Perspectief 2015-29

Perspectief 26 Odair Pedroso Mateus further reflection on some of those controversial matters. The pastoral concern prevails over the technical concern of producing a clear “differentiated convergence”. Thus the “convergence text” includes in fact several paragraphs on remaining divisive issues 55 and even expressions such as “there is still much work to be done to arrive at a convergence on this topic” 56 . V The architecture and the Reading of The Church, Towards a Common Vision 1. Chapter 1 The first chapter, God’s Mission and the Unity of the Church (10 paragraphs), intends to be the “horizon of meaning” against which the authors from different traditions and divided churches will speak together about the nature of the Church and the manifestation of its unity. God the Father is transforming the world in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit; the Church has a vital role to play in God’s saving design and therefore should manifest to the world its oneness, which proclaims the ultimate reconciliation of all things in Christ. The Church is missionary, and the divided churches are called to make manifest ecumenically the Church’s given and promised Oneness as a requirement of the Church’s mission. 2. Chapter 2 Against this “horizon of meaning”, the authors from different traditions speak together in the second chapter about what we believe about The Church of the Triune God (22 paragraphs). They start by affirming the complementarity of Scripture and Tradition in the discernment of God’s will for the Church. In light of that, they speak about the nature of the Church using biblical images of the Church (people of God, body of Christ, temple of the Holy Spirit), and then they sum up the biblical teaching about the Church in the language of the Nice Creed by speaking of the four “marks” of the Church: Oneness, holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity. The Church in the world is to be seen as sign and 55 For instance: §10, 24, 27, 32, 44, 47, 56. 56 §57.

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