Can a Missional Ecclesiology Be Sacramental?

Abstract

Abstract ‘Missional’ accounts of ecclesiology, developed in the light of the theology of missio Dei since the 1950s, include some that carry a sacramental emphasis, treating the dominical sacraments as primary for the church’s being and also recognized continuity in the ordering of ministry as integral to this sacramental identity. Nonetheless, continuing tensions are evident in the literature on missional ecclesiology and in controversies around church policy and practice. One factor here is an underlying contrast between an approach that locates the church’s participation in the missio Dei in its action towards the world and another that puts the weight instead on its sustaining a distinctive form of being-in-relationship. Treating the relation between gospel, communication and communion as the critical theological framework for articulating the church’s participation in the missio Dei, the article proposes that this can support an ecclesiology that, constructively addressing this contrast, is both thoroughly missional and deeply sacramental.