The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.

Stanley Hauerwas
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The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints. It is by this eschatological act that we can truly say we are one — not just because we all believe in Christ and his resurrection, but because we are gathered as a new people (1 Peter 2:9). The church thus represents the future of humanity. And this future cannot be realized without union, which means that it cannot be realized without those who represent those to come.

Source: In Good Company: The Church As Polis

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