build a fearless atmosphere where each person can feel himself or herself free. It is written, There is no fear in love (1 John 4:18). Once someone defined community as the people with whom we deeply share our lives. However, this sharing can occur only if fear-free climate will be present in the community. Then, people can take off all their protective masks and be open to each other. Therefore, they can behave themselves with each other as they are in private life. Henri Nouwen says that building such fearless place should be a vocation for Christians. It empowers people to be open to others with all their strengths and weaknesses.the same time, it leads us to the aspect of acceptance others. If there is no acceptance, then community is in danger. There are can be present different types of people and personalities. It can be persons with a very difficult and bad character, or people with different views and understandings. However, the practice of community formation should stimulate us to try to accept those people as well. It would be strange if in Christian communities would be present just perfect and ideal people who contain only a lot of strong qualities. Thus, an acceptance is a process of learning how to communicate with people who have attitudes which are different from ours.also means to value other people. The attitude to value should be present in faith community even if those persons are not accepted from others point of view. It really can be a challenge for many people. Here Jesus could be a very good pattern of acceptance of unacceptable people. As we can see in the Bible, He was quite often with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors whose reputation was unacceptable. A good example of it is Jesus visit to the tax collector Zacchaeus after which people were saying, He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner (Luke 19: 7b). However, this passage also shows how an attitude of acceptance can transform people s hearts. Therefore, a community of acceptance is a community of liberation. It is a place where people can be free from their fears of unacceptability. The community of koinonia is liberating. In view of the above considerations, it reminds that people are interdependent human beings. They need to have community which can help and support. This mutual sharing can be found in the fellowship of koinonia. Faith community should be the embodiment of koinonia monolith. From my point of view, this koinonia monolith should imply the unity within the community. Consequently, this unity can be a magnet, which will attract other people.
. 2 Shared meal
1.2.1 The common table in the circle: the Lord s Suppercommunity of koinonia can be strengthened by the sharing meal. This koinonia is reflected and expressed in Christian sharing around the common table of the Lord s Supper. Partaking in the Lord s Supper shows the oneness of Christians as the body of Christ. This type of sharing also has a festive and joyful dimension. Reuniting of Christians in communion becomes a matter of joyful celebration; and by this faith community constitutes itself as the body of Christ. Shannon Jung characterizes the Eucharist as a performative act. This performative act of sharing, which includes the bread and the cup of wine, was constituted by Jesus Himself. People can get and realize the sense of koinonia unity with Christ and with other brothers and sisters by this act of communion. In the same time, we as Christians express our thanksgiving to God and our dependence on Him, and His grace and mercy.I would like to touch the issue of setting for the act of Eucharist. In Ukrainian Baptist context, people do not pay special attention to the arrangement of room for the communion. The bread and the cup of wine just pass through the church pews. However, in my opinion, it plays a crucial role and meaning. This idea has its roots in Zwingli s understanding of it. He has suggested that communion room should be transformed in the way that participants of koinonia could be the true witnesses of the Lord s Supper. This setting should show the centrality of sharing the covenantal meal. Now I would like to quote, Zwingli planned a long table so that worshippers could sit down around the table and eat and drink together. I want to share one powerful witness of one Christian faith community, which decided to change their arrangement for the celebrating of the Eucharist. The church leadership suggested moving from the pattern of simple passing the bread and the cup of wine through pews to the setting on the form of circles. They started to invite the church members to organize themselves in small groups of people around the different tables. Then, in such arrangement they can pray for each other or processing forward to share in a common loaf and cup. This idea had a great impact on people and their s...
