What is meant by “Church?”
The English word “Church” translates the Greek ekklesia, which carries the idea of God’s people being “called out” from the fallen world and gathered into the one flock of Christ (Rev 18:4; Joh 10:16; see Q055, Q292). This is close to the biblical concept of holiness, which often carries the idea of being “set aside for a higher purpose” (Ezk 45:1).
In the Holy Scriptures, God’s chosen people are repeatedly summoned to leave the earthly city and seek the lost Paradise, the heavenly kingdom of the age to come. Thus Abram, the father of the faithful, was called out of Ur to seek the promised land, a type of the kingdom: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and left… not knowing where he was going. For he looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God… they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon the earth… they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:8–16; see the Study on Abraham; see Q038, Q118).
In the historical accounts, types, and apocalyptic symbols of Scripture, the places that those summoned by God must leave by faith are called Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, or even Jerusalem: “the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8; see Q055, Q118).
As in the days of Moses, God’s people are called out of Egypt when it becomes evil like Sodom and inhospitable to God’s people. Even more than sexual immorality, the sin of Sodom was “pride, excess of food, prosperous ease, and not helping the poor and needy” (Ezk 16:49). Egypt, when it abandons the godly path of hospitality, becomes a type of the fallen world, the ‘typical’ place of false worship and spiritual deception.
Throughout history, God’s people are called to a tragic and often sacrificial departure, literally an “exodus,” as the Lord himself accomplished (Luk 9:31, where his death is called his exodos; see Q607). Recognizing that they are “aliens and exiles” (1Pe 2:11; Heb 11:13), the people of the ekklesia follow in a spiritual manner, through faith in God’s promise, the pattern of the great multitude (Rev 7:9; Exo 12:38; see Q154) who were “baptized into Moses” (1Co 10:2; see Q292) and became God’s covenant people.
This ancient and recurring call to “come out” is a matter of salvation: “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues’” (Rev 18:4; see Q055).
At times this warning has been geographical, but for the Church it is above all a spiritual call. After the crucifixion of the Lord, Jerusalem of old was left “a desolate house” (Mat 23:38), and the Lord’s warning was heeded by the early Christians: “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains… For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Mat 24:16, 24).
This “calling out” applies also to all the spiritual, political, and even economic patterns that threaten the holiness of God’s people in every generation: “Religion that is pure and undefiled in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (Jas 1:27; see the Study: God and Economics; see Q055, Q551).
Accordingly, the Church of the New Covenant, those who have been baptized into Christ, ever remembers the prayer of her great High Priest:
I do not pray that you would take them out of the world, but that you would protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth: your word is truth! As you sent me into the world, I too have sent them into the world. (Joh 17:15–18)
In time and history, the Church is God’s pilgrim people, gathered to celebrate the mystery of the New Covenant according to the Lord’s command. This gathering does not normally take the form of a literal exodus from the world, but of the spiritual exodus that leads God’s people to “come together as Church” (1Co 11:18; see Q315, Q321), to celebrate the Eucharist.
From the perspective of the Kingdom of “the Father of lights with whom there can be no variation or shifting shadow. He brought us forth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:17; see Q087), the Church is also understood from God’s eternal vantage, “beyond the veil” (Heb 6:19; see Q008, Q092). As the ancient homily ascribed to St Clement of Rome explains:
The Books and the Apostles declare that the Church belongs not to the present but has existed from the beginning. She was spiritual, as was our Jesus, but was manifested in the last days that she might save us; and the Church, being spiritual, was manifested in the flesh of Christ. (2 Clement 14)
For God the Father, and for the co-enthroned and co-eternal great High Priest who reigns forever in the unity of the Lord the Holy Spirit, the Church is God’s wisdom in a mystery, foreordained before the ages for our glory.
As St Paul writes: “we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that was hidden, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory” (1Co 2:7–8; see Q008); “the mystery hidden for ages and generations… now revealed to his saints… which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:26–27; see Q118, Q542). The Church is the mystery of the union of God with man, the mystery of Christ and of “Christ in us.” She is the Bride of Christ, so that the Lord himself, as the Second Adam, might exclaim: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” (Gen 2:23–24; 1Co 6:16–17; see Q119). Therefore, the Apostle writes: “This is why a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh. This is a great mystery: I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:31–32; see Q360, Q542).
In addition to the proper, scriptural senses of the word, (1) the local Eucharistic assembly gathered around its one bishop, which is the catholic church in each place, and (2) the fullness of the Body of Christ, the word “Church” (ekklesia) is also used in common speech in ways that are convenient but not strictly accurate theologically. The building (temple or house) where the people of God gather is called a ‘church’ by extension. Common expressions such as ‘the Church of Greece’ or ‘the Greek Orthodox Church‘ are used, by extension and analogy, as a convenient way of referring to the many Churches situated within the canonical boundaries of Greece.
The Church is truly a divine-human organism, called into existence by God to become one with him who is “our Lord and our God.” The Church is established by the will and word of God, which is why the Lord calls her “my Church”: “I also tell you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18; see Q257, Q271).
Upon the earth, the Church is a divinely instituted community of human beings, spiritually drawn by the Father (Joh 6:44; see Q123, Q519), united by the Orthodox faith, the commandments of God, the hierarchy, and the Mysteries (sacraments).
