Appendix
The Theme of Kingdom of God in International Ecumenical Dialogue
Introduction
At first glance, the concept of “kingdom of God” has not been of particular concern in the
international bilateral dialogues. Only the 1984 Anglican/Reformed Dialogue on God’s Reign and Our
Unity has explicitly addressed this topic. Yet, there are significant references to the “kingdom of God” in
several of these dialogues, and three of them include major discussions of the theme in their dialogue
reports.1 In multilateral dialogue, especially in various World Council of Churches (WCC) conferences,
the concept of “kingdom of God” has frequently been used to critique the present state of affairs in church
and society. For the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission, the concept of “kingdom of God” has provided
a context for integrating the theological search for the unity of the church with social justice concerns for
renewal of the human community. Its study document, Church and World: The Unity of the Church and
the Renewal of the Human Community, was published in 1990. In addition to basic affirmations about the
kingdom or reign of God, these dialogues explore relations between kingdom and church, kingdom and
world/creation, and the implications of the kingdom of God for relations between church and
world/creation.
I. Basic Affirmations
In several of the dialogues members affirm their belief in the kingdom of God as an eschatological
hope, the consummation of God’s purpose for the created world.2 The historical mission of Jesus is to
announce the good news of the kingdom or reign of God, to embody it in word and deed, and to
inaugurate it in his cross and resurrection.3
The gift of the Spirit is the pledge and first instalment of the coming kingdom of God. It is the Holy
Spirit who empowers the fulfilment of God’s kingdom of which Christ is the first-fruit.4 Christians are
called to proclaim and participate in the kingdom of God. To hold eschatology as a context for
understanding mission means that the ultimate demands of God’s perfect reign continue to confront
Christians and the churches with the challenge of obedience.5
II. Kingdom and Church
Kingdom and church are integrally related. In Christ, the church is called to be a sign, instrument and
foretaste of the kingdom of God. What Christ achieved through his cross and resurrection is
communicated by the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.6 Specifically, the church as the communion of
the Holy Spirit is called to proclaim and prefigure the kingdom of God by announcing the gospel to the
world and by being built up as the body of Christ. The church is to serve the kingdom, rather than be self-serving or an end in itself. In fulfilling this vocation the church is called to follow the way of Jesus Christ,
the suffering servant. Just as the reign of God redeems the lost, so too it calls those who are saved to
solidarity with the lost, and prepares them to accept persecutions, slanders and sufferings for
righteousness’ sake. This is a sign of God’s choice of the way of the cross to save the world.7
The church owes its origin not to a single isolated act but to the totality of the Christ-event starting
from the election of the people of God of the Old Testament. The blessing God promised to Abraham has
its climax in the promise of blessing for all the families of the earth. The ministry of Jesus was addressed
to a people, so that the first persons who heard and accepted the proclamation of the kingdom were
already oriented to one another by their relationship within Israel. Jesus’ disciples become personal
witnesses to the nearness of the reign of God. They are to leave everything and follow him.8
The church is the dawning and the instrument of the kingdom of God. On the one hand, there is the
reality of the powers of the kingdom of God, especially in the proclamation of the word of God, the
celebration of the sacraments, and the experience of a reconciled community of sisters and brothers. On
the other hand, there is the interim nature of all words and signs in which salvation is imparted as well as
the empirical inadequacy in preaching, worship and the serving community.9 Until the kingdom is realized
in fullness, the church is marked by human limitation and imperfection, always remembering its
“provisional” nature.10 Yet, in spite of all the inadequacies of the churches as they actually exist, the
reality of their character as signs of the eschatological rule of God is to be highlighted. The whole church
of God, in every place and time, is a sacrament of the kingdom.11
The sacraments which are celebrated in the church proclaim and prefigure the kingdom of God.
Baptism initiates new life and participation in the community of the Holy Spirit. The celebration of the
Eucharist prefigures and provides a foretaste of the messianic banquet. It opens up the vision of the divine
rule which has been promised as the final renewal of creation, and is a foretaste of it. Signs of this
renewal are present in the world wherever the grace of God is manifest and human beings work for
justice, love and peace.12
The church as the body of Christ and the eschatological people of God is constituted by the Holy
Spirit through a diversity of gifts and ministries. Among those gifts, a ministry of episcopé is necessary to
express and safeguard the unity of the body. Every church needs this ministry in some form in order to be
the church of God.13
In Christ the victory of the reign of God over the powers of sin and death has begun. Thus, the
leadership ministry of Christ is not like the leadership in the world of sin and death but has a character
and quality determined by Christ’s way of being in and for the world.14 Living according to the law of the
Spirit, members of the church share a responsibility for discerning the action of the Spirit in the
contemporary world, for shaping a truly human response, and for resolving the ensuing moral perplexities
with integrity and fidelity to the gospel.15
III. Kingdom and World/Creation
In the reign of God, creation and human community are renewed by the Holy Spirit through their
transformation in Christ. The cosmos is an object of God’s engagement and the fulfilled kingdom is not
just the collection of all believers, but represents shalom for the totality of creation. A yearning for the
kingdom of God implies a desire for the salvation of the lost and the redemption of the entire creation.16 As stewards of the gifts of God, Christians are called to act in responsible faith towards all creation. They
are to proclaim, in word and deed, the will of God concerning personal and social injustices, economic
exploitation, and ecological destruction. Since the kingdom of God has not yet come in fullness,
Christians experience the dynamic tension between the “now” and the “not yet” for the fulfilment of
God’s kingdom in the world by engaging in patient action and active patience. The Holy Spirit guides the
faithful to work for both personal transformation and the structural transformation of society, thus
participating in the ongoing process and realization of the prayer for the coming of the kingdom.17
The coming of the kingdom of God involves the transformation of the human community now marred
by sin, oppression and poverty into a community of justice, love and peace. While there are no grounds
for thinking that the transformation will be complete in this world, all Christians must strive for it in order
to bear witness to God’s promise to complete this transformation in the world to come. People who have
experienced God’s faithfulness and righteousness will share what they have received by deeds of mercy
and justice, seeking to shape society according to the pattern of the kingdom of God. Never claiming to
build the kingdom by their own efforts, they will give all the glory to God.18 Christ’s presence as Lord of
history is seen in those movements of the human spirit which, with or without the assistance of the
church, are serving the ends of the kingdom of God.19
IV. Implications of Kingdom for Church/World Relations
In its “working definition” of the kingdom of God, the Pentecostal/Reformed dialogue summarizes
much of the discussion that has taken place in other ecumenical conversations about the topic. It identifies
the kingdom of God as “apocalyptic and prophetic, both present gift and future hope.” It recognizes the
theological content of the term as expressing “God’s sovereign, gracious, and transformative reign of
righteousness and truth in the face of, but also beyond the forces of evil and sin.” Affirming that “[t]he
kingdom cannot be identified strictly with earthly rule, although God reigns and acts in history,” the
dialogue also asserts that “[n]either can the kingdom be identified strictly with the church, although the
church and all creation exist in the eschatological hope of the fulfilment of the kingdom.”20
The Pentecostal/Reformed Dialogue’s assertion that discussion of the kingdom of God is not to be
confined only to a theology of the last things but to be seen also as “an overall perspective” of Christian
theology and life,21 is echoed in many other dialogues. The 1987 dialogue between the Old Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox churches states: “Eschatological hope is no empty experience, since the end time has
already commenced in the midst of the life of the church, which represents the continued unfolding reality
of the kingdom of God in historical time... Therefore, the Christian does not press forward as though
rejecting the experience of this world, but rather bears witness to God’s love through activity in the
world.”22 The 1992 Disciples/Roman Catholic Dialogue maintains: “At the very heart of the church’s
memory, God’s saving acts in the past provide a foretaste of transformation so that the future breaks in
already to the present. Salvation seen from the perspective of the scriptures reaches out from the past into
the future.”23
The kingdom of God is the eschatological saving reality that affects the whole world. While the
mission of the church shares in God’s activity in the world, God’s action goes beyond the sphere of the
church.24 The reign of God is being served wherever institutions, communities, movements and
individuals contribute to peace with justice, to compassion for the suffering, to preservation and care of
the creation, and to admonition and conversion of sinners. Called to witness to the reign of God, the
church confesses that Jesus is the Christ even beyond the church where he is not recognized as such. One
aspect of the church’s witness is a critical recognition of where the reign of God is being served. In this
context, the church is called to cooperate with institutions, communities, movements and individuals
contributing to the reign of God; to identify, warn against and oppose the powers of death and sin,
without counting the cost. The church lives in anticipation of the consummation of the reign of God.25
Christians search for unity so that the church may be a more credible sign, instrument and foretaste of
God’s purpose to “unite all things with Christ as head” (Col 1:19). Only a reconciled and reconciling
community, faithful to its Lord, in which human divisions are being overcome, can speak with full
integrity to an alienated, divided world, and so be a credible witness to God’s saving action in Christ and
a foretaste of God’s kingdom. Concern for human unity is the only proper context for the quest for church
unity. The unity of the church is not simply an end in itself but a sign, instrument and first-fruits of God’s
purpose to reconcile all things in heaven and earth through Christ.26 Yet, the unity of the church is not
merely a means to an end, for the church already enjoys a foretaste of that end, and is only a sign and
instrument in so far as it is a foretaste. Life in Christ is the end for which all things were made, not a
means to an end beyond it.27
The church professes that Christ is the carrier of the message of the rule of God and the liberation of
humankind. If the church goes out into the world, if it brings the gospel to people and endeavours to
realize more justice and more peace, it is only following its Lord into domains that already belong to him
and where he is already anonymously at work. The church, founded by Christ to share in the life which
comes from the Father, is sent to lead the world to Jesus Christ, to its full maturity for the glory and praise
of the Father. It is called to be the visible witness and sign of the kingdom of peace that is to come. The
church carries out this task by what it does and what it says, but also simply by being what it is, since it
belongs to the nature of the church to proclaim the word of judgement and grace, and to serve Christ in
the poor, the oppressed and the desperate. More particularly, however, it comes together for the purpose
of adoration and prayer, to receive ever new instruction and consolation and to celebrate the presence of
Christ in Word and sacraments; around this centre, and with the multiplicity of the gifts granted by the
Spirit it lives as a koinonia of those who need and help each other.28
There is a special presence of Christ in the church by which it is placed in a unique position in
relation to the world. The church can therefore correspond to its calling if its structure and its life are
fashioned by love and freedom. Accordingly the church does not seek to win human beings for a secular
programme of salvation but to convert them to Christ and in this way to serve them. In its proclamation of
the gospel there is at the same time a powerful creative cultural dynamic. As a koinonia, the church
contradicts the structures of the various sectors of modern secular society when it opposes exploitation,
oppression, manipulation, intellectual and political pressures of all kinds. By living as a new people
assured of God’s acceptance in Christ, the church is a persuasive sign of God’s love for all creation and of
his liberating purpose for all people. Christ’s gospel gathers, protects and maintains the koinonia of his
disciples as a sign and beginning of his kingdom.29 The church is therefore called to live as that force
within humanity through which God’s will for the renewal, justice, community and salvation of all people
is witnessed to. Endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and continually strengthened by Christ’s word
and sacrament, the church is sent by God to witness to, and proclaim, the kingdom in and for, this broken
world. In this mission the church is the new community of those willing to serve the kingdom for the
glory of God and the good of humanity.30
V. Statements of Differing Views
The Pentecostal/Roman Catholic Dialogue of 1982 expresses a lack of unanimity on the question of
whether or not non-Christians may receive the life of the Holy Spirit. The report of the
Reformed/Pentecostal Dialogue notes that Pentecostals differ on how they view the role of the Holy Spirit
in sustaining, reforming, or transforming human society. This same dialogue identifies differing
approaches to the critique of social structures in asserting that Pentecostal missions have not always
challenged social, or structural issues prophetically. The Reformed/Roman Catholic Dialogue of 1977
sees differences in approaches to the linking of ethics and politics: “We were all agreed that the ethical
decisions which necessarily follow from the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the believing acceptance
of this Gospel extend also to the realm of politics. In both confessions there were those who inclined to
place greater emphasis on the need for a certain caution and those who stressed the need to derive
concrete political decisions from the New Testament message and the possibility of doing so.”31 Ecclesiological differences are affirmed in the 1990 report of the Reformed/Roman Catholic Dialogue
which states: “we differ in our understanding of the nature of sin in the church … We do not think in the
same way about the relation of the church to the kingdom of God. The Reformed insist more on the
promise of a ‘not-yet’; Catholics underline more the reality of a gift ‘already-there.’”32 In 1990, the
Pentecostal/Roman Catholic Dialogue noted: “Though Pentecostals do not accept... the Roman Catholic
view of the church as ‘a kind of sacrament,’ in their own way they do affirm that the church is both a sign
and instrument of salvation.”33
Concluding Thoughts
As these international bilateral dialogues all show common interest in the kingdom of God, the
relation of kingdom to church and to world/creation, it is interesting to note their distinctive emphases
which appear to reflect both the particularities of the churches involved and the church-dividing issues
under consideration. For example, the 1993 Lutheran/Roman Catholic Dialogue on Church and
Justification affirms: “What Jesus proclaims as the power of God’s reign is his justifying love, which
creates salvation.”34 In Anglican/Lutheran and Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogues, the theme of
kingdom of God is often linked to the concept of koinonia. Dialogues involving Pentecostal and
Reformed churches have a specific interest in kingdom/world relations. Dialogues with Methodist
churches will often give emphasis to holiness and spiritual growth.
ENDNOTES
- Reformed/Roman Catholic, The Presence of Christ in Church and World (1977), 43-66; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 11-31; Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 74-95.
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- Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 77, 78; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Salvation and the Church (1986), 30, Church as Communion (1990), 45; Baptist/Roman Catholic, Summons to Witness to Christ in Today’s World (1988), 19; Disciples/Roman Catholic, The Church as Communion in Christ 1992), 21; Evangelical/Roman Catholic, Dialogue on Mission (1984), 2.1; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 11, 24, 25, 75, 243, 302-308; Methodist/Roman Catholic, The Apostolic Tradition (1991), 32; Anglican/Lutheran, Episcope (1987), 24, 31, 70, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 16, 18; Anglican/Methodist, Sharing in the Apostolic Community (1996), 15; Adventist/Lutheran Report of the Bilateral Conversation (1998), III.23; Old Catholic/Eastern Orthodox, Soteriology (1983), 7, Eschatology (1987), 1.2.
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- Evangelical/Roman Catholic, Dialogue on Mission (1984), 5.3; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Salvation and the Church (1986), 26; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 11, 27; Methodist/Roman Catholic, The Word of Life: A Statement on Revelation and Faith (1996), 17; Anglican/Lutheran, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 10, 13.
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- Lutheran/Reformed, Toward Church Fellowship (1989), 18; Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 78, 79; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Windsor Statement (1971), 11, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church (1993), 19; Methodist/Roman Catholic, Honolulu Report (1981), 22, The Apostolic Tradition (1991), 32; Eastern Orthodox/Roman Catholic, The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church (1988), 10; Old Catholic/Eastern Orthodox, Eschatology (1987), 1.2.
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- Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 81; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church (1993), 24; Disciples/Roman Catholic, Report (“Apostolicity and Catholicity in the Visible Unity of the Church”) 1981, VII.b; Methodist/Roman Catholic, The Word of Life: A Statement on Revelation and Faith (1996), 17.
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- Anglican/Reformed, God’s Reign and Our Unity (1984), 15; Baptist/Reformed, Report (1987), 30; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Final Report (1981), 7, Salvation and the Church (1986), 30, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church (1993), 97; Anglican/Lutheran, Pullach Report (1972), 60, Episcope (1987), 25, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 16.
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- Baptist/Reformed, Report (1977), 30; Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 79; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Salvation and the Church (1986), 26; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 22.
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- Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 11-24; Methodist/Roman Catholic, Towards a Statement on the Church (1986), I.2.
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- Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 307.
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- Anglican/Reformed, God’s Reign and Our Unity (1984), 18, 30, 35; Baptist/Reformed, Report (1977), 30; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 73, 307; Anglican/Methodist, Sharing in the Apostolic Community (1996), 25.
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- Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 303, 305; Methodist/Roman Catholic, Towards a Statement on the Church (1986), I.8; Eastern Orthodox/Roman Catholic, The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church (1988), 22; Reformed/Roman Catholic, Towards a Common Understanding of the Church (1990), 111.
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- Commission on Faith and Order, Lima Report (1982), “Baptism”, 2, 3, 7, “Eucharist”, 1, 22, “Ministry”, 4; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Windsor Statement (1971), 4, Church as Communion (1990), 11; Disciples/Reformed, No Doctrinal Obstacles (1987), 12; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, The Eucharist (1978), 43, Church and Justification (1993), 66-71; Anglican/Lutheran, Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 18.
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- Commission on Faith and Order, Lima Report (1982), “Ministry”, 23.
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- Anglican/Lutheran, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 10; Commission on Faith and Order, Lima Report (1982), “Ministry”, 15-16.
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- Anglican/Roman Catholic, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion and the Church (1993), 97.
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- Anglican/Reformed, God’s Reign and Our Unity (1984), 23, 30; Anglican/Roman Catholic, The Gift of Authority (1998), 50; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 22; Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 81, 89, 90.
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- Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 81.
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- Methodist/Roman Catholic, Honolulu Report (1981), 22, The Word of Life: A Statement on Revelation and Faith (1996), 79.
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- Reformed/Roman Catholic, The Presence of Christ in Church and World (1977), 48.
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- Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 77.
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- Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 78.
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- Old Catholic/Eastern Orthodox, Eschatology (1987), 1.2.
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- Disciples/Roman Catholic, The Church as Communion in Christ (1992), 38.
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- Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 263, 285-289.
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- Anglican/Lutheran, The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity (1995), 15.
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- Anglican/Reformed, God’s Reign and Our Unity (1984), 17; Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 305.
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- Anglican/Reformed, God’s Reign and Our Unity (1984), 29; Pentecostal/Reformed, Word and Spirit, Church and World (2000), 82; Anglican/Roman Catholic, Salvation and the Church (1986), 30.
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- Reformed/Roman Catholic, The Presence of Christ in Church and World (1977), 54.
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- Reformed/Roman Catholic, The Presence of Christ in Church and World (1977), 54-56.
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- Commission on Faith and Order, Church and World: The Unity of the Church and the Renewal of the Human Community (1990), Chapter III, “Kingdom-Church-Humanity”, para. 8.
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- Reformed/Roman Catholic, The Presence of Christ in Church and World (1977), 23.
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- Reformed/Roman Catholic, Towards a Common Understanding of the Church (1990), 122.
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- Pentecostal/Roman Catholic, Perspectives on Koinonia (1990), 94
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- Lutheran/Roman Catholic, Church and Justification (1993), 22.
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