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Perspectief 16 Odair Pedroso Mateus koinonia and the calling and mission of the Church in light of God’s design. This was followed by a section on the Church of the Triune God (people of God, Body of Christ, community of the Holy Spirit), and a section on “The Nature and Mission of the Church”, which outlined topics such as the Church as Prophetic sign, as servant or instrument, as creature of the Word and the Spirit, and the unity of the Church. Other sections were dedicated to means and expressions of koinonia (Word, Sacrament, Ministry), to the Church local and universal, Church and history, and Church and kingdom 28 . The outline was followed by a text on the converging understandings of the Church and the move towards mutual recognition among them, and a list of eight controversial issues that needed further discussion 29 . However in a meeting held in Annecy in September 1995 the drafting work suddenly took a different methodological direction. The drafters decided that they would write the text “The Church as Koinonia – An Ecumenical Study” in the form of a commentary or an explication of the 1991 WCC Statement “The Unity of the Church as Koinonia : Gift and Calling”. The latter had four sections which dealt successively with (1) God’s purpose for the whole of creation, the calling of the Church and the ecumenical movement; (2) unity understood as koinonia ; (3) diversity and the steps towards greater fellowship; and (4) commitment to further work on unity. On the basis of this structure and in parallel with it, the text “The Church as Koinonia ” would dedicate its first section to convergences on the nature of koinonia ; the second to what can be agreed about the interlocking life of visible communion; and the third to the steps to be taken towards visible communion. The last element of the text, would be a series of commentaries on areas that remained controversial such as episcope and episcopacy; apostolicity and succession; oversight and personal and communal ways; and the ministry of primacy. 28 Commission on Faith and Order, Minutes of the Faith and Order Standing Commission 5-12 January 1995 – Aleppo, Syria , Geneva, WCC, 1995, F&O Paper 170, 31-37. 29 Ibid., 38-40. They were: apostolic continuity and episcopal succession; who discerns the Gospel over against other churches; Church local and catholic, including primacy and conciliarity; the inter-relation between baptism, faith and Church; human freedom, sin and salvation; the presidency of the Eucharist; sacraments outside the Church; different concepts of the Church and the manifestation of its unity.