Let us consider this sentence:
"I went to church in the hill-top community where my friend lives and in the church service, as the local assembled church, we prayed for the Church militant here on earth."
Here we have "church" [Greek kyriakon] referring to the local temple or building consecrated to the worship of God in the name of a Saint or an Apostle - e.g., St Thomas Church. And this church may be further identified as e.g., "St. Thomas Church, Embdon, Diocese of Havercroft."
Then we have "community" (Latin word not Greek) referring to a geographical area where there is a village or town where people live in an ordered way, bound together by basic laws, customs and culture. We have called this Embdon. Here there are relations and relatedness of blood, kith and kin. There are relatives who may or may not like each other.
Finally we have the "Church" that is prayed for - the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church [ekklesia] which is the people of God, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Ghost - and the local assembly as a microcosm of the former, which is also the local "church". Here there are relations established by grace, between man and God and between men in Christ Jesus unto salvation. Further, where people know God experientially there are those high moments of relationship (experienceds relation) when the Spirit witnesses with the human spirit.
[Let us admit that the meaning of the word church as both building and assembled people can be confusing, but this usage is very long established and we live with it.]
When we start to call the local or the universal expression of the Ekklesia of God by the name of "community" then we can easily get confused.
There are already 90 or so images/models/metaphors of the Church of God in the New Testament (see Paul Minear, Images of the Church in the NT) and community is not one of them in the translations adopted in all the older and in most modern versions of the Bible.
Why then has community become so popular since the 1960s?
Translations of the documents of Vatican II made much use of the word [which has a long history in Catholicism due to the calling of Monasteries and Convents by the name of Communities) and it stuck! Communion was used of the spiritual union between the Lord and his Church and community was sometimes used (along with other words) for the human membership of the Church, usually in once place, with its property.
But for Protestants the use of community came more and more into use because of the desire to combat what was seen as excessive individualism. One of the great emphases of the liturgical movement was the participation of all people in the Liturgy and community was used as the word to indicate that "individuals" were united as one in the liturgy in a shared celebration. Once the word got into general church usage then it was taken up by bible translators and preachers and church newsletters etc. The Creed was changed from "I believe" to "We" in order to force this sense of "community" (forgetting that the "I" of the Creed is the Body of Christ addressing its Head as one membership, thus in the 1st person singular).
But in the wider world, community is now used in a very expansive way - the old usage as of an inhabited area with laws and customs remains (as in my public prayers on Sunday!) but we also have the word being used for the associations of people/nations of like mind or like profession - community of scientists, social-work community, medical community, international community of the United Nations, and now also community of pets. In the modern usage a community is not necessarily stable but lasts as long as that which unites is prominent and is accepted by all.
So if used of a group of people who meet for worship, it is an imprecise word (for the use of it in modern English gives no strong, specific content) and points at most to people of like mind meeting for a common purpose and seeking to help each other in appropriate ways.
It seems to me that when in the Bible and in Christian tradition there is such a bountiful supply of words to use of the assembly of the baptized for the worship of the LORD God through His Son on the Lord's Day, it is regrettable that we simply imitate the fashion of the times and go for a word that at best relates primarily to the subjective aspects of religion.
And if we call the assembly/congregation/ekklesia by the name of "community" what do we call the Irish neighbourhood, the Afro-American neighbourhood, the Mexican quarter and so on?
And if we translate "koinonia or communio" as community then how do we distinguish the invisible binding power of the Holy Ghost from the external ordered societies of human beings?
Of course it is not heresy in normal circumstances to call the assembly of the faithful by the name of Christian community. But it is to add further imprecision to the general imprecision of modern Christian discourse.
In the edition of THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH that I have the only use of "community" in an entry is of the name of a religious society that has property (monastery & college).
In the very recently published edition of THE NEW SCM DICTIONARY OF LITURGY AND WORSHIP (2002) there is no article or entry on community of any kind.
Let us speak of the Church of God wherein people are related to Christ Jesus unto the Father, and to each other, in fellowship and by grace, and that this Church is IN the world, FOR the World , but not of the world (local community). Yet She exists for the world!
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America
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