Abstract: This text is the lecture held by the author during a working session of the theological dialogue committee between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Evangelic Church in Germany. The author uses the ecclesiological synthesis of Dumitru Stăniloae and lists the items that define the connection between the unity of Church and its universal nature. The most important aspects are the balance between the one and the multiple, between the local Church and the Universal Church, between the faith of a part of the Church and the faith of the entire Christian communion. Based on the opinions of important Protestant theologians, the author’s conclusion indicates the possibility of a certain diversity of the local ecclesial expressions, that need not be rendered absolute and, thus, not drawn out of the unitary context of the universal Church.

Keywords: catholicity/universality, local Church, universal Church, diversity, the unity of Church