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Perspectief 12 Odair Pedroso Mateus As a result, the Faith and Order Secretariat proposed to the full Commission on Faith and Order, gathered in Budapest in 1989, “that the overall programme of Faith and Order work in the coming years should focus on ‘The Nature and Mission of the Church – Ecumenical Perspectives”. The ecclesiology study would provide a framework for the different ongoing Faith and Order studies and its goal could be “either a longer study document or a shorter convergence document”. Theologically, “this programme could employ the concept of koinonia (communion, participation) as its overall ecclesiological framework” 13 . Commenting on the proposal, the Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas noted that the church’s being has a relational character and that Trinitarian theology “becomes a sine qua non condition for a study on ecclesiology” 14 . The Faith and Order Plenary Commission gave its agreement to “a major study in ecclesiology” 15 . One year later the purpose and the main content of the study on Ecclesiology were clarified in two meetings held successively in Etchmiadzin and Dunblane in July and August 1990 and partly dedicated to the drafting of a statement on unity to be adopted by the 7 th WCC Assembly with the title “The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Gift and Calling” 16 . This statement played an important role both in the 1993 Faith and Order World Conference in Compostela and, as we will see, in the early stages of the study on Ecclesiology. 13 T. Best (ed.), Faith and Order 1985-1989 The Commission Meeting at Budapest 1989 , Geneva, WCC, 1990, F&O Paper 148, 202, 203. . 14 J. Zizioulas, “Suggestions for a Plan of Study on Ecclesiology”, in T. Best (ed.), Faith and Order 1985-1989 The Commission Meeting at Budapest 1989 , 210, 211. 15 T. Best (ed.), Faith and Order 1985-1989 The Commission Meeting at Budapest 1989 , 219. 16 “The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Gift and Calling”, in M. Kinnamon (ed.), Signs of the Spirit – Official Report Seventh Assembly – Canberra, Australia, 7-20 February 1991 , Geneva: WCC, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 172-174. For the three successive versions of this statement, see: Commission on Faith and Order, Minutes of the Meeting of the Faith and Order Standing Commission – Rome , Italy, 1991 , Geneva, WCC, 1992, F&O Paper 157, 82-87.