Page 33 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 70

ing in the co-essential Trinity binds us in love towards each other, in a move-
ment towards that visible unity for which our Lord prayed. 19
‘Holy’

10. We affirm that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and perfects the personal lives of
believers, and the sacraments of the Church, and is active in the entire
20
cosmos. In the Church, as the body of Christ, believers receive purification,
21
sanctification, and justification by the Spirit, for it is the very nature of the
22
Church to be, according to the divine call, ‘holy and without blemish’. Holi-
ness, which is the gift of the Spirit, is manifested in the fruits of the Spirit.
23
The holiness of the Church, deriving from Christ Himself, has its source in the
indissoluble union of the Church with Christ. The Church is holy because God
is Holy. Concerning life and holiness, the Church is invited to share the holi-
24
ness of God and the eternal life of His kingdom, by the action of the Spirit.
The Spirit impels the faithful to pray to the Father. The nature of the holy
25
Church as such implies the union of heavenly and earthly realities in the com-
munion of saints. Moreover, according to the teaching of the early Christian
Church, she is described as holy in the Creeds because she has been chosen by
God, because He has predestined her to a glorious inheritance, and because He
dwells in her in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The holiness of the Church is
not dependent on the virtues of her members, nor undermined by their fail-
ings, all of whom pray ‘Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth!’

‘Catholic’
27
26
11. We affirm that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and sets us free, and
so is the source and guarantor of the catholicity of the Church, existing
throughout the world in different local manifestations under the One Lord,
Jesus Christ, in the realm of space and time. The Holy Spirit also unites the
earthly Church with the heavenly, as revealed in the anamnetic and liturgical

19 Cf. John 17.11.
20 Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto, 16,38; 20,51.
21 Cf. 1 Corinthians 6.11.
22 Ephesians 5.27.
23 Cf. Galatians 5.22–23.
24 Cf. Hebrews 2.17; 1 John 1.7.
25 Cf. Romans 8.15.
26 Cf. John 16.13.
27 Cf. John 8.32.

$31