Reprise (ecclesiology)

Hey Jeff, it came up again, our different views on the nature of the church. I've asked you a lot of question over the last few years and you rarely answer them. So, call me supid but I thought I'd ask again and see what you have to say.
You know my position, that the whole church can not have been wrong about dogma for centuries. But you also think I hold that the Church is merely an bunch of clerical titles and office space in Moscow, Istanbul, and Alexandria.
I think you believe that Church is anyone who confesses (orally?) faith in Jesus death for the forgivness of their sins. (Is that correct?)

What I'd like to do is explain what exactly I believe the Church is and ask you where you disagree with me. I think that to a certain extent you are disagreeing with cartoon images of what I believe. This will be kind of mystical, meaning that it is unexplainable; it is like the Creed. We don't say, "I believe in...because...". We simply say, "I believe in..."

So, what is to be said about the Church?

First, it is manifested locally as many churches but remains one. As Saint Ignatius (probably baptised by St. Peter) teaches us, wherever the bishop is, there is the church. But what does that mean? It means wherever Christ is being made known in the Holy Mysteries there is the Church, for the church is His body. Woops! I'm getting way ahead of myself. I'll slow down. Its just that I get so excited about this stuff. For the Orthodox, it is okay to think of the Church as one and as many. It is also okay for Orthodox to think of the Church as visible and invisible. (But this should not be confused with the majority of Protestant's view that the church is divided between local=visable and universal=invisable. That is not what I am saying.)

The Foundation
The foundation for all knowldge of the Church is to be found in God Himself. He is Undivided yet He is Three. The Holy Trinity is both particular and universal. And what He is of Himself, the Church is by His love. It is appropriate to use "He" and "Them" when talking about the Trinity. It is appropriate to talk about individual bishops and it is appropriate to talk about one episcopacy all the bishops share. It was Jesus who prayed "even as Thou O Father are in me and me in Thee, so they may be one, that the world may believe that Thou has sent me." So if this is true, what is the difference between the Godhead and the Church? The question of nature. The Holy Trinity is particular and universal by nature. The Church is particular (e.g. local) and universal (e.g. catholic) by particpation in the love of the Godhead. Some Orthodox who are wiser than I have said that the Church is an Ikon of God for the world to see and by seeing God's love, respond with love toward God.

In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being
So now is the obvious question: How does the Church participate in the love of God? How does the Church become the Ikon of the Holy Trinity? Through Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the only Way. The Church is an Ikon of God only by Christ's extending of His grace to the Church and the Church's participation in that grace.

(to be continued)