The identity of the Church is relational. If we study carefully the use of the term ecclesia in the New Testament, we are struck by the fact that it is normally accompanied with the genitive “of,” and this in a double direction. St. Paul, who seems to be the first one to use this term extensively, speaks on the one hand of the “Church of God (or Christ),” and on the other hand of the Church or Churches “of a certain place” (Salonika, Macedonia, Judea, etc.). There is no Church that can be conceived in herself, but only in relation to something else—in this case to God or Christ and to a
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