Sacrament and sacramentality

In this chapter, the ecclesiological discussion moves from fundamental questions concerning church and world, and the nature and purpose of church, to explore the practice and understanding of sacrament and sacramentality in the church’s life. Having introduced the well-recognised tensions between sacrament and mission, the argument is made that the Practices have some important learning in this area. Whilst it is observable that sacraments as such do not feature in a dominant way in the Accounts of Practice, nonetheless their assumed and articulated presence, especially as Eucharist, is clear. This is related to the experiences of encounter with Christ and grace in the out-reach work of the Practices, bringing about the suggestion that what is called for is a re-visioning of the sacraments of the church and the sacramentality of church-life-in-the-world, which brings about a greater sense of continuity and mutual sacramentality between the two. This is described using the term ‘the peri-liturgical sacramental’, and some implications of this concept are suggested.