The communion of saints

With Christ and with one another

‘Fellowship’ translates koinōnia (κοινωνία), a sharing in common. John gives the purpose of proclaiming the gospel:

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:3

The communion of saints runs first upward, to God. Through union with Christ believers share in his grace, sufferings, resurrection and glory. Matthew Henry writes: "This communion of believers with the Father and the Son, is begun and kept up by the influences of the Holy Spirit" Matthew Henry.

That fellowship then flows outward, to one another. The first believers devoted themselves "to the fellowship" (Acts 2:42) and "had everything in common" (Acts 2:44). As members of one body, "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26), and we "Carry one another’s burdens" (Galatians 6:2). Not even death breaks this fellowship. Hebrews says that the church on earth has come to the heavenly Jerusalem, "to the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23), and that "we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1).

How the church confessed it

The Apostles' Creed confesses "the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints" The Apostles' Creed. The phrase was not in the old Roman creed; it was added to Western creeds from about 400. The Latin sanctorum communio can be read as fellowship among holy people or as a sharing in holy things, the sacraments, and both readings have long been given. The Heidelberg Catechism explains it:

First, that believers, all and every one, as members of Christ, have part in him and in all his treasures and gifts. Secondly, that each one must feel himself bound to use his gifts, readily and cheerfully, for the advantage and welfare of other members.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 55

The Westminster Confession likewise confesses that the saints, united to one another in love, have communion in each other's gifts and graces and are bound to serve one another's good, and adds that this communion neither makes them partakers of Christ's Godhead nor takes away each person's right to their own goods Westminster Confession, ch. 26.

Where the traditions differ

All traditions confess that the communion of saints joins in Christ not only believers on earth but those already with the Lord. They differ in how that communion is lived. The Catholic Church sees in it the pilgrim church on earth, those being purified, and the saints in heaven, and it asks the intercession of the saints and prays for the dead Catechism of the Catholic Church (see purgatory). The Orthodox likewise ask the prayers of the Mother of God and the saints, and pray for the departed.

Protestants generally rejoice in their oneness in Christ with the saints who have died, but because Christ is the one mediator they do not pray to the saints, and they do not accept purgatory. They know this communion above all in the word, the Supper, prayer and service of the local church. The church is not a gathering of solitary believers but one family sharing the grace it has received. See the lesson What the church is and Why do we need the church?