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In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term ''communion'' is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians. By metonymy, the term is used of a group of Christian Churches that have this relationship of communion with each other. An example is the Anglican Communion . If the relationship between the Churches is complete, it is called Full Communion . This term is, however, frequently used in a broader sense, to refer instead to a relationship between Christian Churches that are not united, but that have made between them an arrangement whereby members of each Church have certain rights within the other. If a Church recognizes that another Church shares with it some, but not all, of the beliefs and essential practices of Christianity, it may speak of "partial communion" between it and the other Church. The , and the other spiritual graces and gifts that they have in common. In a special way the term ''communion'' is applied to sharing in the Eucharist by partaking of the consecrated bread and wine, an action seen as entering into a particularly close relationship with Christ. Sometimes the term is applied not only to the sharing but to the whole of the rite or to the consecrated elements. For further information, see the article Eucharist . BIBLICAL USAGE The Greek term ''κοινωνία'' is found, as a noun or in its adjectival or verbal forms, in 43 verses of the New Testament . The noun is found additionally in some manuscripts (used for producing the English translation known as the King James Version, but not for more recent translations) in Ephesians 3:9. The word is applied, according to the context, to communion, sharing or fellowship with:
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