The Eucharist as a 'cosmic liturgy' with the world.

The principle in eucharistic ecclesiology that the Eucharist is both constitutive of the Church and divinising for communicants has led to the insight that the eucharistic assembly (ekklesía) in Christ is 'transfigured in order to transfigure' (Zizioulas, 2011, 129–30). In the view of Metropolitan John D. Zizioulas, participation in the Eucharist transforms individuals into persons within a sacred community who then become not only stewards of the natural world, but 'priests' with a compelling ethos to care for all of creation. This article considers and gives context to the argument in eucharistic ecclesiology that the Eucharist is a 'cosmic liturgy' with implications for how the Church responds to the current environmental crisis. It describes the development of ideas of personhood from the Enlightenment through to the modern era, and how Christians can find in their tradition the call to lovingly transform the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]