, action, and spread of the institution of the Western church, often in collusion with the imperial aspirations of state powers. It argues that redress is required to make amends for injustices and crimes against humanity, as well as to evangelize more effectively in a world that includes those victimized by those claiming to represent God's authority.     

Community without memory? In search of an ecclesiology of liberation in the company of people with dementia

The increasing prevalence of dementia among members of the Christian Churches prompts a re-evaluation of Christian ecclesiology. This is particularly true for the ecclesiology born of the theologies of liberation, because of the emphasis it places upon conscious participation in the historical life of the community. The present article draws on stories of people with dementia as recorded by themselves and those close to them; by reflection upon these stories, it seeks to re-think the character of the Church in the face of this challenge, and so to offer a richer interpretation of its identity as a community of liberation.     

Herbert Thorndike and Anglican Ecclesiology: ‘Classical’ Perspectives in Aid of Reconstruction

Abstract

The stream of theology associated with the ‘Caroline’ divines through the Stuart, Interregnum and early Restoration periods provides creative ecclesiological reflection. This is chiefly true of Herbert Thorndike who constructed the most in-depth exposition of the church during the period. Through a presentation of his method, then foundations and structures of his ecclesiology, Thorndike is shown to advance ‘Anglican’ ecclesiology in its accountability to historical data and in the correlation of church ministry and structure to the apprehension of Christian truth.     

Pope Benedict XVI and the Church in China

ABSTRACT

Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to the Church in China in 2007 emphasises the importance of papal authority, the relationship between local and universal churches, and the appointment of bishops. This article highlights Pope Benedict’s centrist ecclesiology, which had been normative for the Catholic Church since he was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1981 to 2005). In spite of his conservative stance regarding church doctrine, he was open to dialogue with the Chinese authorities. He understood the complexities of the Chinese Church, the hardship and predicament faced by the faithful.     

Military Service in the Church Orders

The debate concerning the approach of the early Christians to the military can be advanced by paying attention to a genre of literature that scholars have largely ignored: the church orders. These documents—the Apostolic Tradition, Canons of Hippolytus, Testament of Our Lord, and Apostolic Constitutions—are illuminating in that they deal with ethics within comprehensive treatments of worship, catechesis and pastoral life. They also are useful in that they, as variations upon a common original, are means of monitoring change across the third and fourth centuries. This article uses the church orders to assess four elements of a “new consensus” (David Hunter) on Christians in the military. By and large it confirms these, but at times it alters emphases and adds nuances. It argues that: (1) the church orders viewed killing as the big problem for Christians in the legions, not idolatry; (2) the church orders confirm that the pre‐Christendom church was divided on Christian participation in the legions; (3) the church orders provide evidence for both discontinuity and continuity on the issue across the centuries, although the deepest continuity, based on John the Baptist's “rule” of Luke 3.14, is between the pre‐Constantinian laity and later theologians; (4) the church orders confirm a regional variation in attitude and practice. The church orders' authority in practice is never clear.     

The Established Church and Evangelical Theology: John Wesley's Ecclesiology

From the earliest years of the eighteenth century evangelical revival in Great Britain, John Wesley developed a particular ecclesiology. If John Wesley can be accused of having an overly pragmatic bent, this certainly was not true of his ecclesiology. His understanding of church order developed early during the revival and was eventually put into full practice in the controversial year 1784. This article defends the view that sacramental theology dictated the direction of church order according to John Wesley. Those who have interpreted Wesley as primarily a pragmatist on ecclesial practice have misinterpreted his own writings on the topic.