This study argues that the local eucharistic community (LEC) is an essential unit of life in the Orthodox Church. The LEC is understood as the community of people who are bound together by weekly participation in the Divine Eucharist around the same altar, in which they are united to Christ and one another, and who choose to live in deep intentional community, growing in the life of Christ together, caring for one another, and witnessing to the world. The author presents a framework for the study and nurture of LECs based on eight attributes, which are: eucharistic life, community life,...

L'Église est universelle dans sa participation à la mission du Christ et de l'Esprit-Saint pour le salut de toute la création. En même temps, elle a des ' limites ' dans sa constitution historique et se trouve toujours en relation avec un ' en dehors '. Ce livre traite les questions qui en découlent sur la base de l'ecclésiologie du Concile Vatican II. En partant d'une courte analyse historique de la question des limites ecclésiales dans les oeuvres de Cyprien de Carthage et d'Augustin et du développement ultérieur du binôme ordre/juridiction, le texte révèle premièrement la...

In the early Church, female disciples, prophetesses, virgins, widows, and deaconesses played an active role in the life of early Christian communities and contributed significantly to the spread of Christianity. Unlike other apostolic Churches, the Armenian Apostolic Church has maintained the unique tradition from the early Christian Church and preserved it to this day. Although women are not permitted to be ordained as priests, they may serve at the holy altar and proclaim the Word of God in the Church as ordained deaconesses alongside deacons, priests, and bishops. This volume explores the...