Koinonia

The essential meaning of the koinonia embraces concepts conveyed in the English terms community, communion, joint participation, sharing and intimacy.

The word is applied, according to the context, to sharing or fellowship, or people in such relation, with: Of these usages, Bromiley's International Standard Bible Encyclopedia selects as especially significant the following meanings: The term "Holy Communion" refers to part of the Christian rite called the Eucharist,[8] and informally the two terms are often used interchangeably.

The communion of saints is the relationship that, according to the belief of Christians, exists between them as people made holy by their link with Christ.

That this relationship extends not only to those still in earthly life, but also to those who have gone past death to be "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8) is a belief among some Christians.

The term "communion" is applied to sharing in the Eucharist by partaking of the consecrated bread and wine, an action seen as entering into a particularly close relationship with Christ.

Members of Christian fellowships may or may not be part of the same church congregations or denominations, although many are associated with a given local church congregation (in turn possibly associated with a given denomination) or an interdenominational group of several local area congregations, some are established as parachurch voluntary associations or student societies, and others form out of casual non-denominational friend groups/social groups among individual Christians in some way affiliated with universities, colleges, schools, other educational institutions, community centers, places of employment, or at any other place, entity, or among neighbors and acquaintances, made up of people who worship, congregate, and socialize together based on shared religious beliefs.