Unity in Christ

This issue, unity in Christ, is a complex one. It entails Christology and Ecclesiology. If Jesus Christ is one then the Church should be one. Therefore, what exists today, with the existence of countless churches and ecclesiastical groups is a paradox. Nevertheless, how do the Orthodox understand this topic?

‘Orthodox theology understands “unity in Christ” as a communion in the risen and ascended Body of the New Man. “You are dead,” writes St. Paul, “and your life is hidden in God with Christ” (Col. 3:3). There is, therefore, a particular manner in which we achieve this closeness to Christ which makes the Church to be one. This manner, which Paul calls “communion,” transcends intellectual conviction, moral commitment or ethical principle.’[1]

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[1] Meyendorff, John, Living Tradition, (Crestwood, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1978), p. 116