A Place for Communion: Reflections on an Ecclesiology of Parish Life

Abstract

Theologians have demonstrated curious restraint in assigning theological meaning to the parish. I argue here for a renewed attention to the parish as an “ecclesial place,” that is, a geographical site situated in particular contexts where ecclesial relationships of communion unfold by the power of the Holy Spirit for the sake of God’s mission. Simply put, parishes function—or at least ought to function—as the places where “histories of communion” are manifested in the context of grace and struggle in the real world.