Article 1. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ, their head, by His Spirit and by faith, have fellowship in His graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory, although they are not made thereby one person with Him. Being thus united to one another in love, they have communion in each others gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, in an orderly way, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.
Article 2. Saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God and other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification, as well as in relieving each other in outward things according to their various abilities and necessities. This communion, as God offers opportunity, is to be extended to all the household of faith, even those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, though especially to them in the relation in which they stand, whether in families or in churches. Nevertheless, their communion one with another as saints does not take away or infringe the title or propriety that each man has in his goods and possessions.
Article 2. Saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God and other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification, as well as in relieving each other in outward things according to their various abilities and necessities. This communion, as God offers opportunity, is to be extended to all the household of faith, even those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, though especially to them in the relation in which they stand, whether in families or in churches. Nevertheless, their communion one with another as saints does not take away or infringe the title or propriety that each man has in his goods and possessions.
Q. What do these words mean, the communion of saints?
A. First, that all and everyone who believes are in common partakers of Christ and all His graces, as being His members, and then that everyone ought readily and cheerfully to bestow the gifts and graces which they have received to the common commodity and safety of all.
An Orthodox Catechism, Question 54.
