VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The church is not a club founded by people with a common interest; it is a living body convoked and created by God, Pope Benedict XVI said. It is through the proclamation of the living Christ that “God comes to all peoples and reunites them as one people of God,” the pope said Oct. 15 at his weekly general audience. The pope focused on St. Paul’s teachings on the church and its meaning during the audience with 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The Greek word “ekklesia,” which is translated as assembly and church in English, was used in the Old Testament to mean an assembly of the people of Israel summoned or called upon by God, the pope said. In his writings, St. Paul used the term to mean “the new community of believers in Christ” and “the new convocation of all peoples by God and before God,” the pope said. St. Paul realized “the God of Israel, through Christ, came to the people … and became the God of all peoples,” the pope said.