Patrick Comerford
In my morning prayers and reflections this morning, I came across the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) once again in the Gospel reading (Matthew 17: 22-27). It is a rare use of this Greek word in the Gospels – though not in other parts of the New Testament – and so its use in this particular place tells us a lot about what should be our understanding of the nature and structure of the church as an institution or organisation, as opposed to a church as a building or place of worship and liturgy.
There are only two places in all the four Gospels where Christ uses the word for the Church that is found in this Gospel reading, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia): the first time is in Matthew 16: 18, when Christ relates the Church to a confession of faith by the Apostle Peter, the rock-solid foundational faith of Saint Peter, which I was reading about last Thursday (Matthew 16: 13-23, 7 August 2025).
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His second use of this word is not once but twice in one verse in the reading (Matthew 18: 17) I was reading this morning (Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14). It is a peculiar word for Christ to use, and yet he only speaks of the Church in these terms on these two occasions.
In total, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) appears 114 times in the New Testament (four verses in the Acts of the Apostles, 58 times by Saint Pauline in his epistles, twice in the Letter to the Hebrews, once in the Epistle of James, three times in III John, and in 19 verses in the Book of Revelation). But Christ only uses the word twice, in these incidents in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
How does Christ define the Church?
What makes up and defines the Church?
And why, throughout the Gospels, does Christ use this word to describe the Church only twice?
During the pandemic shutdown, when many of our church buildings remained closed, many of us comforted ourselves with phrases such as ‘the church is not a building’ and ‘people make the church.’
Modern Greek uses two other separate words, ναός (naos) and ἱερόν (ieron, for a church when we are speaking of a church as a building. They come from the classical Greek words for a temple, and they are both used in the New Testament also for the Temple in Jerusalem.
The word εκκλησία (ekklesia) is used in Greek for the Church as an institution, so that, for example, the Church of Greece is Ἐκκλησία τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Ekklēsía tē̂s Helládos), the Church of Crete is Εκκλησία της Κρήτης (Ekklēsía tē̂s Kritis), and the Church of Cyprus is Ἐκκλησία τῆς Κύπρου (Ekklisia tis Kyprou).
The Irish language has adapted these words in a different way. The Irish word eaglais, which comes from this same word εκκλησία, is usually used for a church building, although the word teampaill is used too, and eaglais is also used for the Church as institution, so that the Church of Ireland is called Eaglais na hÉireann in Irish. But when referring to the Church as the people, the Irish language uses the phrase Pobal Dé, the ‘People of God.’
The English word ‘church’ that we use in everyday English can be traced through Old English (cirice) and Old High German (kirihha) to a Greek word κυριακόν (kuriakón), that simply means ‘of the Lord.’
But the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) does not mean ‘belonging to the Lord.’ Even if that is implied, the word is different.
The word Christ uses in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, εκκλησία, means ‘called out,’ an assembly of people that is involved in social life, religion and government. The word comes from the Greek words ἐκ (ek), meaning ‘out of’, and καλέω (kaleo), ‘to call’. So, etymologically, the word ekklesia refers to or describes a called-out assembly or those called out.
This word εκκλησία goes all the way back to classical Athens, when the city assembly or εκκλησία consisted of all the citizens who had kept their civil rights. From ca 300 BC, the ekklesia met in the Theatre of Dionysus, beneath the slopes of the rock of the Acropolis.
The powers of the εκκλησία were almost unlimited. It met three or four times a month, and it elected and dismissed judges, directed the policy of the city, declared war and made peace, negotiated and ratified treaties and alliances, chose generals and raised taxes.
It was a city assembly in which all members had equal rights and duties, and all citizens took part, regardless of class or status. It had the final say.
When Christ is talking about the church as εκκλησία then, he is talking about all the members of the church community, who have equal rights, equal power, equal duties and an equal and respected say in what is going on.
Baptism makes us all equal, without discrimination, in the Church. And the Holy Communion, the Eucharist, is the lived continuation of our Baptism. There is only one Body of Christ, and so there is only one Baptism and only one Eucharist.
For the Apostle Paul, the Church is one body, the Body of Christ, where there is no discrimination among those who are baptised and who share in the sacramental mysteries (see I Corinthians 12: 12-13 and Ephesians 1: 22-23).
And what Christ does in Saint Matthew’s Gospel by using the word εκκλησία for his gathered followers collectively is not to give power to the Church but to warn us as the Church about the power we already have as the εκκλησία and the consequences of how we use that power.
A few verses earlier, in the previous day’s Gospel reading (see verses 10-13), Christ reminds us not to despise the little ones, to go after the one sheep from among the 99 that might go astray, to make sure that not even one of the little ones is left to be lost.
Now he tells us that in the Church there is no room for us to refuse to talk to one another, to bear grudges, to refuse to listen to one another.
And he warns us against the real dangers of trying to use the powers that the Church has in the wrong way.
In the culture and context of the Greek-speaking world of the East Mediterranean, people would know that the εκκλησία, this very particular type of assembly, had the last and final say.
For Christ to say that what the Church approves of or disapproves of has implications of the highest order is not Christ endowing the Church with supernatural powers. Rather, it is warning us of making decisions, going in directions, exercising discrimination, in the Church that will have not merely temporal and worldly but also eternal and spiritual consequences.
There can be no petty divisions in the Church, if we are to be true to the meaning of Baptism and the Eucharist which form and sustain us in one body, the Body of Christ. And the Church has to be a haven for those who are the victims of division, discrimination and disaster. Our haven can be their heaven.
When we discriminate against others, the consequences are not just for them, or even for us, but for the whole Church.
In the US, many megachurch and evangelical leaders are supporting Donald Trump’s campaign for re-election and yet are hauntingly silent when it comes to his bullying, illegality and corruption, to racism, to the plight of refugees, the rise of Islamophobia and antisemitism, and to other pressing issues such as climate change. In those instances, that part of the Church that claims the moral high ground is being found to be morally impoverished.
As for those other two words used in modern Greek for the church as a building, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), let’s look at these words on another day.
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end
47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse
48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις
51, Bimah, βῆμα
52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.
53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible
54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality
55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church
56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church
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