[The Church] has, as it were, a double life, both in heaven and on earth.
The Church is a visible historical society, and the same is the Body of Christ. It is both the Church of the redeemed, and the Church of the miserable sinners—both at once. On the historical level no final goal has yet been attained. But the ultimate reality has been disclosed and revealed. This ultimate reality is still at hand, is truly available, in spite of the historical imperfection, though but in provisional forms. For the Church is a sacramental society. Sacramental means no less than "eschatological." To eschaton does not mean primarily final, in the temporal series of events; it means rather ultimate (decisive) ; and the ultimate is being realized within the stress of historical happenings and events. What is "not of this world" is here "in this world," not abolishing this world, but giving to it a new meaning and a new value, "transvaluating" the world,, as it were. Surely this is still only an anticipation, a "token" of the final consummation. Yet the Spirit abides in the Church. This constitutes the mystery of the Church: a visible "society" of frail men is an organism of the Divine Grace.

--George Florovsky (1893-1979), Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View