The present round considers the interrelation among local, regional, national, and worldwide ministries and church structures, in the context of an understanding of the church as koinonia of salvation. All do not speak with tongues, do they? That social ministry organizations, educational institutions, chaplaincies, and other church agencies engage together in activities that further the gospel and the common good. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, continuing the practice of its predecessor bodies, holds itself free under the gospel to ordain women. There follow three higher degrees: Archbishops, Patriarchs, Supreme Pontiff. It would be a mistake to insist that either the parish/congregation or the diocese/synod is exclusively the local church. Instead of leaving the families to the mercies of the world, the church gathered around them to support them in more ways than one. They spoke of the koinÇ nia in which they shared. To what extent may such an office of universal ministry be needed for the unity of the church in a koinonia of salvation? The most immediate and concrete way this network of relations among face-to-face eucharistic assemblies is realized is in some primary regional community: a Catholic diocese, a Lutheran synod. Besides the "Theologia Wirceburgensis, " many other manuals follow this pattern, such as the often-revised Manuale Theologiae Dogmaticae of J. Hervé (Paris: Berche et Pagis, 1924-26 and on into the 1950's), where "De ecclesia" is in v. 1, "De ordine" in v. The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries. 4. 270 Irenaeus of Lyon made a case for the continuous orthodoxy of the church of Rome and its presiding bishops, one after another, 271 and though he insisted that a similar case could be made for the other ancient churches, such as Ephesus, Rome's role as a benchmark of orthodoxy only grew with the passage of time. That question must not be isolated and made to bear the entire weight of a judgment on a church's ministry. Documents of Vatican II (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975) 371: "in virtue consequently of the unbroken succession, going back to the beginning. "
166Briefwechsel von Landesbischof Johannes Hanselmann und Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger über das Communio-Schreiben der Römischen Glaubenskongregation, " Una Sancta, 48 (1993): 348. 225 Here the "church of God" is clearly under the supervision of "presbyters, " who are called "overseers" appointed by the Holy Spirit. The office of ministry is included as an essential element of the local church in the Lutheran understanding, but this office is seen as exercised by the pastor/presbyter. The Nature of the Church as Communion and its Ministry. An Analysis of the Lutheran Responses to the Convergence Document "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission, LWF Report 25 (Geneva: Lutheran World Federation, 1988), 126-131. "352 As a result, all the Nordic and Baltic churches are episcopally structured and all but Denmark have taken on succession as a sign of unity and continuity. God uses the church as the vessel through which this adoption is cultivated and spread. God does not create disorder. The church has a local and global connotation of different. It first begins in the garden of Eden when God declared, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him" (Genesis 2:18). In other nearby countries, the Swedish episcopal succession was reintroduced into Finland early in the twentieth century;353 into Latvia after World War I (but later interrupted);354 and into Estonia in the 1960s.
202 There is little more that one can cull from the Gospels about the structure of Jesus' church to be built. At Acts 20:17, the Apostle addresses the Ephesian presbyterous t' s ekkl' sias, counseling them to keep watch over themselves and "over the whole flock, of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers (episkopous), to shepherd the church of God" (Acts 20:28). The basic word, koinÇ nia in Greek, is ancient, occurring 22 times in the Bible, 9 but it was not a term or concept prominent in Catholic or Lutheran documents of the sixteenth century. The study presented recommendations in four areas, of which two are of particular relevance to this dialogue. In presenting the church as koinonia, the Lutheran-Roman Catholic International Commission placed the church within a series of biblical images, beginning with "people of God, " and added that in both our traditions "we rightly speak of the 'priesthood of all the baptized' or the 'priesthood of all believers. If the local or particular church possesses all that is needed to be truly church, then it must include within itself all ministries essential to the church. For that reason Jerome plainly teaches that in the apostolic letters all who preside over churches are both bishops and presbyters.... What, after all, does a bishop do, with the exception of ordaining, that a presbyter does not? An Analysis of Lutheran Responses to the Convergence Document "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission (Geneva: LWF, 1988) found less agreement on ministry than on other areas. The church has a local and global connotation is a. The new prayer for the ordination of the bishop asks God to "complete in your priest the fullness of your ministry. " Witnesses share the kingdom as well as persecution and patient endurance (Rev.
93 The pastor of a parish works with the bishop and with the presbyterate of the diocese to ensure that "the faithful be concerned for parochial communion and that they realize that they are members both of the diocese and of the universal church and participate in and support efforts to promote such communion. " I, was published in 1985. 197 Increasingly it was concluded that no single clear-cut meaning is possible; koinÇ nia is a multivalent term.
We also recognize together that: "Our consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification must come to influence the life and teachings of our churches. When believers are surrounded by wise counsel, they make better personal decisions and decisions in the realms in which they lead. 265Alexandre Faivre, Ordonner la fraternité: Pouvoir d'innover et retour à l'ordre dans l'Église ancienne (Paris: Cerf, 1992) 33 and 80-82. The church has a local and global connotation used. 162John Paul II, UUS, 15. 55Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, 9. 40; Pragman 129-31, where Stahl's Kirchenverfassung is cited. Hainz, Koinonia: (see note 11 above), was critical of earlier studies for failing to find an underlying unity or for reading in traditional dogmatic theology (178, 185, 188); history of research and results, 162-204. In each of our traditions the ecclesiological understanding of these various realizations of koinonia requires deeper reflection. Lest we assume that the unknown author of "De VII ordinibus Ecclesiae" thought of bishops as simply presbyters with special duties, we should note that the quoted words come from section six of that little treatise; the seventh section exalts the ordo episcopalis remarkably (PL 30.