| Summary: | On the 60th anniversary of the celebration of the Second Vatican Council, we would like to take up again a statement from the constitution <i>Lumen gentium,</i> which was a source of controversy from the moment it was proposed in the schema De Ecclesia during the Council: «The Church is in Christ, like a sacrament, a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the entire humankind» (<i>Lumen gentium</i>, 1). In this article, we want to take up the concept of the Church as a sacrament, which emerged from the conciliar constitution on the Church, as a first step, although the conception of the Church as a sacrament is found in ecclesiology before the Second Vatican Council. Second, we will focus on the reception of this concept and its development after the Council. We will conclude with a third part devoted to its implications for ecumenical dialogue and the difficulties and possibilities for convergence it offers, with particular reference to the document of the Faith and Order Commission: <i>The Church towards a Common Vision</i> (2013).
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