Home > Full communion
Full communion is a mutual recognition between Christian churches or denominations that the partner churches hold "the essentials of the Christian faith". It includes - mutual recognition of members
- common celebration of the Lord's Supper/Holy Communion/Eucharist
- mutual recognition of ordained ministers
- mutual recognition of sacraments
- a common commitment to mission.
Full communion does not mean that the involved churches join into one denomination or forgo their distinctive traditions and theology.
Examples of full communion among churches:
- The twenty-four sui juris churches of the Catholic Communion (the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Rite Catholic churches)
- The sixteen autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches (for example, the Russian Orthodox Church, Romanian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Churches)
- The Coptic, Armenian, Jacobite, Indian Orthodox and TewahedoThe Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is an Oriental Orthodox church in Ethiopia that was part of the Coptic Church until it was granted its own Patriarch by Cyril VI, the Coptic Pope, in 1959. It claims a membership of close to 36 million people world w churches (called " Oriental Orthodox" churches)
- The Anglican CommunionThe Anglican Communion is a world-wide organisation of Anglican Churches. There is no single "Anglican Church"; it is better to speak of the Anglican Communion, which consists of national churches in communion with the Church of England. Most share the do, the Old Catholic ChurchThe Old Catholic Church is a religious denomination that split from the Roman Catholic church in 1870. The founders of the movement were mainly Austrians, Germans, Swiss and Dutch who were deeply disturbed by the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infalli, and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of India
- The twelve churches of the Porvoo CommunionThe Porvoo Communion is an agreement between 12 European Protestant churches establishing full communion. The agreement was negotiated in 1994 in the town of Porvoo in Finland. The churches involved are the Anglican churches of the British Isles, the Luth
- The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or ELCA is a mainline Protestant denomination headquarted in Chicago, Illinois. With more than 5 million members, it is the largest and most liberal of the three main Lutheran denominations in the US. The next tw
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or ELCA is a mainline Protestant denomination headquarted in Chicago, Illinois. With more than 5 million members, it is the largest and most liberal of the three main Lutheran denominations in the US. The next tw, the Moravian Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ.
Full communion is distinguished from partial communion such as exists between Catholics and Protestants, who recognize each other as their fellow Christians but are of different Christian denominations.
The word "communion" is also sometimes used as a synonym of "denomination", in the sense in which the latter word is used above.
Denominations that practice " closed communion" will only share the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) with those with whom they are in full communion. Among those are the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. This may be for a number of reasons; for example, a church that believes in Transubstantiation (i.e. that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ at the consecration during the Mass) might hold that to allow those who do not believe in transubstantiation to take the Eucharist would be to show disrespect to Christ present in the bread and wine or even imperil the souls of those who partake improperly. Denominations that practice "open communion" will typically also share the Lord's Supper with those with whom they are in partial communion.
Christian group structuring
