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Glite Dictionary
🌍 Inhabited world ⛪ Worldwide church
ecumene

ecumene

9.9
All Christians around the world seen as one church community
  • noun
  • /ˈɛkjuːmɪni/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ecumene
  • The ecumene of Christianity includes various denominations working together to promote unity and peace.

Examples

  • Jenson wonders if perhaps God is not winding down the Protestant experiment, suggesting that, if things continue as they are, God "will carry on the ecumene with the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern churches, and Pentecostal groups."

    Academic text (2015)

  • The conference brought together leaders from the global ecumene to discuss challenges facing the church today.

  • She felt a strong connection to the ecumene, attending services across different Christian traditions.

Synonyms

Christianity
vsecumene
159 3.2

The worldwide group of people, churches, and beliefs that follow Jesus Christ

focuses on unity as one community rather than beliefs or institutions
Christendom
vsecumene
11 8.6

Areas of the world where most people follow the Christian religion

refers to the global spiritual community itself rather than geographic or cultural regions
ecclesia
vsecumene
  • Specialized
1 9.9

All Christian believers considered as one worldwide church

emphasizes global unity as a single community

Surface Forms

ecumene singular
ecumenes plural

Etymology

Ecumene also comes from Greek oikoumenē from oikos 'home', and people used that idea to mean the whole known community. That's why ecumene can mean the worldwide Christian 'house' or community — the church seen as one united body across the inhabited world.