The Creed, a dogma proclaimed by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils and approved by the Third Ecumenical Council as an unwavering profession of true faith, points to four essential, significant features of the Church. It is One, Holy, Collegial, and Apostolic. Understanding these essential features, a correct understanding of the nature of Church is closely and inextricably tied to the realization of our personal faith and, therefore, with our personal participation in the God-man union, which Church essentially is.
Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv spoke about this in his sermon.
The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine explained that the Church is a gathering of those who belong to the Lord, of those called by Him, a gathering in His name, as it is said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20).
“The church is the gathering as such, it is the community, it is the people. This feature should be especially emphasized in our individualistic times. Following decades of dominating totalitarian regimes, which in the 20th century erased the importance of the individual in favor of generalization, mankind has largely moved toward another extreme, which is individualism, a selfish emphasis on the personal. In the same spirit, many today, even Christians, tend to consider faith in God, their relationship with Him as a purely individual matter. “God’s in my soul,” they enjoy saying, mostly confusing the true God with their own ideas of Him or their emotions,” said the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
According to the metropolitan, the collegiality of the Church, as one of its four essential features, tells us that the Church is a gathering of the faithful, a gathering of those called by the Lord, a gathering around the Lord, not around themselves.
“This gathering is not limited to any particular group, nation, state, place or time – it is universal, as seen in the original Greek term καθολικὴ Ἐκκλησία (Catholic Ecclesiastes).”
At the same time, he stressed that Revelation gives us an understanding of the Church as a community, a gathering, rather than a unified, impersonal mass.
This gathering is not limited to any particular group, nation, state, place or time – it is universal, as seen in the original Greek term καθολικὴ Ἐκκλησία (Catholic Ecclesiastes).
“To engage with the Church, to live life as part of it, it really doesn’t matter what nation you come from, whether you are a woman or a man, wealthy or poor, what is your status in society, or any other features,” said Metropolitan Epifaniy. “However, the unity of the Church does not reject, does not destroy, does not devalue the individual. Every member of the Church has their calling as a unique individual. However, just as in the body the cells cannot exist separately from each other, but only as a whole within the organism, so the members of the Church cannot exist without each other. At the same time, each of them lives their own life as a member of the congregation, in that collegiality which tackles restrictions of space, time, and nature itself, uniting us through Christ and in Christ, uniting us through truth and thanks to truth.”
The head of the OCU has called on the faithful to establish themselves in the truth by reflecting on the nature of the Church, on our place and responsibilities in it. That’s for some false teachings, coming either from the outside world, or, as Apostle Paul foretold in his address to the Ephesian elders, even from the very circles of the Church, for those false teachings not to be able to capture us.
“We are to follow Christ and the truth he has revealed, preserving unity as a gathering of the faithful, as one body; rejecting false teachings and vain reflections and following the path of truth; not leaning to the left or to the right, but invariably following Christ,” Metropolitan Epifaniy concluded.
