LESSON 1

The Church
 OBJECTIVES:
At the end of session, the students will be
able to:
• Draw out the derivation of the term Church
• Appreciate the concept behind the Church
as mystery and sacrament
• Value the essence of the Church as people
of God
• Our Catholic Church traces its origin
back to the Old Testament QAHAL and
the New Testament EKKLESIA (CCC
751).
• Both terms mean the “people of God
called together” or “assembly convoked
by God”.
• The Church claims to be a faith-
assembly whose root cause is God’s
free call to all to share His divine
goodness and love in Christ.
• The Church is not just a social grouping of
people drawn together by cultural values
and attitudes.
• This faith conviction that God is ever-
present source and ground for the Church
is the reason for explaining the Church as
“mystery” and “sacrament” (CFC 1355)
• The word CHURCH (Latin = ecclesia is
from the Greek=ekkalein means to call
out) means a convocation or an assembly.
• EKKLESIA is used frequently in the Greek
Old Testament for the assembly of the
Chosen People before God, above all form
their assembly on Mount Sinai where
Israel received the Law and was
established by God as His holy people.
• The first community of Christian believers
recognized itself as HEIR to that assembly.
• In the Church (Greek term is KYRIAKE means
calling together his people from all the ends of
the earth) from which the English word CHURCH
and German word KIRCHE are derived, means
“what belongs to the Lord”.
• In Christian usage, the word “Church” designates
the liturgical assembly: local community or the
whole universal community of believers.
• Three inseparable meaning of the CHURCH:
1. People that God gathers in the whole world
2. Local community
3. Eucharistic assembly
• Above all else, the Church is a mystery of God’s
incredible loving grace.
• The word Church translates the scriptural word
EKKLESIA which means “those called apart”.
• The Church is a community of believers who live
a sacramental life and who commit themselves to
fellowship and service for the sake of the
Kingdom of God.
• Because the Church is unlike any other human
community, not one definition can precisely plumb
the depth of its meaning.