A constantly active body

The church, then, as a body of Christians, is constantly active; it is a network of actors reaching into many different parts of city and rural life. It is not only this collection of hymn-singing people, listening to the exposition of the Word and receiving that Word in the sacrament, but also a multidimensional, multigendered activity, living continually beyond its means, transcending by grace all its physical, cultural, and historical limitations, being in relation, productive of relation, being in communion, productive of communion across both space and time. The church is this body of action, this body in action that is both temporal and eternal, material and spiritual. There is no body without this activity, for it is the body of Christ only in and through this continuous operation. This great extensive Catholic body is not in the world or entirely of the world, but it is engaged in creating the world anew, reassembling the social. (Graham Ward, Politics of Discipleship)