guided the earliest communities in producing the inspired biblical text continues, from generation to

generation, to guide later followers of Jesus as they strive to be faithful to the Gospel. This is what is
understood by the ‘living Tradition’ of the Church" (CTCV, § 11). "At times, the Spirit has guided the
Church to adapt its ministries to contextual needs (cf. Acts 6:1-6)” (CTCV, § 46).

The recognition that it is the Holy Spirit who has led the churches through history, is dominant in CTCV:
the phrase ‘under the guidance of the Holy Spirit' appears in nine different contexts in the document.
Like Dombois, CTCV also explicitly understands the ecumenical movement from the same perspective:
"Our brokenness and division contradict Christ's will for the unity of his disciples and hinder the mission
of the Church. This is why the restoration of unity between Christians, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, is such an urgent task. Growth in communion unfolds within that wider fellowship of believers
that extends back into the past and forward into the future to include the entire communion of saints”
(CTCV, 68). Unlike earlier ecclesiological studies like NPC and NMC, CTCV even speaks explicitly of
salvation history: “Only as we view the present in the light of the activity of the Holy Spirit, guiding the
whole process of salvation history to its final recapitulation in Christ to the glory of the Father, do we
begin to grasp something of the mystery of the Church" (CTCV, §33)

In other chapters of this book we will deal more extensively with some aspects of the relation between
history, ecumenism, and the Holy Spirit, such as the issue of ecclesial identity, the understanding of
Tradition, and the question whether a church can be sinful. For now it suffices to say that in my view the
approach of Dombois, as basically mirrored in CTCV, provides a methodical framework for the study of
church polity that can help us to meet the real theological challenges in a fruitful manner. The
ecumenical movement is a movement of the Holy Spirit, inviting us to reconsider our historical positions
in dialogue with other tradition 3.

But church polity--both as a body of rules and as a theological discipline---is also dynamic in itself. It is
much more than (the interpretation of) a set of regulations to be applied in practice. Church polity is the
fruit of ecclesial decisions taken to meet challenges as recognized in specific contexts again and again.
Not exclusively in church polity, but often also in terms of church polity regulations churches try to obey
what they understand to be God's will. Church polity is an ongoing process. That is at least part of why
the Reformation churches say: ecclesia reformata semper reformanda, 'a Reformed church needs
continuing reformation’-an issue we will elaborate on in the context of the integrity of the church
(chapter 14). Nevertheless, also Reformed churches have often not resisted the temptation of
legitimizing ecclesial institutions and church polity arrangements and in fact seeing them as absolute-and
so being blind to the action of the Hoiy Spirit.
So, ecumenism and church polity both have a dynamic nature, a process character. Ecumenism as a
learning process in terms of unity and reconciliation has a church polity dimension, as it searches for
sustainable forms of visible unity. And church polity as a process of law has an ecumenical dimension: it
cannot put up with ecclesial divisions and confine itself to so-called ‘internal matters’. The processes of
growing unity and of legislation are intrinsicaliy linked, since invisible unity does not exist: in my view, the
opposite of visible unity is not invisible unity, but visible disunity. Unity is a way in which a church is
called to go beyond its particularity, also in terms of Church polity. Therefore, church polity as a
theological discipline is critical by nature.

Dombois--three types ofchurch polity

This brings me to a second relevant contribution of Dombois. He underpins his views by a thorough
theological analysis of church history. His leading question is: how is it possible that the vast majority of
churches confess the unity of the church (e.g. with the Nicene Creed) and at the same time seem to be
able to live with actual divisions between and within those churches? What kind of ecclesialogy makes
this possible? Of course, many cultural, political and also theological reasons for schisms can be
identified through historical research. But Dombois’ question has a different thrust: what kind of
ecclesioiogy is behind this possibility to combine the confession of unity with the practice of divisions?
And--as a second cluster of questions how has this been functioning in church history? Can we, from this
perspective, identify a certain pattern or inherent logic in the historical and ongoing development of
ecclesial constitutions and legal forms?

In considering and responding to these questions, Dombois indeed presents a particular view of the
‘logic’ of church history. He distinguishes three phases in the history of church polity, to some extent
corresponding with the subsequent millennia of Christian history. The first phase coincides more or less
with the first millennium of church history, and shows an epicletic type of church polity. In the second
millennium a transcendental type of church polity became dominant, However, in our days we live on
the treshold of a new era, characterized by an ecumenical type of church polity.

So, originally church polity was epicletic in nature. ‘Epiclesis’ is the liturgical prayer for the Holy Spirit.
According to Dombois, the church of the first millennium was mainly experienced as a unity in the Holy
Spirit,