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This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world. If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts. This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.
1 Corinthians 12: 12 - 31
The 'more excellent way' is featured earlier in this series. Here I compared the various traditions to stepping stones. In this current passage we are invited to compare them to parts of the body.
But let's take care here. It's hardly credible that Paul was writing of institutions as members of the body.
I posted a series some time ago about Yung Suk Kim's thinking about the Body of Christ. Kim's point is, to paraphrase it, the united community of all the traditions would necessarily be exclusive of those who are on the margins. This would be a result of institutional unity.
But the image of the Body of Christ is of a body divided. This allows space for those who would otherwise be marginalised. The point is not that we all have something to offer but that in Christ's broken body there is room for all.
Maybe some traditions exclude those they don't approve of. If so, then the body is necessarily broken and it is broken because God accepts all, whether or not church leaders agree with God.
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