Communion (Christian)
The term
Communion is derived from
Latin communio (sharing in common). The corresponding term in
Greek is κοινωνία, which is often translated as "fellowship".
In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term
communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians.
This basic meaning of the word, found in many passages of the New Testament (see on Biblical Usage below), predates its more specific use is relation to sharing in the
Eucharist.
By metonymy, the term is used of a group of Christian Churches that have this relationship of communion with each other. An example is the
Anglican Communion.
If the relationship between the Churches is complete, it is called
full communion. This term is, however, frequently used in a broader sense, to refer instead to a relationship between Christian Churches that are not united, but that have made between them an arrangement whereby members of each Church have certain rights within the other.
If a Church recognizes that another Church shares with it some, but not all, of the beliefs and essential practices of Christianity, it may speak of "partial communion" between it and the other Church.
The
communion of saints is the relationship that, according to the belief of Christians, exists between them as people made holy by their link with Christ. This relationship is generally understood to extend not only to those still in earthly life, but also to those who have gone past death to be "at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). Since the word rendered in English as "saints" can mean not only "holy people" but also "holy things", the term
communion of saints also applies to the sharing by members of the Church in the holy things of faith, sacraments (especially the
Eucharist, and the other spiritual graces and gifts that they have in common.
In a special way the term
communion is applied to sharing in the Eucharist by partaking of the consecrated bread and wine, an action seen as entering into a particularly close relationship with Christ. Sometimes the term is applied not only to the sharing but to the whole of the rite or to the consecrated elements. For further information, see the article
Eucharist.
The Greek term
κοινωνία is found, as a noun or in its adjectival or verbal forms, in 43 verses of the
New Testament. The noun is found additionally in some manuscripts (used for producing the English translation known as the King James Version, but not for more recent translations) in Ephesians 3:9.
The word is applied, according to the context, to communion, sharing or fellowship with:
*the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4), God (1 Jn 1:6), the Trinity (1 Jn 1:3), Jesus, Son of God (1 Co 1:9), his sufferings (Ph 3:10; 1 Pt 4:13), his future glory (1 Pt 5:1), the Holy Spirit (2 Co 13:14; Ph 2:1)
*the blood and the body of Christ (1 Co 10:16), pagan sacrifices and gods (1 Co 10:18, 20)
*fellow Christians, their sufferings and the faith (Ac 2:42; Ga 2:9; ; 1 Jn 1:3, 7; Heb 10:33; Rv 1:9; Phm 6, 17)
*a source of spiritual favours (Rm 11:17), the gospel (1 Co 9:23), light and darkness (2 Co 6:14)
*others' sufferings and consolation (2 Co 1:7; Ph 4:14), their evangelizing work (Ph 1:5), their graces or privileges (Rm 15:27; Ph 1:7), their material needs, to remedy which assistance is given (Rm 12:13, 15:26-27; 2 Co 8:4, 9:13; Ga 6:6; Ph 4:15; 1 Tm 6:18; Heb 13:16)
*the evil deeds of others (Mt 23:30; Ep 5:11; 1 Tm 5:22; 2 Jn 11; Rv 18:4)
*the bodily human nature all have in common (Heb 2:14)
*a work partnership, secular or religious (Lk 5:10; 2 Co 8:23)
*
Communion of Saints*
Full communion*
Eucharist**
Open communion**
Closed communion
