The divine person of Jesus Christ assumed humanity, and he assumed it even to the utmost limits of the human condition, i.e. unto death itself, and death upon the cross, with the agony of the dying person's sense of being forsaken by God. Thus, humanity becomes totally transformed, regenerated in him. This tasting of death by a divine person -- what Gregory of Nazianzus calls "the humanity of God" which "sanctifies humanity" -- could only result in victory over death, in the destruction of death. This accomplishment necessarily confers a new quality on all life. The sacrificial action of Jesus Christ regenerates, re-creates the whole of creation. "A few drops of blood remake the whole universe" (Gregory of Nazianzus). This humanity, which Christ assumed and sanctified, has a cosmic dimension. Christ's victory over death grants a new life to the whole of creation. Each human being, called to "put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27), is royally, prophetically and ministerially responsible for the whole universe.

The resurrection is therefore a cosmic and very central event, and the Orthodox accordingly place great emphasis on the passion-resurrection of Christ, the paschal character of the Christian life. This life is the life offered in Christ through the gift of grace, which is the breath of the Holy Spirit -- the gift of God himself. Salvation, in the Orthodox perspective, is not restricted to redemption in the strict sense, i.e. only freeing humanity from sin. Salvation is viewed in terms not so much of one's justification as of one's participation in the true destiny of human nature, fully realized in Christ. Salvation is offered to all as a free gift, to be freely accepted by all. The gift of the Holy Spirit enables human beings to become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4).

This participation of human beings in the divine life of the Holy Trinity, their incorporation in Christ as adopted sons and daughters through the Spirit of the Son who in their hearts cries "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6; cf. Rom. 8:15), is what the Orthodox often express in the famous patristic adage "God became man that man may become God" (Irenaeus et al.). It is also the meaning of the term "deification" (theosis).

Participation in the divine life implies growth in Christ to the dimension of becoming a true person, i. e. the dimension of cosmic humanity, members of Christ, members of one another, temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 12:12; Eph. 4:25). Christians are co-responsible for the recapitulation of the whole creation for union with God. In other words, the whole of history is their responsibility, and no human situation can possibly be excluded. It is a "eucharistic" view of the destiny of humanity and creation. And the eucharistic offering -- the very heart of life -- is "for the life of the world" (liturgy of John Chrysostom; cf. John 6:51). Consequently, the eucharist commits all to participate in history.

The Orthodox conception of salvation leads to the understanding that the church is not just an institution in a purely human sense, but primarily is a community of "persons" who are built into "a spiritual house". "Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). The church is hierarchical, but one views the hierarchy in the larger perspective of 1 Cor. 12 and 13 -- within the same Body of Christ, with a diversity of functions, bound together in love and called to witness to this love.

According to the Orthodox teaching on the church, all institutional aspects (hierarchy, discipline, organization, etc.) should be nothing but the expressions of the deep nature of the church as described above. They are all in nature charismatic, their authority is that of Christ and the Spirit, the "two hands of the Father" (Irenaeus). They are all there to serve the essential and central action of the church: the eucharistic offering for the whole creation in the unity of the one Spirit and in communion with all things visible and invisible ("the whole company of heaven", to quote the liturgy of the Church of England). This eucharistic offering, as the Orthodox like to recall, quoting Chrysostom, does not end in the church building but is there to irrigate the whole of life through the faithful. These should go out into the world as witnesses, every one in his or her own way, according to the diversity of gifts, to the new life offered to humanity in Christ.

The foundation of Orthodox ecclesiology is the local eucharistic community: the bishop surrounded by and presiding over the presbyterate and the community. This local church or diocese (today often the parish, where the priest fulfills most of the bishop's duties, i.e. preaching of the word of God and presiding over the celebration of the sacrament) is not a part of the church universal but the expression of the church universal -- though only in so far as the local church is faithful to the faith of the apostles, the catholic faith of the church, and therefore is in communion with all the local churches faithful to the same faith.

Consequently, the Orthodox church is, according to its ecclesiology, a fellowship of local churches, in communion of faith and sacrament. But only one local church is entrusted with the duty to "preside in love" over all the churches. Traditionally, this presidency is the responsibility of the church of Rome. Since the split between East and West, the church of Constantinople presides over the Eastern Orthodox churches.

The relations of communion and unity in faith among the local churches constitute what the Orthodox mean by conciliarity. This conciliar nature of the Orthodox church is sometimes expressed in councils, but it is not restricted to them and is not dependent on their actual meeting. According to Orthodox ecclesiology, every time the eucharist is celebrated, the conciliar nature of the church is expressed. Also the plurality of consecrators of a local bishop is a clear expression of conciliarity: as co-consecrators, bishops from neighbouring local churches witness to the faithfulness to the apostolic faith of the church in which the new bishop will be the guarantor of this faithfulness.

Conciliar relations among local churches through the president, whose role is to be the sign of unity, are well expressed in the 34th of the so-called Apostolic Canons: "Let the bishops of each province recognize the one who is primate among them, let them accept him as their head and let them do nothing without his having expressed his opinion, even though it is incumbent on every one to look to the affairs of his diocese and the dependent territories. But he in his turn must do nothing without the accord of all. Thus concord will reign, and God will be glorified through Christ in the Holy Spirit." The Trinitarian conclusion indicates that the relations among churches are to be based upon the same principles of unity in diversity as those of persons in the church: personhood is in the image of the unity in diversity in the Holy Trinity.

There are, quite naturally, many discrepancies between what Orthodoxy is ideally in its teaching and what the Orthodox churches are in historical reality. There are many distortions of Orthodoxy due to human sinfulness. Thus, for instance, Orthodoxy in the 20th century presents many divisions, in particular of a jurisdictional nature. These have become clearly apparent with the dispersion of Orthodox throughout the world, especially in the Western areas. With the rise of nationalism in the 19th century, there appeared a tendency to identify Orthodoxy with a particular culture, an ethnic group, a nation in the modern sense of the word. This tendency was condemned as a heresy in 1872 by a local council in Constantinople (received by all the other churches) under the name of "phyletism". In spite of this condemnation, the tendency still exists among the Orthodox to substitute in practice a nationalistic ecclesiology for the traditional territorial principle, following the apostolic definition ("the church of God which is at Corinth", 1 Cor. 1:2, etc.) which unites all the people (Jews, Greeks, etc.) in one Eucharistic community in a given place. The Orthodox who are scattered throughout the world tend to be claimed by their "mother churches" according to an ethnic, cultural, national principle, which leads to a multiplicity of jurisdictions in one place instead of one bishop in each place. The debate still goes on in spite of the fact that some progress has recently been made; the purity of ecclesiology is at stake.

Another temptation for modern Orthodoxy is the crystallizing of patristic theology into a new form of scholasticism as a system of thought. Instead, there should be ever-renewed efforts to orient each generation to a living sense of union with God. It is a tendency simply to repeat as a rigid catechism what the fathers have said in the past. This practice often leads to a refusal to consider the challenges of history today. Among those who succumb to this temptation, there is sometimes a tendency to reject ecumenism as the heresy of the 20th century. Some hold that the unity of Christians can be achieved only through the formal conversion of all to the historical Orthodox church.

Orthodox ecclesiology claims to be Eucharistic; the church is the sacrament par excellence. All too often, however, the reality of life belies this understanding of the church. In too many cases, baptism (as well as marriage) tends to be a purely social event, and people partake of the Eucharist perhaps once a year, if at all. Many churches have indeed reacted against this contradiction within Orthodoxy, but there is still a long way to go. In too many cases, the Eucharistic prayers are said in such a way that people cannot hear them. As a result, the laity tend to regard themselves and are regarded as passive members of the church who are not fully co-responsible in the unity of the one church, not fully co-responsible in the unity of the one Spirit with the presiding minister, and the reality of 1 Cor. 12 and 13 is remote.