which reveals their Christian essence. Practicing the community formation should be a living testimony of the faith communities. This practice also has a mission implication, because it makes a community which is open and hospitable to the outside world. This cultivates a community which does not build the protective walls around itself; on the contrary, it breaks these barriers to be communicative with a secular society.it was mentioned before, in this dissertation I particularly work with James McClendon s thoughts on the practice of community formation. It implies two subpractices which are defined as sharing in the covenantal meal and reconciliation. In the same time, I made an attempt in my work to consider the first subpractice with its extended meaning and implication. Here I focused mostly on the particular word sharing which contains in two aspects: sharing meal and sharing ourselves.meal follows from the common table of the Eucharist. Sharing meal can strengthen the unity between people. Precisely, the Eucharist performs the act of this strengthening by sharing in gratitude for God s care and mercy. The table of sharing meal is open to everyone with a meaningful attitude of unity. Sharing food which is rooted in the Lord s Supper can transform people.holistic approach which unites sharing meal and the Eucharist can help to overcome the gap in interpretation of sharing meal and the Lord s Supper, which is still present, from my point of view , among the Baptist communities in Ukrainian context. Arthur Gish points that without this extended understanding it is difficult to see the whole implication of the Eucharistic sacrament. Producing this approach will generate the sense of communion within the community.second facet of sharing which I explored is sharing ourselves. It implies an attitude of openness and availability toward other people. It means to dedicate ourselves to be with others. In the same time, this process should be with the mutual reciprocity. This reciprocity puts on the same level availability which is given and availability which is received. Attitude of availability also includes the ability to listen to others. Here I highlighted five special requirements for listening: (1) time, (2) silence, (3) presence/attention, (4) trust/honesty, and (5) remembering., Sharing can cultivate the community of koinonia, which implies in itself sharing something with other people. One of the foundations for it is the practicing of the virtue of hospitality. It can help to overcome the division of public and private life which is quite often present within the faith communities. Hospitality gives the possibility to God to be real God in whole our lives.second part of my dissertation focused on another subpractice which is defined as reconciliation. In this section I attempted to show that reconciliation is a whole process of restoring broken relationships. Here I made a connection between sharing and our vulnerability as human beings. In this context, I touched upon the issue of betrayal. It revealed a paradoxical logic that the attitude of openness and practicing of sharing, in the same time, holds in it the seeds of betrayal. The first step to overcome these painful experience and feelings is forgiveness. I tried to show that forgiveness teaches us to see every person with a value, even if he or she is wrongdoer, because each person bears the image of God. This attitude points to the difference which exists between to forgive and to forget .to my own observations, today many faith communities are built just on the fine words. Unfortunately, there is a big gap between our words and our living testimony; and society can easily feel and sense it. Many people are crying for truth, because they see this gap. Therefore, in my dissertation I created four suggestions, which touches such spheres as (1) the Eucharist and architecture, (2) food as the experience of the whole community, (3) the discipline of meditation as a practice for the ability to listen , and (4) the Christian counselling. These suggestions could help the Baptist communities in the Ukrainian context to grow and mature in being the communities of sharing and forgiveness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Jay E., From forgiven to forgiving: discover the path to biblical forgiveness (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1989), Ray Sherman, The Gospel according to Judas: is there a limit to Gods forgiveness? (Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress, 1991), David W., Caring Enough to Forgive: True Forgiveness (Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1981), Richard Allan, Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality (Eugene, Oregon:Cascade Books, 2011), David G., Sacred companions: the gift of spiritual friendship and direction (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), John HY (ed.) et al, A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought (Milton Keynes, Colorad...
