Living As Community

Community was a hallmark of the Early Church. Acts 2 42-47 gives us a miniature portrait of the first believers:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

As believers -- members of the Body of Christ -- we need each other. The Community of the Church is one of God's gifts to us, enabling us to share the diverse gifts and insights God has given, to proclaim the value of each member of God's family, and to come together in joys and sorrows.

The Early Church's model of local community, in which there is shared worship and study, but also some form of shared daily life and a meeting through the community of the tangible needs of its members, is far from the experience of many Christians today. One of our questions at CCOW is how we can best foster the growth of such community -- a joyful response to our common recognition of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

But we also seek the answer to a wider question. For Paul, that "Community" was not only the Church in a local area, but the Body of Christ spread throughout the known world. In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle discusses the mutual obligations which characterise the Body in a local context: "there should be no division in the body, but . . . . its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

In 2 Corinthians 8, however, where he is discussing a collection for the Church in Jerusalem, he clarifies that the mutual responsibility extends more widely, noting: "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.'"

So as we seek to build up local forms of Community -- of life together-- through initiatives like Table Talk, we do so in the context of asking how we build up the sense of the wider community, the Body of Christ worldwide.

It is manifest that at present the Pauline standard "your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality" is not being met. We may not sense that as our fellow members of the Body suffer we do too . . . perhaps because we cannot see how deeply our acceptance of this situation disfigures our relationships with each other and with God. Can we build up our sense of the Body so that these wounds can be healed?

To read a meditation by the Archbishop of Canterbury touching on some of these themes, click here.