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Ekklesia

The Church — the assembly of those called out by God; each local eucharistic gathering is the full Church, not a fraction.

Ekklesia (from ek, out of, and kaleo, to call) is the New Testament word for the Church: the assembly of those called out by God. In the Septuagint it translates the Hebrew qahal — the assembly of Israel. Orthodox ecclesiology insists: the local ekklesia gathered around its bishop for the Eucharist is not a branch of the universal Church but its full manifestation in that place.