CHAPTER 7: LIVING IN COMMUNION 203 7 LIVING IN COMMUNION he relationship of the monastics with the respective churches has been an important topic in the interviews. They struggle to live in faithfulness and obedience to the different denominations involved, which is a very complicated endeavor. Nevertheless, their desire to do so shows their commitment to full visible unity as a goal of ecumenism. This chapter explores how the monastics experience their relationships with different churches and the place of sharing the Eucharist in the context of incomplete ecclesial communion. First of all, while expressing different attitudes towards their churches of origin, they appreciate their upbringing and the particular resources of their respective traditions. They speak about the way they (try to) relate their own denominations now that they find themselves in such profound ecumenical contexts. The monastics refer to notions like faithfulness, fidelity, and obedience towards their own and other denominations. As such, these notions are important in understanding their view on what church is. The second section deals with an insight that has had significant impact on the way the monastics understand their ecumenical lifestyle and the relations between denominations: they have experienced a paradigm shift, from a denomination-centered ecclesiology to a fundamentally Baptismal one. Section 7.3 focuses on parts of the interviews with TC (Taizé) and BE (Bose) in which they speak about their sense of belonging to two denominations at once. Even though the other monastics do not explicitly reflect on this particular theme, I think it is implied in their interviews, too, and a consequence of the former two sections. These and the themes of the other chapters have made the monastics reconsider the concept of communio/communion, which is so dominant in contemporary ecclesiology, as we will see in section 7.4. T
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