Years ago a women’s group in my first church named itself by the Greek word for fellowship. The hilarious truth was that they had no idea what the word meant, and they mangled the word trying to pronounce it. I figure a previous pastor suggested the name koinonia, and even if the first group members knew its meaning, that knowledge was not long remembered.
As the new pastor I was amused and yet dismayed. I knew enough about the New Testament meaning of koinonia that it seemed sacrilegious to reduce the rich word for Christian relationships to a gathering of women for coffee, conversation, and brief devotional. Yet over the years I have witnessed countless instances of abuse of the word usually translated as fellowship. Just the sheer number of Fellowship Halls in churches should be enough to ruin the word for any good use.
This reflection is in mind as I return from a rich experience of togetherness at the meeting of the Fellowship of Presbyterians. Two thousand Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders converged for the launching of a new organization to serve as a more sharply defined alternative to their widely diffuse denomination. Those attending the conference knew they shared a common theology, identity and purpose. It was sweet.
But was it koinonia? In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasized that true koinonia is based solely on union in Christ. What binds Christians is not that we have a lot in common or we like each other. The mystical union we share in Christ transcends human differences and creates the spiritual unity we call koinonia.
Some in the PC(USA) are complaining about this movement among evangelicals to unite and to distinguish ourselves from others in the PC(USA). They claim that the unity of the church includes a spectrum of Christian beliefs. It is a fair challenge, and I think the enthusiastic Presbyterians gathered this week in Orlando would agree that the true church includes many believers who do not adhere to Reformed doctrine.
But as one participant said to me at the Fellowship of Presbyterians meeting, when we discover that others in the PC(USA) do not mean the same thing we do as they speak of “Jesus” or “Word of God” or “salvation,” it is impossible to think that we are united in Christ.
That is why we were basking in koinonia at this meeting. At last we could gather in spiritual communion and commit to a common ministry and mission.
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