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Perspectief 24 Odair Pedroso Mateus “If the denominations are to overcome their present stage of division, communion must be restored among them. They must find the common roots of their faith, the living tradition, which is experienced in the sacramental life of the one Church.” 3. Redrafting The Nature and Mission of the Church These responses, analysed by the Faith and Order Secretariat and discussed by the Faith and Order Commission in Etchmiadzin in 2010 49 , led to the decision to produce a radical revision of the 2005 text that would affect its architecture, its length, and its content far more than The Nature and Mission of the Church (2005) as compared to The Nature and Purpose of the Church (1998). The new proposed architecture would have four main elements: the proclamation of the Kingdom and the need for unity; the Church known through revelation and lived out in history; growth in communion in faith, sacramental life and ministry; and the Church’s work for the kingdom in today’s world. A drafting group was appointed 50 and an intensive redrafting process was launched. The drafting group met in Geneva, in November 2010 and in Columbus, Ohio in March 2011 (together with the Ecclesiology Working Group). The work in progress was reported to the Faith and Order Standing Commission in Gazzada, in July 2011 51 , in which the text was read out in full and extensively discussed and amended. The text presented in Gazzada is called The Church (A Draft Text on Ecclesiology) 52 . With 59 paragraphs, it is much shorter than The Nature and Mission of the Church . Moreover, the shortened text includes an entirely new chapter, the first, on “The Mission and Unity of the Church in God’s Design”, which aims at rooting ecumenical ecclesiology in mission. The TNMC chapters on the nature of the Church and the Church in history are brought together into a single one (“The Church as Established by God in History) in favour of a 49 Commission on Faith and Order, Minutes of the Standing Commission on Faith and Order meeting at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia, 21-25 June 2010, Geneva, WCC, F&O Paper 211, 10, 21-23, 50 Viorel Ionita, Sara Lancaster, William Henn (Senior Editor, assisted by Peter Fisher) and Ulrike Link- Wieczoreck, with John Gibaut and Odair P. Mateus serving as staff. 51 Minutes of the Standing Commission on Faith and Order Meeting in Gazzada, Italy, 14-21 July 2011 , Geneva, WCC, 2014, F&O Paper 216, 10-13, 17-20, 20-22. See pages 32-51 for the complete text. 52 Minutes of the Standing Commission on Faith and Order Meeting in Gazzada, Italy, 14-21 July 2011 , 32- 51.

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