Now the Eucharist (= proper spiritual life) is not the center of church life! Such a center is chancelleries, administrations, episcopal reception rooms, etc., but by no means penitent Eucharistic life!? People who call themselves Christians (only because they were once baptized – that is, the rite of baptism was performed on them) are united by ideas (‘Russian world’, national: language, culture, etc.), and by no means Christ. They forget (or maybe never knew and heard) ‘Christians’ that the Church – Catholic (Hypostatic reality, not anti-natural, but supernatural) and cannot be reduced to any one ‘natural’ aspect of this world (national, political, social, economic… in a word, everything that divides and opposes) – in the Church (= in the Kingdom of God) there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither Ukrainian nor Russian, neither poor nor rich, neither man nor woman, neither adult nor child, neither master nor slave, neither free nor unfree…, and everything and in everyone Christ – every member of the Church is Christ, a catholic universal (which hypostasizes all nature) personality (which in the Church receives His Body and Blood and lives His life (will, energy) – by the grace of the Holy Spirit), or at least moves towards this fullness – the measure of the growth of Christ.
Therefore, the Eucharist (fullness of the Holy Spirit) can be partaken only by being a living member in the Body, who performs certain functions-services. That is, in the Body there is one who lives the life of the body (drinks blood – life of the body and feels nerve impulses, is part of the nervous system, is in organic relations with other organs). You ask: why can the Eucharist be partaken only in a specific parish, of which you are a parishioner, and not in any of a certain patriarchate, or just a community of the Orthodox Church of any autocephalous Church? We will build the answer in the form of questions. Are you a Christian? Are you a member of the Body of Christ? Which one exactly (this is in ‘space’ a specific place! Eye, ear, leg, liver, stomach or cells of these organs, or an atom of a certain cell) and what specific services-functions do you perform in the Body?! If a person cannot answer, a member of which parish he is and what service he carries in the Liturgical life (in the common cause) of a specific community, then he is not in the Church, not in the Body, that is, not Alive (now we are not talking about those who do not partake in the Eucharist, – here everything is clear – they are outside the Body (see above: who does not partake three Sundays in a row – falls away from the Body of the Church), but about those who ‘partake’, that is, approach the Chalice often, even every day, but do not live the parish life – therefore they eat bread and wine, but do not partake of the Holy Spirit). In the living Body of the Church there are no passive members (there are sick, but not passive!), all live the life of the Body (partake of the Eucharist), performing their functions-services in a specific part of the Body. In the Body there are also wastes from digested food, sweat, tears – all that is in the body, but is not the body, and is doomed in time to go out! Therefore, who are you, who calls yourself a Christian, thinks of yourself as such, who is in the Church: are you the Body (organic member of the body), or just are in the Body (as in a vessel, and have to leave it in time)?! Therefore, in the Body of the Church only one who can point to a specific parish and a specific service in it; where you are in the community, what services-functions you perform in the life of the parish-cell: you are a bishop, a pres you are a bishop, a presbyter, a deacon, a sexton, a candle-bearer, you clean the church, visit and care for the sick, the lonely, the prisoners, sing in the choir, setting the tone of the community’s singing (and not singing instead of the community saying “Amen”), distribute alms, do missionary work, teach catechumens, lead a Sunday school, preach, ensure order in the church during worship, and ensure that all catechumens timely leave the assembly of the faithful, etc. Thus, the Holy Spirit can be partaken not in a Patriarchate or in the Universal Church (i.e., in any parish (local Eucharist) of a certain patriarchate), but only in the parish where you are a living member with a specific service! There are members of the Church who can partake outside their own parish (in which they were baptized). These are the members of the Parish who are sent on a specific mission by the Holy Spirit and this community. They are those who carry the service of apostleship, missionary work, preaching, who move throughout the Body of the Church, from cell to cell, from organ to organ (like in the human body nerve impulses (cells), blood cells). For example, in the Acts of the Holy Apostles (13, 1-3; 15, 22, etc.) this is clearly shown when certain members are selected from the community and sent on a mission. Initially, all members of the Church, parishioners of a certain community, into which they are baptized and in which, living the Eucharistic life, they grow spiritually, and, being capable of carrying some service (apostleship, teaching, missionary work, etc.), are sent on this service by the community and the Holy Spirit. They do not go to the service on their own, but are sent by the Holy Spirit and the Church! Therefore, those who carry dynamic services (in the sense of changing place in space and time) partake in any parish (because they are capable, by virtue of their spiritual growth, can, have the power to partake in any community of Christians, that is, to meet the necessary condition for worthy communion (see Part I): unity with those with whom they partake), and all others – have their constant place of gathering into the Church (at the Eucharist), their parish!