Learning to Be Church

Abstract

Practices and commitments which lie at the heart of what has come to be referred to as Receptive Ecumenism can also be seen to lie at the foundations of the communities of Jesus followers in the first century CE. The desire for communion (koinonia) among Jesus followers finds its practical expression throughout the New Testament. This chapter explores two examples: (1) in the Letter to the Colossians, addressed to divided gatherings of Jesus households in Colossae and Laodicea, a particular avenue of ‘reception’ by which communion between these two communities is enhanced and division overcome is explored, highlighting essential qualities or virtues which Jesus followers are invited to emulate; (2) in Acts 6:1–7, two religiously divided Jerusalem groups overcome their divisions and experience communion (koinonia). In a discernment of how to address division and to receive the ‘other’, the leaders of Jerusalem’s Jesus followers return to a path of communion founded on discernment of God’s word. Both examples from these first-century communities of Jesus followers reveal concrete engagement, practical hospitality, and ecclesial growth which can speak into our own journey in Receptive Ecumenism.