The unity of the Church

This article is the transcript of a paper delivered by Bishop Basil (Osborne), auxiliary of the diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate in Great Britain, presented at a congress on the theme "I believe in one Church." The author develops a theological and apologetic reflection on the unity of the Church as Trinitarian unity. Drawing on a rereading of the patristic tradition — from Justin Martyr to Maximus the Confessor, by way of Clement of Alexandria and Dionysius the Areopagite — he shows that the doctrine of the *Logos* offers a framework for articulating Christian faith and contemporary science. The main contribution of the article is to demonstrate that Trinitarian unity, the ontological foundation of the Church, finds resonances in modern scientific theories such as the *Big Bang* and the anthropic principle, and that it is concretely manifested in the liturgical and pastoral relationship of the bishop with his diocese.