by Roy Lawrence
I believe in the Communion of Saints.' I have said these words many hundreds of times. They are part of the Apostles' Creed, which has been much beloved by my own church, the Church of England, over the centuries. Yet for many years I had little notion what they meant and I can never remember hearing a sermon explaining them. The Communion of Saints is a fundamental Christian doctrine. Why then is it neglected and what does it mean?
Perhaps the first thing we need to fix in our minds is just what is meant by ‘saints'. Many people use this word to describe ‘a perfect person' but this is not what saint means in scripture.
In Biblical terms every Christian is a saint. The two words are interchangeable in the New Testament. So, though like most of the deeper ingredients of the Christian Faith the Communion of Saints is a multi-layered doctrine, at its simplest level it just means that all Christians should be friends, that we should be pleased to come together, that we should be concerned about each other and that we should offer each other loving practical support in times of need.
Actually, to be honest, we have not always been good about this, particularly in the traditional churches. In the past, mutual friendship and concern could not always be taken for granted amongst people attending local churches
Do you know the story about the man who walked into a church wearing a bowler hat and smoking a cigar? Both church wardens rushed down the aisle after him. One called out, ‘You can't wear that hat in church' and the other one added, ‘and you certainly can't smoke that cigar'. The man gave a wintry little smile and answered, I have been coming here for years. I was determined that somebody should speak to me at last!'
Friendships first
Happily we are getting better at simple friendship. Perhaps one reason is that as Christians become more and more of a minority in society, we are increasingly realizing that if we don't care about each other no one else may do so.
This was certainly how it was in the early church. Tertullian records that even in pagan society, where the Christian faith was largely despised, the word went out. ‘See how these Christians love one another.'
This love should not just be a feature of local churches. It should have no boundaries in terms of place or race. For instance, if you and I believe in the Communion of Saints, we should be much more aware than we are that in many parts of the world our brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering quite horrendously. We ought to have a real sense of concern for all the modern Christian martyrs and their families. Every three minutes somebody somewhere dies for the Christian Faith. It happens under tyrannical governments like that of Burma, and in militantly atheistic countries like North Korea and also in countries where extremist forms of religion target all who profess any faith other than their own, as is the case in the north of Nigeria and in much of the Sudan. In the few minutes whilst you have been reading this article, somewhere in this dangerous world a man, woman or child will have been martyred for Christ.
This should be a matter not only of deep concern to us but also of action. At the very least we should make a regular donation to one of the organizations which make it their business to lessen the burdens of the suffering church – like, for instance, Christian Solidarity Worldwide1. The suffering church should also have a regular place in our prayers.
A sense of unity
There is a theological reason why we should feel a sense of unity with all other Christians around the world. To be a Christian is to be called to union with Christ. St Paul constantly writes about union with Christ. The words en Christo (‘in Christ') or their equivalent occur no less than 164 times in his writings.
So it follows as a matter of simple logic that if each Christian is one with Christ, then we must also be one with each other. Or to put it another way, union with Christ presupposes the Communion of Saints.
All are parts of one body
St Paul puts it this way. Being a Christian is like being a limb or organ in the body of Jesus Christ.
Just as the limbs and organs of our own bodies belong together, so it must be with the body of Christ. ‘The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the hand to the foot, you are nothing to do with me.'2 We all belong together because we all belong to Jesus.
However, we have far from exhausted this doctrine. It is a mysterious concept, and just as it transcends place and race, so it transcends time itself. Scripture tells us that Jesus is greater than time. He existed before the dawn of history3 and will be present when history comes to an end.4
So if you and I are called to union with Christ, then we are called to communion not just with the suffering saints in Northern Nigeria in our own day and age but with the saints of every age. St Peter and St Paul, St Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa are all part of my family and yours. I am in their hearts and in their prayers and so are you.
This should make a difference to the way we look at life and to the way we say our prayers. In past editions of The Plain Truth I have shared my conviction with you that prayer has more in common with resting than with striving. It involves resting in the essence of God the Father,5 the presence of God the Son6 and the inner power and work of God the Holy Spirit.7 The doctrine of the Communion of Saints reminds us that in our prayers we can also rest in the prayers, the love and the fellowship of all the saints from every age, past, present and future.
This means, for instance, that if I am dogged by a sense of failure, I can rest not only in the massive resources of the Holy Trinity but in the hope that St Jude, who is regarded as the patron saint of failures, is adding his own two pennyworth of prayer to the might of God and to the rest of the Communion of Saints.
It is not that I will ever pray to him or to any of the other saints. Prayer is something that can be addressed properly only to God.
But when I pray, it is good to know that they are praying with me.
The doctrine of the Communion of Saints also enriches my sense of a personal family life. For instance it enables me to believe that my two grandfathers, one of whom was a lay-preacher in the Congregationalist Church, whilst the other was a thoughtful Roman Catholic, have not ceased to take an interest in me.
If I fancy a chat with either of them in the context of my daily prayers, this is not a sign of derangement on my part. We shall probably never know, this side of eternity, just how much we owe to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to which of them in particular.
But if we follow the Apostles' Creed by believing in the Communion of Saints, we should all be able to experience something of the inner peace and power and purpose which come from knowing, as we like to sing in Merseyside, that ‘we never walk alone'.
1 PO Box 99, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3YF Website: www.csw.org.uk
2 l Corinthians 12:21
3 John 8:58
4 Matthew 28:20
5 Acts 17:28
6 Matthew 28:20
7 Ephesians 1:19
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