Abstract: In this text, the author analyzes the premises of the ecclesial communion, as presented in the Gospel of Matthew. In the primitive community, there was the belief that Christ was intimately present in His Church. Not at all a matter of chance, the climax in the Gospel of Matthew focuses on this testimony of faith, based on which the apostolic community was found and perpetuated to nowadays in the communion of Church, considered a direct gift from God. The ecclesial communion has, at the same time, an eschatological purpose. The people (i.e. the believers in every historical time, assisted by the Holy Spirit) are the first to contribute to its fulfilment. This human responsibility to accomplish a spiritual desideratum is reflected in the structure of the Church. The apostles and, after them, the bishops and the priests receive the right to bind and unbind souls to sin, in a true divine-human dynamics, or, in terms specific to Orthodox ecclesiology, synergy. Called to preach the Gospel to the world, the successors of the apostles must keep the canon of faith and therefore maintain the conditions to perpetuate the unity of the Church.

Keywords: communio/koinonia, Gospel of Matthew, ecclesiology, Apostles, unity of Church