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Church

Definition: Church

Church

Noun

1. A group of Christians; any group professing Christian doctrine or belief; "the church is debating the issue of women priests".

2. A place for public (especially Christian) worship; "the church was empty".

3. A service conducted in a church; "don't be late for church".

Verb

1. Bring someone to church for a special rite, as of a woman after childbirth.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

Date "church" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references)

Specialty Definition: Church

Domain	Definition
Bible	Church Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., "the Lord's house"), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia, which is synonymous with the Hebrew _kahal_ of the Old Testament, both words meaning simply an assembly, the character of which can only be known from the connection in which the word is found. There is no clear instance of its being used for a place of meeting or of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning. Nor is this word ever used to denote the inhabitants of a country united in the same profession, as when we say the "Church of England," the "Church of Scotland," etc. We find the word ecclesia used in the following senses in the New Testament: (1.) It is translated "assembly" in the ordinary classical sense (Acts 19:32, 39, 41). (2.) It denotes the whole body of the redeemed, all those whom the Father has given to Christ, the invisible catholic church (Eph. 5:23, 25, 27, 29; Heb. 12:23). (3.) A few Christians associated together in observing the ordinances of the gospel are an ecclesia (Rom. 16:5; Col. 4:15). (4.) All the Christians in a particular city, whether they assembled together in one place or in several places for religious worship, were an ecclesia. Thus all the disciples in Antioch, forming several congregations, were one church (Acts 13:1); so also we read of the "church of God at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2), "the church at Jerusalem" (Acts 8:1), "the church of Ephesus" (Rev. 2:1), etc. (5.) The whole body of professing Christians throughout the world (1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13; Matt. 16:18) are the church of Christ. The church visible "consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children." It is called "visible" because its members are known and its assemblies are public. Here there is a mixture of "wheat and chaff," of saints and sinners. "God has commanded his people to organize themselves into distinct visible ecclesiastical communities, with constitutions, laws, and officers, badges, ordinances, and discipline, for the great purpose of giving visibility to his kingdom, of making known the gospel of that kingdom, and of gathering in all its elect subjects. Each one of these distinct organized communities which is faithful to the great King is an integral part of the visible church, and all together constitute the catholic or universal visible church." A credible profession of the true religion constitutes a person a member of this church. This is "the kingdom of heaven," whose character and progress are set forth in the parables recorded in Matt. 13. The children of all who thus profess the true religion are members of the visible church along with their parents. Children are included in every covenant God ever made with man. They go along with their parents (Gen. 9:9-17; 12:1-3; 17:7; Ex. 20:5; Deut. 29:10-13). Peter, on the day of Pentecost, at the beginning of the New Testament dispensation, announces the same great principle. "The promise [just as to Abraham and his seed the promises were made] is unto you, and to your children" (Acts 2:38, 39). The children of believing parents are "holy", i.e., are "saints", a title which designates the members of the Christian church (1 Cor. 7:14). (See BAPTISM.) The church invisible "consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof." This is a pure society, the church in which Christ dwells. It is the body of Christ. it is called "invisible" because the greater part of those who constitute it are already in heaven or are yet unborn, and also because its members still on earth cannot certainly be distinguished. The qualifications of membership in it are internal and are hidden. It is unseen except by Him who "searches the heart." "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Tim. 2:19). The church to which the attributes, prerogatives, and promises appertaining to Christ's kingdom belong, is a spiritual body consisting of all true believers, i.e., the church invisible. (1.) Its unity. God has ever had only one church on earth. We sometimes speak of the Old Testament Church and of the New Testament church, but they are one and the same. The Old Testament church was not to be changed but enlarged (Isa. 49:13-23; 60:1-14). When the Jews are at length restored, they will not enter a new church, but will be grafted again into "their own olive tree" (Rom. 11:18-24; comp. Eph. 2:11-22). The apostles did not set up a new organization. Under their ministry disciples were "added" to the "church" already existing (Acts 2:47). (2.) Its universality. It is the "catholic" church; not confined to any particular country or outward organization, but comprehending all believers throughout the whole world. (3.) Its perpetuity. It will continue through all ages to the end of the world. It can never be destroyed. It is an "everlasting kindgdom." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.
Building & Civil Engineering	FG. Source: European Union. (references)
Dream Interpretation	To dream of seeing a church in the distance, denotes disappointment in pleasures long anticipated. To enter one wrapt in gloom, you will participate in a funeral. Dull prospects of better times are portended. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....
Literature	Church The etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek, Kuriou oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of Greek. No doubt the word means "a circle." The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular. (Welsh, cyrch, French, cirque; Scotch, kirk; Greek, kirk-os, etc.) Compare Anglo-Saxon circe, a church, with circol, a circle. High, Low, and Broad Church. Dr. South says, "The High Church are those who think highly of the Church and lowly of themselves; the Low Church, those who think lowly of the Church and highly of themselves" (this may be epigrammatic, but the latter half is not true). Broad Church are those who think the Church is broad enough for all religious parties, and their own views of religion are chiefly of a moral nature, their doctrinal views being so rounded and elastic that they can come into collision with no one. By the "High Church" now are meant those who follow the "Oxford Movement"; the "Low Church" party call themselves the "Evangelical" Church party. The Church of Latter-day Saints. The Mormons. The Anglican Church. That branch of the Protestant Church which, at the Reformation, was adopted in England. It disavowed the authority of the Pope, and rejected certain dogmas and rules of the Roman Church. Since 1532 generally called the "Established Church," because established by Act of Parliament. The Catholic Church. The Western Church called itself so when it separated from the Eastern Church. It is also called the Roman Catholic Church, to distinguish it from the Anglican Church or Anglican Catholic Church, a branch of the Western Church. The Established Church. The State Church, which, in England, is Episcopalian and in Scotland Presbyterian. Before the Reformation it was, in both countries, "Catholic;" before the introduction of Christianity it was Pagan, and before that Druidism. In Turkey it is Mohammedanism; in Russia the Greek Church; in China, India, etc., other systems of religion. To go into the Church. To take holy orders, or become an "ordained" clergyman. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Religion & Philosophy	A particularly organized Christian society, separated by peculiarities of doctrine, worship or organization. A congregation of Christians locally organized. (1). Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: Alonzo Church

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 - August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician who was responsible for some of the foundations of theoretical computer science. Born in Washington, DC, he attended Princeton University as an undergraduate and continued there, completing his PhD in 1927. He became a professor of mathematics at Princeton in 1929.
He is best known for the development of the lambda calculus, his 1936 paper that showed the existence of an "undecidable problem" in it. This result preempted Alan Turing's famous work on the halting problem which also demonstrated the existence of a problem unsolvable by mechanical means. Supervising Turing's doctoral thesis, they then showed that the lambda calculus and the Turing machine used in Turing's halting problem were equivalent in capabilities, and subsequently demonstrated a variety of alternative "mechanical processes for computation" had equivalent computational abilities. This resulted in the Church-Turing thesis, which is also known as Church's Thesis and Turing's Thesis as there is dispute about who proposed it first.
Church's other doctoral students included Stephen Kleene.
Church remained a professor of mathematics at Princeton until 1967, when he moved to California.
Sources and external links

Church biography
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Alonzo Church."

Catholicism

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Catholicism, from the Greek katholikos (καθολικος), meaning "general" or "universal", is a religious name applied to two strands of Christianity. In its general sense it is used by mainstream Christians who believe that they can claim to be part of the Apostolic Succession, in other words that they can claim a direct continuing link back to the early church of the Apostles.
In its narrower sense, it is used to refer to the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, the largest of the Christian denominations, or group of denominations, whose distinguishing characteristic is their acceptance of the authority of, and communion with, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and who accept his authority on matters of faith and morals, and his assertion of "full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church." [1] This denomination is often referred to as the Roman Catholic Church. Most people, both in and outside the Church, simply use the "Catholic Church" to refer to the Roman Catholic Church, even though there are other "Catholic" churches.
Meaning of "Catholicism"

The Creeds & Catholicism
The word Catholic appears in the main Christian creeds (prayer-like definitions of belief), notably the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed. Christians of most denominations, including most Protestants, affirm their faith in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church." This belief refers to their belief in the ultimate unity of all churches under one God and one Saviour. However in this context the word Catholic is used by such believers in a definitionary sense (i.e. universal), not as the name of a religious body. In this usage it is usually written with a lower-case c, while upper-case C refers to the sense discussed in this article.

Catholicism
The majority of Christian faiths do not describe themselves as "Catholic". In Western Christianity the principal faiths who regard themselves as "Catholic", beside the Roman Catholic Church, are the Old Catholic Church, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and some elements of Anglicanism ("High Church Anglicans" or "Anglo-Catholics"). These groups hold beliefs and practice religious rituals similar to Roman Catholicism, but differ substantially from Roman Catholicism on the issue of the Bishop of Rome's status, power and influence.
The several churches of Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy consider themselves to be the catholic church, in the general, universal sense of the word. The Orthodox churches generally see the Latin "Catholics" as being heretical schismatics who left the "true catholic and apostolic church" (See, Great Schism). The patriarchs of Eastern Orthodoxy are autocephalous bishops, which roughly means that each of them is independent of the direct oversight of another bishop; or, put another way, these Christians are not in communion with the Pope and do not recognise his claim to be the head of the universal Church as an earthly institution. There are also Eastern Rite Catholics whose liturgy is similar to that of the Orthodox, and also allow married men to be ordained as priests, but who recognize the Roman Pope as the head of their church.
Some groups call themselves Catholic but are questionably so: for instance the Liberal Catholic Church, which originated as a breakaway group from the Old Catholic Church, but incorporated so much theosophy that it had little doctrinally in common with Catholicism anymore.

Roman Catholicism
The main and largest Catholic denomination is the "Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church", more commonly known as the "Roman Catholic Church". It is so named because its adherents are all in communion with the Pope and Bishop of Rome, and most parishes follow the Roman or Latin Rite in worship, although there are other rites.
In casual usage, when people speak of "Catholics" or "Catholicism," they usually but not always mean Roman Catholicism.

Anglo-Catholicism
The Anglican Communion, though one church, is in practice divided into two wings, "High Church Anglicans" also called the Anglo-Catholics and "Low Church Anglicans" also known as the Evangelical wing. Though all elements within the Anglican Communion recite the same creeds, Low Church Anglicans treat the word Catholic in the creed as a mere older word for universal, High Church Anglicans treat it as a name of Christ's church to which they, the Roman Catholic Church and others in the Apostolic Succession all belong.
Anglo-Catholicism holds beliefs and practice religious rituals similar to Roman Catholicism. The similar elements include a belief in seven sacraments, Transubstantiation as opposed to Consubstantiation, devotion to the Virgin Mary and saints, the description of their ordained clergy as "priests" - addressed as "Father" - the wearing of vestments in church liturgy, sometimes even the description of their Eucharistic celebrations as Mass. Their main source of difference with Roman Catholicism on the issue of the Bishop of Rome's status, power and influence. The development of the Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism occurred largely in the nineteenth century and is strongly associated with the Oxford Movement. Two of its leading lights, John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning, both ordained Anglican clergymen, ended up joining the Roman Catholic Church, becoming cardinalss.
Though Catholicism as a term is generally taken to mean Roman Catholic, many Anglo-Catholics use the term to refer to them also, as part of the general (and not just Roman) Catholic Church. Indeed some Anglican churches, for example, St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, the "National Cathedral" of the Anglican Church of Ireland, refers to itself as part of the "Catholic Communion" and as a "Catholic Church" in notices in and around it.

History and Influence
The early Christian church became organized under five patriarchs, the bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome. The Bishop of Rome was recognized by the Patriarchs as "the first among equals," though his status and influence increased when Rome was the capital of the empire, with doctrinal or procedural disputes often referred to Rome for an opinion. But when the capital moved to Constantinople, his influence dwindled. While Rome claimed an authority descending from St. Peter (who died in Rome and was regarded as the first pope¹) and St. Paul, Constantinople had become the residence of the Emperor and the Senate. A series of complex difficulties (the fact that the bishop of Rome did not accept the emperor's claim of supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, doctrinal disputes, disputed Councils, and the evolution of the separate rites) led to the split in 1054 which divided the Church into the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East (Greece, Russia and much of the Slavic lands, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, etc.); this is called the Great Schism. (Conversely, most Eastern Orthodox believe the split arose because the other patriarchs failed to recognize the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome in ecclesiastical matters, particularly regarding the addition of the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed.)
The next major split of the Catholic Church occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation, during which many of the Protestant (protesting) denominations were formed.

Structure and Practice of the Roman Catholic Church

Organization by Office
Structurally Roman Catholicism is one of the world's most centralised religious faiths. Its head, the Pope, a quasi-absolute monarch, rules for life from Vatican City, an independent state in the centre of Rome known also in international diplomacy as the Holy See. He is selected by an elite group of Princes of the Church called Cardinals. The Pope alone selects and appoints all clergymen in the Church above the rank of priest. All members of the hierarchy are answerable to the Pope and to his papal court, called the Curia. Popes exercise what is called Papal Infallibility, that is the right to define definitive statements of Roman Catholic teaching on matters of faith and morals. In reality, since its declaration in the First Vatican Council in 1870, papal infallibility has only definitively been used once, by Pope Pius XII in the 1950s.
The Pope's authority comes from the belief that he is the lineal successor of St. Peter, and as such the Vicar of Christ on earth. The church has a hierarchical structure of offices or titles, in descending order:
Pope, which is the bishop of Rome and also Patriarch of the West. Those who assist and advise him in leading the whole church are the Cardinals;
Patriarchs are the heads of Catholic Churches other than the Latin Church. Some senior Roman Catholic archbishops are also called Patriarchs; among those possessing the title are the Archbishop of Lisbon and the Archbishop of Venice.
Bishop (Archbishop and Suffragan Bishop): are the successors of the twelve apostles. They have received the fullness of sacramental orders;
Priest (Monsignor is an honorary title for a priest, giving no extra sacramental powers); Initially there were no Priests per se. This position evolved from the suburban Bishops who were charged with distributing the sacraments but without full jurisdiction over the faithful.
Deacon

There are also several more minor offices: Lector, Acolytes (since the Second Vatican Council, the office of Sub-deacon no longer exists). Religious orders have their own hierarchy and titles. These offices taken together constitute the clergy, and in the Western rite can only normally be occupied by unmarried men. However, in the Eastern rite married men are admitted as diocesan priests, but not as bishops or monastic priests; and on rare occasions married priests converting from other Christian groups have been permitted to be ordained in the Western rite. In the Western rite, married men may be ordained as permanent deacons but they may not remarry if their spouse dies or if the marriage is annulled.
The Pope is elected by the College of Cardinals from their ranks (the process of election, held in Sistine Chapel, is called a Conclave). Each Pope continues in office until death or until he resigns (which has happened only twice, and never since the Middle Ages).
Sacraments
The practice of the Catholic Church consists of seven sacraments (see also Catholic sacraments):
Baptism,
Confession,
Eucharist,
Confirmation,
Holy Matrimony,
Holy Orders, and
Anointing of the Sick.

Within the Catholic faith, sacraments are gestures and words of Christ that impart sanctifying grace on the receiver. Baptism is given to infants and to adult converts who have not previously been validly baptised (the baptism of most Christian denominations is accepted as valid by the Catholic Church since the effect is thought to come straight from God regardless of the personal faith, but not intention, of the minister). Confession or reconciliation involves admitting sins to a priest and receiving penance (a task to complete in order to achieve absolution or forgiveness from God). The Eucharist (Communion), is the sacrifice of Christ, marked by partaking in the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ which are believed to replace in everything but appearance the bread and wine used in the ceremony. The Roman Catholic belief that bread and wine are turned into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is called transubstantiation. In the sacrament of Confirmation, the gift of the Holy Spirit conferred in baptism is "strengthened and deepened" (see Catechism of the Catholic Church para. 1303) by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. In the majority Latin Rite church, this sacrament is presided over by a bishop, and takes place in early adulthood. In the Eastern Catholic Churches (see below) the sacrament is called chrismation, and is ordinarily performed immediately after baptism by a priest. Holy Orders is the entering into the priesthood and involves a vow of chastity; the sacrament of Holy Orders is given in three degrees: that of the deacon (since Vatican II a permanent deacon may be married before becoming a deacon), that of the priest, and that of the bishop. Anointing of the Sick used to be known as "extreme unction" or the "last rites"; it involves the anointing of a sick person with a holy oil blessed specifically for that purpose and is no longer limited to the seriously ill or dying.

Rites
The Catholic Church is actually a federation of 24 self-governing (sui juris) Churches in communion with each other under the leadership of the Pope. By far the largest Church is the Latin Church, popularly called the Roman Catholic Church. The other 23 Churches are in the collective called Eastern Catholic Churches. Each Eastern Catholic Church is led by a Patriarch, Major Archbishop, or Metropolitan (a chief Archbishop who does not hold the rank of Major Archbishop or Patriarch). The 24 Catholic Churches use among them six rites. The Roman rite is used only by the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church, and is used by the vast majority of Catholics (98%). There are also several Eastern Rites, which are used in parts of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and by Catholic communities in other parts of the world that originate from there. There are also two other small Western rites, other than the Latin rite, the Ambrosian rite and the Mozarabic rite, which are used in a few places in Europe. In the Middle Ages there were many other Western rites, but almost all of them were replaced by the Latin rite by the Council of Trent. The Eastern rites originated with groups that left Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches to join the Roman Catholic church, but retained their own rites and traditions.
A listing of rites, with the Churches that use it, follows:
Roman
Latin
Ambrosian

Byzantine
Albanian
Belarussian
Bulgarian
Croatian
Georgian
Greek
Hungarian
Melkite
Romanian
Russian

Ruthenian
Slovak
Serbian
Ukrainian

Antiochene
Maronite
Malankarese
Syriac

Chaldean
Chaldean
Syro-Malabarese

Armenian
Armenian

Alexandrian
Coptic
Ge'ez

Historically, the church service in the Latin rite was conducted entirely in Latin, but local languages came into use with the Second Vatican Council (also called Vatican II), which occurred in 1962-5. Eastern rite Catholicism uses various languages, depending on the particular rite involved: Greek, Slavonic, Arabic, Romanian or Georgian in the Byzantine rite; Syriac in the Antiochene and Chaldean rites; Armenian in the Armenian rite; and Coptic or Ge'ez in the Alexandrian rite.

Organization by Region
The fundamental geographical and organizational unit of the Catholic Church is the diocese (in the Eastern Catholic Churches, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy). This is generally a defined geographical area, centered on a principal city, headed by a bishop. The primary church of a diocese is known as a cathedral from the cathedra or chair of the bishop that is one of the main symbols of his office. Within a diocese, a bishop exercises what is known as ordinary, or primary administrative authority. (Houses of some religious orders are semi-independent of the dioceses they are in; the religious superior of that order exercises ordinary jurisdiction over them.) While the Pope appoints bishops and reviews their performance, and a variety of other institutions govern or supervise certain activities, a bishop has a great deal of independence in administering a diocese. Certain dioceses, generally centered around large and important cities, are called archdioceses and are headed by an archbishop. In large dioceses and archdioceses, the bishop is often assisted by auxiliary bishops, full bishops and members of the College of Bishops who do not head a diocese of their own. Archbishops, suffragan bishops (usually shortened to just "bishops"), and auxiliary bishops are equally bishops; the different titles indicate what type (if any) of ecclesiastical unit they head. Many countries have vicariates that support their militaries (see military ordinariate).
Almost all dioceses were organized into groups known as provinces, each of which is headed by an archbishop. While provinces still exist, their role has largely been replaced by conferences of bishops, generally made up of all the dioceses of a particular country or countries. These groups handle a wide array of common functions, including supervision of liturgical texts and practices for the specific cultural and linguistic groups and relations with the governments in their area. The authority of these conferences to bind the actions of individual bishops is limited (traditional theologians consider this authority ultimately non-binding), however. Bishop's conferences started to appear early in the 20th century, and were officially recognized in the Second Vatican Council document Christus Dominus.
The College of Cardinals is the collection of Roman Catholic bishops who are special advisors to the Pope. Any priest can be appointed Cardinal, provided he "excelled in believe, moral and piety". If a cardinal is elected Pope who has not yet been ordained bishop he subsequently has to receive episcopal ordination. (C.f. Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis[1]) All cardinals under the age of 80 have the right to elect a new pope upon the a pope's death; the cardinals who may elect are almost always members of the clergy; however, the Pope has sometimes in the past awarded outstanding members of the Catholic laity (e.g., theologians) with membership in the College after they have passed electing age. Each cardinal is given some church or chapel (thus, cardinal bishop, cardinal priest, and cardinal deacon) in Rome to make him a member of the clergy of Rome. Many cardinals serve in the curia, which assists the Pope in Church administration. All cardinals who are not resident in Rome are diocesan bishops.
Dioceses are divided into local districts called parishes. All Catholics are expected to attend and support their local parish church. While the Catholic Church has developed an elaborate system of global governance, day to day Catholicism is lived in the local community, tied together in worship in the local parish. Local parishes are largely self supporting; a church, often in a growing or poor community, that is being supported by a diocese is known as a mission.
The Roman Catholic Church supports many orders (groups) of monks and nuns who are mainly non-priests living lives specially devoted to serving God. These are people who have grouped together under a certain system for the purpose of the perfection of virtue. This sometimes involves separation from the world for meditation and sometimes exceptional participation in the world, often in medical or educational work. Almost universally the Monks and Nuns take vows of poverty (no or limited personal ownership of property and money), chastity (no use of the sexual mechanisms), and obedience (to the superiors).

Distinctive doctrines
Catholics believe in the Trinity of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the divinity of Jesus, and the salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and through loving God above all things. Catholic views differ from Orthodox on several points, including the nature of the Petrine Ministry (the papacy), the nature of the Trinity and how that should be expressed in the Nicene Creed, and a juridical versus relational understanding of salvation and repentance. Catholics differ from Protestants in several points, including the necessity of penance, the meaning of communion, the composition of the canon of scripture, purgatory, and the means of salvation: Protestants believe that salvation is by faith alone (sola fide), while Catholics believe that faith is exhibited in good works. Stereotypically, this has led to a conflict over the doctrine of justification (the Reformation taught that "we are justified by faith alone"). Modern ecumenical dialogue has led to a number of consensus statements on the doctrine of justification between Roman Catholics and Lutherans, Anglicans, and others.

Liturgy and worship
The most important act of worship in the Roman Catholic Church is the Eucharistic liturgy, usually called the Mass. Mass is celebrated every Sunday morning in most Roman Catholic parishes; Catholics can however fulfill their Sunday devotion by attending a Mass on Saturday night. Catholics must also attend Mass on ten additional days every year, known as the Holy Day of Obligation. Additional Masses can be celebrated on any day of the liturgical year except for Good Friday. Most churches have daily Mass. The contemporary Mass is composed of two major parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In the Liturgy of the Word, readings from the Bible are done; and a homily (like the Protestant sermon) is spoken. At Masses on Sundays and feast days, the Nicene Creed, which states the orthodox beliefs of Catholicism, is professed by all Catholics present. The Liturgy of the Eucharist includes the presentation of the gifts of bread and wine, the Eucharistic Prayer, during which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and the communion procession.
The liturgical reform movement has been responsible over the past forty years for a significant convergence of Latin Rite worship practices with that of Protestant churches. One feature of the new liturgical views has been a "return to the sources" (ressourcement), claimed as resulting from the rediscovery of ancient liturgical texts and practices, along with many new practices. The post-conciliar (post-Vatican II) reforms of the liturgy included the use of the vernacular (local) language, a greater emphasis on the Liturgy of the Word, and the clarification of symbolism. The most visible feature of the reforms is the posture of the priest. In the past, the priest faced the altar, with his back to the congregation. The reforms have turned the priest to face the people, with the altar between. This symbolises the desire for the Mass to become more people centered. Critics however have complained about the nature of the post-Vatican II Mass (known sometimes as the Novus Ordo Missae). In 2003, it was revealed that the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Mass was again being celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica (though not on the main altar) and that Pope John Paul II had begun celebrating Tridentine Masses in his private chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Contemporary Catholicism
The Catholic Church, like most Christian faiths, has experienced a steep decline in its worldwide influence in western society in the late 20th century; its exclusively male leadership structure and rigid doctrinal beliefs on matters to do with human sexuality have less appeal to a more secular western world where diversity in sexual practices and gender equality are the norm. In places where it once played a primary role, such as Quebec, Ireland, and Spain, it holds only a fraction of its former influence. At the same time, however, Roman Catholicism is experiencing a dramatic rise in membership in Africa and parts of Asia. While western missionaries once served as priests in African churches, by the late 20th century a growing number of western nations began to recruit African priests to balance their dwindling numbers of local clergy.

Pressure on traditional mores and practices

birth control & pre-marital chastity
homosexuality
celibacy of the ordained

Ordination of women
As a result of feminism and other social and political movements that have removed barriers to the entry of women into professions that were traditionally male strongholds, in latter quarter of the twentieth century many women sought ordination into the Roman Catholic priesthood.
The traditionalist Roman Catholic position is that women cannot be priests or bishops, on account of the doctrine of apostolic succession. Priests and bishops are successors to the Apostles, and because Jesus Christ chose only men to be the twelve apostles, only men can become priests and bishops. On May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Priestly Ordination) which reaffirmed the traditionalist position, and concluded:

Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

Within Roman Catholicism itself, debate on the subject now focuses on whether this statement is meant to invoke papal infallibility and raise the rule that women cannot be Roman Catholic priests to the level of an irreformable dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. That disagreement as to the status reached to the heart of the Church. While some elements around Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger implied strongly that the statement had invoked infallibility, many other elements, notably the Vatican's own press office, explicitly stated it was not, and should not be seen as, an infallible statement. (Disagreements between Ratzinger and official Vatican policy are a regular occurance. His Dominus Iesus statement, for example, disagreed in tone and content with Pope John Paul II's own encyclical on ecumanism. While it was stated that the Pope agreed with and approved Ratzinger's document, a dissenting senior Vatican official discovered on meeting the Pope that John Paul II had not fully read Ratzinger's document.)²
Critics accused some of those attached to Ratzinger's Congregation of trying to make the document sound infallible to try to kill off the debate, in effect spinning a fallible document as infallible. Such an accusation has been made in the pact, notably Pope Paul's encyclical, Humanæ Vitæ about which one conservative curial cardinal stated "the Holy Father has spoken. The issue is forever closed." However the refusal of Pope John Paul's own press spokesman, himself a conservative, to describe the statement as "infallible" has led to a general though not universal presumption that the document is not so. In addition, the Vatican itself formally states that since 1870, only one infallible teaching has been issued by a pope, namely Pope Pius XII's 1950 statement about the bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. By implication, neither Humanæ Vitæ nor Ordinatio Sacerdotalis are infallible.
What is missed in the debate is that "what has always been taught" is as infallible as a solemn definition that springs from the Pope's Infallible Magisterium. That which has always been taught by the Church is a part of its Universal Magisterium, which is as infallible as such solemn definitions as that used to define the Assumption of Mary.

Sexual abuse of children
Particular damage has been done to the institution and to its members' trust in it by acts of child sexual abuse by a small but persistent group of clergy. Allegations of abuse have been made against clergy in many parts of the world, with notorious cases hitting the headlines in Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States. For the Church, the crisis has been two-fold. First, many Roman Catholics had an almost automatic sense of trust in the clergy. The revelation that this trust had been violated repeatedly fundamentally reshaped public attitudes towards the clergy. But secondly, the institution was damaged by the revelation that the Church's leadership seriously mishandled cases of abusers, using Canon Law and diocesan boundaries³ to help clergy avoid popular anger and even criminal sanction. For a full discussion, see Roman Catholic Church sex abuse allegations.

References

Notes
¹ Early lists of popes stated that the first pope was St. Linus. Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002) Appendix A.
² ibid.
³ Technically each diocese operates separately of its neighbours, while religious orders in each diocese are not answerable to or under the control of the local bishop. As a result suspicions about the behaviour of secular priests (priests belonging to the diocese) were not always reported to other dioceses or to religious order-run schools or hospitals, while abuse by religious priests (priests belonging to a religious order) was not always relayed by his order to the diocese and its schools. The most notorious example involved Fr. Brendan Smyth, a Norbertine Order priest in Ireland, whose activities (known about since 1945) were not reported to diocesian clergy let alone the police. In 1994, Brendan Smyth pleaded guilty to a sample set of 17 charges of sexual abuse of children in Belfast from a far longer list. A number of dioceses, the Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh and Smyth's own order publicly blamed each other and accepted no responsibility themselves for the failure to stop Smyth over 47 years.

See also

Altar rails
Beatification
Christianity
Crusade
Ecumenical council
History of Christianity
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Inquisition
Knights of Columbus
List of religious topics
Liturgical Year
Mass
Military Ordinariate
Novus Ordo Missae
Opus Dei
Roman Catholicism's links with democracy and dictatorships
Saint
Santeria
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Traditional Catholicism
Tridentine Mass
Vatican City
Witchhunt
Additional Reading

Catechism of the Catholic Church - English translation (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000). ISBN 1574551108 [1]
H. W. Crocker III, Triumph - The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History (Prima Publishing, 2001). ISBN 0761529241
Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002). ISBN 0300091656

External links

The Holy See - The Vatican's Official Website
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Topical search engine for the Catechism
New Advent
Summa Theologica
The Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Answers (catholic.com)
Apologia
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Catholicism."

Christianity

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Christianity is a group of religious traditions that trace their origins to Jesus Christ, a Jew of the first century C.E., and assert that he is God, the son of God and messiah -- the Lord and sole Saviour of all humanity.

Introduction
Christianity consists of many branches, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the various religious denominations of Protestantism. Other branches of Christianity have arisen which claim a separate historical lineage, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
According to a 1993 estimate, Christianity was the most populous religion, at 2.1 billion followers (1 billion Catholics, 500 million Protestants, 240 million Orthodox and 275 million others), before Islam at 1.1 billion and Hinduism at 1.05 billion.
Christianity emerged from Judaism in the first century of the Common Era (C.E.). Christians brought many ideas and practices from Judaism, including: monotheism; the belief in a messiah (or Christ, which means "anointed one" - who Christians believe to be Jesus); certain practices of worship, such as prayer, reading from religious texts, a priesthood, the idea that worship here on earth is patterned after worship in heaven. The book of Acts, in the Christian New Testament (NT), says that Christ's followers were first called Christians by non-believers in the city of Antioch, where they had fled and settled after early persecutions in Palestine, probably just a few years after Jesus' death, (and ascension).—Acts 11:19, 26.
Christianity holds one central idea, claiming that: By faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ individuals are saved from death both spiritual and physical by redeeming them from their sins (i.e. faults, misdeeds, disobedience, rebellion against God) through faith, repentance, and obedience; reconciling mankind to God through sanctification so that man can return to his place with God in paradise. Though, the full value of Jesus' sacrifice, and the extent and meaning of the words "death" and "paradise" is in dispute between the various Christian religions, along with the full merits of Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

Doctrine
The most crucial points in Christian teaching are Jesus' incarnation, atonement, crucifixion, death and miraculous resurrection to redeem mankind from sin and death. These events are believed by Christians to be the basis of God's work to reconcile humanity with himself. Many Christians believe that this emphasis on God giving his beloved Son for the sake of humanity is a key difference between Christianity and religions where the emphasis is instead placed solely on humans working for salvation. The most uniform and broadly agreed upon tradition of doctrine, with the longest continuous representation, repeatedly reaffirmed by official Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant definitions (although not without dissent, as noted below) asserts that specific beliefs are essential to Christianity, including:
Mary, the mother of Jesus, bore in her womb and gave birth to the Son of God, who although eternally existent was formed in her womb by the Spirit of God. From her humanity he received in his person, a human intellect and will, and all else that a child would naturally receive from its mother.
Jesus was innocent of any sin. Through the death of Jesus, believers are forgiven of sins and reconciled to God. Believers are baptized into the death of Christ. Through faith, they live by the promise of resurrection from death to everlasting life through Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to them, to bring hope and lead mankind into true knowledge of God and His purposes, and help them grow in holiness.
Jesus is the Messiah hoped for by the Jews, the heir to the throne of David. He reigns at the right hand of God with all authority and power. He is the hope of all mankind, their advocate and judge. Until he returns at the end of the age, the Church has the authority and obligation to preach the Gospel and to gather new disciples.
Jesus will return to receive the faithful to himself, so they will live eternally in the intimate presence of God.
Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God. However, some creedal Christians disagree to some extent about how accurate the Bible is and how it should be interpreted.

Other ideas accepted by most Christian religions are:
God is a Trinity, a single eternal being existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus is both fully God and fully Man, two "natures" in one person.
Jesus will return to receive the faithful to himself, so they will live eternally in the intimate presence of God.

Christianity is considered by Christians to be the continuation or fulfilment of the Jewish faith. However, many Christian organizations throughout history have had varying ideas about the basic tenets of the Christian faith, from ancient sects such as Arians and Gnostics, to modern groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses (who seek to reestablish primitive first century Christianity), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (who believe that God restored the apostolic priesthood to their leader, Joseph Smith, Jr in 1829, and who received many additional scriptures and teachings from Smith), and the Unification Church. The above groups, for example, differ from one another concerning what Jesus represented himself to be, although all believe him to be the Christ, and with different ideas believe him to have cosmic importance, some calling him a god or God, or others as simply a man. Some of these groups number themselves among the Christian churches, or believe themselves to be the only Christian church. Also, modern day liberal Protestant Christians do not define Christianity as necessarily including belief in the deity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the Trinity, miracles, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, or the personality or deity of the Holy Spirit. Liberals may recommend belief in such things, or not, but differentiate themselves by defining as included within genuine Christianity anyone who explains their views or teachings principally by appeal to Jesus.

Summary
The following diagram illustrates the manner in which Christian groups trace their own historical development:

See also: List of Christian denominations and History of Christianity
A detailed look at the various denominations of Christianity can be found in the Wikipedia article Christianity: Denominations.

Christianity today
Not all people identified as Christians accept all, or even most, of the theological positions that their particular church mandates. Like the Jewish people, Christians in the West were greatly affected by The Enlightenment in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Perhaps the most significant change for them was total or effective separation of Church and State, thus ending the state-sponsored Christianity that existed in so many European countries. Now one could be a free member of society and disagree with one's church on various issues, and one could even be free to leave the church altogether. Millions did take these paths, becoming freethinkers and developing entirely new belief systems such as humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and deism; others created liberal wings of Protestant Christian theology, and the long-suppressed Unitarian trend in Christianity became an acceptable choice for many. The Enlightenment had a much less profound impact on the Eastern Churches of Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy.
This gain in personal freedom of the general populace came with a price to those that wished to impose their religious ideas upon the people: the dissolution of the Christian community as an entity with civic legal authority. In the United States and Europe, many secularized Christians have long since stopped participating in traditional religious duties, attending churches only on a few particular days per year or not at all. Many of them recall having highly religious grandparents, but grew up in homes where Christian theology was no longer a priority. They have developed ambivalent feelings towards their religious duties. On the one hand they cling to their traditions for identity reasons; on the other hand, the influence of the secular Western mentality, the demands of daily life, and peer pressure tear them away from traditional Christianity. Marriage between Christians of different denominations, or between a Christian and a non-Christian, was once taboo, but has become commonplace.
There have been many responses to this phenomenon within the Christian community, including the development of literally thousands of Christian Protestant denominations, traditionalist splinter groups of the Catholic Church that do not recognize the legitimacy of many reforms the Catholic Church has undertaken, and the growth of hundreds of fundamentalist groups that interpret the entire Bible in a literal fashion.
The Persecution of Christians, both in the past and today, is the subject of a separate entry.

Christian Heresies
Adoptionism -- Albigensians -- Apollinarism -- Arianism -- Cathars -- Docetism -- Donatism -- Lollardy -- Mandaeans -- Manicheanism -- Monarchianism -- Montanism -- Patripassianism -- Pelagianism -- Priscillianism -- Psilanthropism -- Sabellianism --
In classical times, Gnosticism exchanged ideas and symbolism with Christianity.

Christianity's Relationship with Other Faiths
For more information on the relationship between Christianity and other world religions over the years, see the Wikipedia article on Christianity and World Religions.

Christianity and Judaism
There are a number of articles on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. These articles include:

Comparing and contrasting Judaism and Christianity
The Judeo-Christian tradition
Christianity and anti-Semitism.

Since the Holocaust, there has been much to note in the way of reconciliation between some Christians groups and the Jewish people; the article on Christian-Jewish reconciliation studies this issue.
Messianic Judaism refers to a group of evangelical Christian religious movements, self-identified as Jewish, who believe that Jesus is the messiah. Contrary to Judaism, they are trinitarians, professing that Jesus is God, incarnate. Even though many Messianic Jews are ethnically Jewish, they are not considered part of the Jewish community by mainstream Jewish groups.

See Also

A summary of Christian views of homosexuality
A summary of Christian views of women
Relevant books: The Rise of Christianity (by Rodney Stark)
Topics involving the art of Christianity: Christian Symbolism, Christian art, iconography

Other related topics: Jesus Christ, List of Christian denominations, List of Christians, history of Christianity, Christian eschatology, eschatology, the stories of Christianity, missions, missionary, History of Christian Missions, predestination, Great Schism, John 3:16 wide and narrow roads

Eternal links
General
Organisations/Newsgroups
Critics
Anti-Christ.net - FFTAC - alliance of individuals and organizations that are attempting to expose the atrocities of the church, and the government.
Biblical America Resistance Front - resource for all who work to monitor and counter the social and political movement that aims to use its particular reading of the Bible as the basis of governance and American society.
Forgery in Christianity - about the foundation of Christianity.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Christianity."

Church

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A church can be a Christian building of worship.
Here Lärbro church at Gotland, Sweden
The word church has several meanings, including:
A Christian building of worship. See altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, sanctuary, lych gate.
An assembly of Christian believers who worship together. This is one translation of the Greek Koine word "Ecclesia," used in the New Testament, and is the sense used by many Christians.
In Christian theology, the Body of Christ composed of Jesus Christ and all Christians, living and dead. This is another sense of the word used in the New Testament, also used by the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds ("... one holy catholic and apostolic church ..."), and the sense used by many Christians.
A religious organization or denomination within Christendom (such as the Catholic Church or Lutheran Church).
A surname. Those with the surname "Church" include the logician Alonzo Church (famous for the Church-Turing thesis), the painter Frederic Edwin Church, and the writer Francis Pharcellus Church (famous for the editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"). Church's Chicken, a brand of fried chicken.

Several non-Christian religious groups also use the word "church" in self-reference, as the Church of All Worlds and the Church of Scientology. The term is, however, not generally used by Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu groups for either the worshipers or the building. See mosque, synagogue, and temple for buildings of worship of these and other faiths.
The remainder of this article discusses church buildings as an element of Christian worship.

Origins of Christian Places of Worship
The architecture of Christian worship space grew out of the regular meetings of the followers of Christianity in private houses and synagogues. When either the size of the community outgrew the space or the complexity of the uses of the space outpaced the architectural adaptation of houses, buildings began to be built specifically for worship. This became much more feasible and common when Constantine stopped the Roman persecution of Christians by issuing the Edict of Milan in 311.

In The First Century
The first Christians were, like Jesus, Jews resident in Palestine who worshipped on occasion in the Temple in Jerusalem and weekly in local synagogues. Temple worship was a ritual involving sacrifice, occasionally including the sacrifice of animals in atonement for sin, offered to Yahweh. The New testament includes many references to Jesus visiting the Temple, the first time as an infant with his parents.
The early history of the synagogue is controverted, but it seems to be an institution developed for public Jewish worship during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews did not have access to the Jerusalem Temple for ritual sacrifice. Instead, to give a rough summary, they developed a daily and weekly service of readings from the Torah or the prophets followed by commentary. This could be carried out in a house if the attendance was small enough, and in many towns of the Diaspora that was the case. In others more elaborate architectural settings developed, sometimes by converting a house and sometimes by converting a previously public building. The minimum requirements seem to have been a meeting room with adequate seating, a case for the Torah scrolls, and a raised platform for the reader and preacher.
Jesus himself participated in this sort of service as a reader and commentator (see Gospel of Luke 4: 16-24) and his followers probably remained worshippers in synagogues in some cities. However, following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70, the new Christian movement and Judaism increasingly parted ways. The Church became overwhelmingly Gentile sometime in the second century.
For the history of how services take place within a church, see worship or do a search on any particular religion that you might be interested in.

Early Examples of Church Architecture
The Syrian city of Dura Europos on the West bank of the Euphrates was an outpost town between the Roman and Parthian empires. During a siege by Parthian troops in A.D. 257 the buildings in the outermost blocks of the city grid were partially destroyed and filled with rubble to reinforce the city wall. Thus were preserved and securely dated the earliest decorated church and a synagogue decorated with extensive wall paintings. Both had been converted from earlier private buildings.
The church at Dura Europos has a special room dedicated for baptisms with a large baptismal font.
A common architecture for churches is the shape of a cross (a long central rectangle, with side rectangles, and a rectangle in front for the altar space or sanctuary). These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, to represent the church's bringing light to the world. Another common feature is the spire, a tall tower on the "west" end of the church or over the crossing.

See also:

Church and State
Hagia Sophia
Eucharist

Baptism
Liturgy
Nicene Creed
Apostles Creed

Compare:

Basilica
Cathedral
Temple
Chapel
Parish

External Link

Orthodox Art and Architecture
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Church."

Church of England

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and is the mother branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Although Christians were present in England since the 4th century or earlier, the Church of England traces its roots to Augustine of Canterbury, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 7th century.
The Church of England retains a form of worship closer to the Roman Catholic form than other Protestant churches. For example, the church has a hierarchical organization.
The head of the Church of England is officially the reigning monarch who is the Supreme Governor, but its effective chief cleric remains the Archbishop of Canterbury. It has its own court system known as the Ecclesiastical courts.
In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and many congregations on the continent of Europe known as the Diocese of Europe.
On November 11, 1992 the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.
Schism with Rome
The English Church was in union with Rome until the reign of Henry VIII. The break with Rome came when Pope Clement VII refused, over a period of years, to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, not as a matter of principle, but because he was living in fear of Catherine's nephew, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Henry first asked for an annulment in 1527. After various failed initiatives he stepped up the pressure on Rome, in the summer of 1529, by compiling a manuscript from ancient sources proving in law that spiritual supremacy rested with the monarch, and that Papal authority was illegal. In 1531 Henry first challenged the Pope when he demanded 100,000 poundss from the clergy in exchange for a royal pardon for their illegal jurisdiction, and that he should be recognised as their sole protector and supreme head. Henry VIII was recognized by the clergy as supreme head of the Church of England on February 11, 1531, however in 1532 he was still attempting to seek a compromise with the Pope.
In May 1532 the Church of England agreed to surrender their legislative independence and canon law to the authority of the monarch. In 1533 the Statute of Appeals removed the right of the English clergy and laity to appeal to Rome on matters of matrimony, tithes and oblations, and gave authority over such matters to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This finally allowed Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, to issue Henry's annulment; and upon procuring it, Henry married Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII was excommunicated by Pope Clement VII in 1533.
In 1534 the Act of Submission of the Clergy removed the right of all appeals to Rome, effectively ending the Pope's influence. Henry was confirmed by statute as Supreme Head of the Church of England by the first Act of Supremacy in 1536.
Becoming the head of the church not only made it possible for Henry to divorce but also gave him access to the considerable wealth that the Church had amassed, and Thomas Cromwell launched a commission of enquiry into the nature and value of all ecclesiastical property in 1535, which was followed by the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Protestantism
At the time of schism with Rome, the Church of England was not protestant in nature. Indeed, Henry himself had been awarded the title of fidei defensor (defender of the faith) by Pope Leo X partly for attacking such views. Consequently only minor changes in liturgy were made during Henry's reign.
This was however at a time of major religious upheaval in Western Europe called the Reformation and once the schism had occurred, some protestant reform was probably inevitable.
Under Henry's son, Edward VI, the first major changes to the church were made, including thoroughgoing revision of the liturgy along Protestant lines. The resulting Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1549 and revised in 1552, and was issued by authority of Parliament.
Following the death of Edward, the Catholic Mary came to the throne. She renounced the Henrician and Edwardian changes, and re-established unity with Rome. Upon her death in 1558, her sister Elizabeth came to power. Elizabeth was a determined Protestant, and re-established the Royal Supremacy over the Church, and then in 1559 a new Book of Common Prayer was issued. Elizabeth presided over the "Elizabethan Settlement", an attempt to harmonize the Puritan and Catholic forces in England.
During the Interregnum, the ascendant Puritans replaced the Episcopalian government of the Church with a Presbyterian form, but retained the principle of ultimate state control of religious matters. When Charles II came to power, the Episcopalian government was re-established, and the Book of Common Prayer was issued in a new revision in 1662.

Recent Developments
On March 12, 1994 the Church of England ordained its first female priests.

Supreme Governors of the Church of England

Henry VIII (1509-1547)
Edward VI (1547-1553)
Mary I (1553-1558)
Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
James I (1603-1625)
Charles I (1625-1649)
Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658)
Richard Cromwell (1658-1659)
Charles II (1660-1685)
James II (1685-1688)
Mary II (1689-1694) jointly with
William III (1689-1702)
Anne (1702-1714)
George I (1714-1727)
George II (1727-1760)
George III (1760-1820)
George IV (1820-1830)
William IV (1830-1837)
Victoria (1837-1901)
Edward VII (1901-1910)
George V (1910-1936)
Edward VIII (1936)
George VI (1936-1952)
Elizabeth II (1952-)
Related Churches
In Scotland, the established Church of Scotland is Presbyterian, but there is a smaller Anglican church known as the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and Wales is now an independent province of the Anglican communion.
The Church of Ireland was the estabished church in Ireland until 1871, although Ireland remained mostly Roman Catholic.
See also: List of Church of England dioceses, British monarchy, History of England, Anglicanism, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Communion, General Synod, antidisestablishmentarianism, UK topics
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Church of England."

Eastern Orthodox Church

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion comprising the collective body of sixteen separate autocephalous hierarchical churches that recognize each other as "canonical" Orthodox Christian churches. The head of the communion is the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is also head of one of the sixteen churches. The sixteen organizations are in full communion with each other, so any priest of any of those churches may lawfully minister to any member of any of them, and no member of any is excluded from any form of worship in any of the others. Despite the fact that, like the Roman Catholic church, they are "closed communion" churches, i.e. with rare exceptions excluding non-members from receiving the Eucharist, nonetheless they admit each other's members to that sacrament. Friction among them is over matters of church politics rather than doctrine.
Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church claims to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
All the disagreements among persons of differing religious beliefs beget strange nomenclature, and accordingly the so-called Western Orthodox Church is a part of the Eastern Orthodox Church as that term is defined here.

Autocephalous Churches

Church of Constantinople
Church of Alexandria
Church of Antioch
Church of Jerusalem
Orthodox Church of Macedonia
Church of Russia
Church of Georgia
Church of Serbia
Church of Romania
Church of Bulgaria
Church of Cyprus
Church of Greece
Church of Poland
Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
Orthodox Church in America
Church of Albania

Autonomous Churches

Church of Sinai
Church of Finland
Church of Japan
Church of Ukraine

See also

Eastern Rite

External link

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Orthodox-Churches/
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Eastern Orthodox Church."

Religious denomination

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A religious denomination, (also: denomination) is a large, long-established religious group that has been in existence for many years. The term is frequently used to describe the many different Protestant Christian churches; it is also used to describe the three main branches of Judaism: Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Denominations usually have a significant degree of authority over their member congregations, although the term is also used to describe religious groups when the congregations have authority over the 'denomination', such as the numerous Baptist associations or the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Denominations often form slowly over time for many reasons; due to historical accidents of geography, culture, and influence between different groups, members of a given religion slowly begin to diverge in their views. Over time members of a religion may find that they have developed significantly different views on theology, philosophy, religious pluralism, ethics and religious practices and rituals. As such, in any of a myriad of ways, different denominations eventually form. In other cases, denominations form very rapidly, either as a result from a split or schism in an existing denomination, or as people from many different denominations share an experience of spiritual revival or awakening, and choose to form a new denomination based on that new experience or understanding.
An example within Christianity is the Mennonite and the Church of the Brethren denominations. Both denominations are similar in their beliefs, yet they are unique because they were started by a different person, (Menno Simons and Alexander Mack respectively). Their division is administrative, and there is much communication and interaction between the two. Since its founding, the Mennonite denomination has split into a number of smaller Mennonite denominations, because of both geography and social and theological differences.
Another example is the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant churches such as the Lutheran Churches. When Martin Luther founded the Lutheran Church, he and his followers were persecuted and sometimes killed as heretics. The early Lutherans in turn persecuted and sometimes killed the Anabaptists as heretics. Even today there are major ideological differences between them, even though there is no physical hostility.
See also: Sect, Cult, Religion, Christian Denominations
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Religious denomination."

Synonyms: Church

Synonyms: church building (n), church service (n). (additional references)

Synonyms within Context: Church

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Certainty	Gospel, scripture, church, pope, court of final appeal; res judicata, ultimatum positiveness; dogmatism, dogmatist, dogmatizer; doctrinaire, bigot, opinionist, Sir Oracle; ipse dixit.
Churchdom	Noun: church, churchdom; ministry, apostleship, priesthood, prelacy, hierarch, church government, christendom, pale of the church.
Clergy	Dignitaries of the church; ecclesiarch, hierarch; ebdomarius; eminence, reverence, elder, primate, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, prelate, diocesan, suffragan, dean, subdean, archdeacon, prebendary, canon, rural dean, rector, parson, vicar, perpetual curate, residentiary, beneficiary, incumbent, chaplain, curate; deacon, deaconess; preacher, reader, lecturer; capitular; missionary, propagandist, Jesuit, revivalist, field preacher.
Desire	Adjective: desirous; desiring; Verb: inclined; (willing); partial to; fain, wishful, optative; anxious, wistful, curious; at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous. craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, drouthy; hungry as a hunter, hungry as a hawk, hungry as a horse, hungry as a church mouse, hungry as a bear.
Heterodoxy	Ultramontanism; papism, papistry; monkery; papacy; Anglicanism, Catholicism, Romanism; popery, Scarlet Lady, Church of Rome, Greek Church.
	High Church, Low Church, Broad Church, Free Church;
Interment	Grave, pit, sepulcher, tomb, vault, crypt, catacomb, mausoleum, Golgotha, house of death, narrow house; cemetery, necropolis; burial place, burial ground; grave yard, church yard; God's acre; tope, cromlech, barrow, tumulus, cairn; ossuary; bone house, charnel house, dead house; morgue; lich gate; burning ghat; crematorium, crematory; dokhma, mastaba, potter's field, stupa, Tower of Silence.
Manifestation	Plain, clear, clear as day, clear as daylight, clear as noonday; plain as a pike staff, plain as the sun at noon-day, plain as the nose on one's face, plain as the way to parish church.
Marriage	Marry, join, handfast; couple; (unit); tie the nuptial knot; give away, give away in marriage; seal; ally, affiance; betroth; (promise); publish the banns, bid the banns; be asked in church.
Orthodoxy	The Church; Catholic Church, Universal Church, Apostolic Church, Established Church; temple of the Holy Ghost; Church of Christ, body of Christ, members of Christ, disciples of Christ, followers of Christ; Christian, Christian community; true believer; canonist; (theologian); Christendom, collective body of Christians.
	Canons; (belief); thirty nine articles; Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed; Church Catechism; textuary.
Poverty	Adjective: poor, indigent; poverty-stricken; badly off, poorly off, ill off; poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job; fortuneless, dowerless, moneyless, penniless; unportioned, unmoneyed; impecunious; out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash; without a rap, not worth a rap;(money); qui n'a pas le sou, out of pocket, hard up; out at elbows, out at heels; seedy, bare-footed; beggarly, beggared; fleeced, stripped; bereft, bereaved; reduced; homeless.
Repute	Hero, man of mark, great card, celebrity, worthy, lion, rara avis, notability, somebody; classman; man of rank; (nobleman); pillar of the state, pillar of the church, pillar of the community.
Temple	Temple, cathedral, minster, church, kirk, chapel, meetinghouse, bethel, tabernacle, conventicle, basilica, fane, holy place, chantry, oratory.
Worship	Work out one's salvation; go to church; attend service, attend mass; communicate; (rite).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Church

English words defined with "church": Anglican Church, Apostolic church ♦ Broad Church, Byzantine church ♦ Catholic Church, Christian church, church bell, church bench, church building, Church Father, Church living, church member, Church modes, Church of England, Church of Ireland, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of Rome, church officer, church property, Church rate, church roll, church service, Church session, church tower, Church work, Collegiate church, Congregational Christian Church, Conventual church, Coptic Church ♦ Doctor of the Church ♦ Eastern Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, English church, Episcopal Church, Established church, Evangelical Church ♦ Free church ♦ Greek Church, Greek Orthodox Church ♦ High Anglican Church, High Church ♦ Latin Church, Low Church ♦ Mormon Church, Mother church ♦ New Church, New Jerusalem Church ♦ Old Catholic Church, Orthodox Catholic Church, Orthodox Church ♦ Protestant Episcopal Church ♦ Roman Catholic Church, Roman Church, Russian Orthodox Church ♦ United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Universal church ♦ Visible church ♦ Wesleyan Methodist Church, Western Church. (references)

Specialty definitions using "church": Alonzo Church ♦ Church integer, Church Invisible, Church Militant, Church of the SubGenius, Church Porch, Church Triumphant, CHURCH WARDEN, CHURCH WORK, Church, Alonzo, Colours for Church Decoration ♦ Fathers of the Church, Fathers of the Greek Church, Fathers of the Latin Church ♦ janitor, church ♦ Oracle of the Church. (references)

Etymologies containing "church": Shroud. (references)

Modern Usage: Church

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Nobody steps on a church in my town (Ghostbusters; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.) You ever try to not to laugh in church when something funny gets stuck in your head (The Green Mile; writing credit: Frank Darabont) The hysterical shouting was in tongues, like at a Pentecostal Church. (Fight Club; writing credit: Jim Uhls) I see you are open for business -- so let's to church. (Shakespeare in Love; writing credit: Marc Norman; Tom Stoppard) Maude, these new finger razors make hedge trimming as much fun as sitting through church! (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge)
Lyrics	Church bells, three swells (The Dean And I; performing artist: 10CC) Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers (Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning); performing artist: Alan Jackson) And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night ("Ode to Billy Joe"; performing artist: Bobbie Gentry) When the church bells rang (Ride Like the Wind; performing artist: Christopher Cross) And when they went to their church (Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm; performing artist: Crash Test Dummies)
Clever	Attend Church weekly not weakly. (references; author: unknown) A giving church is a living church. (references; author: unknown) Man who breaks wind in church sits in own pew. (references; author: unknown) Don't wait for the hearse to take you to church. (references; author: unknown) Soul-winning and missions is the life blood of the church. (references; author: unknown)
Movie/TV Titles	Let the Church Say Amen! (1973) Challenge for the Church (1972) The Church Mouse (1934) Little Church Around the Corner (1923) At Trinity Church I Met My Doom (1922)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Commercial Usage: Church

Domain	Title
References	Church & Co Plc: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) Church & Dwight Co Inc: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Church Dogmatics: A Selection With Introduction by Helmut Gollwitzer (reference) Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped and the Church (reference) The Worldwide Church of the Handicapped: And Other Stories (reference) Common Sense, Nonsense, or Church Sense: Hilarious, Hard-Hitting Stories Full of God's Truth (reference) The Harmonia Sacra: A Compilation of Genuine Church Music, Comprising a Great Variety of Metres, Harmonized for Four Voices Together With a Copious E (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Anglican Church Directory (reference) China Church Quarterly (reference) Church & Society (reference) Church & State (reference) Church & Synagogue Libraries (reference) (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies	Charlotte Church - Enchantment (From Cardiff, Wales) (reference) The Church - Goldfish (Jokes, Magic & Souvenirs) (reference) Dream a Dream: Charlotte Church in the Holy Land (reference) Bishop Ronald Brown: Live - Having Good Old Fashioned Church 1 (reference) Charlotte Church - In Jerusalem (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

High Tech	Church Office Pro (4 CD-ROM) (reference) (more camera examples; more video game examples; more computer examples; more electronic examples; more software examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Image Slideshow: Church

Photo Album: Church

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Pictured are various views of portions of the Mormon Temple, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City. The Mormons are being studied for their low cancer death rate, about 20% lower than the national average. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer).		The church at San Carlos C&GS crew moving by pony and oxcart. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.
	First Presbyterian Church. In: "The Annals of San Francisco". Frank Soule, John Gihon, and James Nesbit. 1855. Page 687. D. Appleton & Company, New York. F869.S3.S7 1855. Credit: America's Coastlines.		Presbyterian Church destroyed by fire on June 22nd, 1851. In: "The Annals of San Francisco". Frank Soule, John Gihon, and James Nesbit. 1855. Page 691. D. Appleton & Company, New York. F869.S3.S7 1855. Credit: America's Coastlines.
	The Russian Orthodox Church at Unalaska. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.		Catholic Church at Kolonia. Credit: Small World.
	Master Sgt. Thomas Church.		Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site. Credit: NPS.
	Brick Church of Trinity (18th century), southwest view taken from Dvina River on sidewheeler, Troitsa, Russia. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.		Monastery of the Icon of the Sign, Church of the Icon of the Sign (1757-62), south facade, Irkutsk, Russia. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Digital Photo Gallery: Church


"Church" by Jonathan De Wet Commentary: "Sleepy town of Greyton 2 hours from Cape Town (South Africa)."	"Church" by Stephan Kirchhoff Commentary: "A scene in bavaria."
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

Sounds Captioned with "Church".

Play	Caption	Play	Caption
	Church organ music.		Church organ starting up.
	A large church bell ringing.		Great church bell chimes once.
	Church choir signing hallelujah.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Familiar Quotations: Church

Author	Quotation
Billy Wilder	I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
Coleridge	A Gothic church is a petrified religion.
Henry Ward Beecher	A church debt is the devil's salary.
John Heywood	The nearer to the church, the further from God.
Marquis De Sade	Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.
Martin Luther	Where God builds a church the devil builds a chapel.
Thomas Jefferson	. . . this loathsome combination of Church and State.
Thomas Paine	My own mind is my own church.
William Penn	It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Historic Usage: Church

Author	Date	Quotation
Magna Carta	1215	If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be distributed by the hands of his nearest kinsfolk and friends, under supervision of the Church, saving to every one the debts which the deceased owed to him. (reference)
John Locke	1690	Bilson, a bishop of our church, and a great stickler for the power and prerogative of princes, does, if I mistake not, in his treatise of Christian subjection, acknowledge, that princes may forfeit their power, and their title to the obedience of their subjects; and if there needed authority in a case where reason is so plain, I could send my reader to Bracton, Fortescue, and the author of the Mirrour, and others, writers that cannot be suspected to be ignorant of our government, or enemies to it. (Second Treatise of Government)
Treaty of Versailles	1919	Bavon at Ghent, now in the Berlin Museum; (2) The leaves of the triptych of the Last Supper, painted by Dierick Bouts, formerly in the Church of St. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Use in Literature: Church

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	And so excellent in the Church! Miss Nash has put down all the texts he has ever preached from since he came to Highbury
A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles	He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters
Scarlet Letter	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	A similar impression struck him most remarkably, as he passed under the walls of his own church.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	And as there are elsewhere rich coronets so there are in the church rich mitres
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	He had done well to leave her to flirt with her priest, to toy with a church which was the scullerymaid of christendom
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Non-Fiction Usage: Church

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		She didn't want to volunteer at the hospital or go to her church group. (references)
Business		Police also harassed and detained several underground church lay people in the Shanghai area. (references)
		The army allegedly took three men into the church where they were tortured before being taken away. (references)
		This prison also permits prisoner-run restaurants, other facilities, and includes a church inside the prison. (references)
Children	Argentina	NGO's and church sources indicated that child abuse and prostitution were increasing, although no statistics were available. (references)
	Colombia	The ICBF oversees all government child protection and welfare programs and funds nongovernmental and church programs for children. (references)
Civil Liberties	Fiji	Also in August a Catholic church was desecrated. (references)
Economic History	Cuba (09/01)	The largest organized religion is the Roman Catholic Church. (references)
	Armenia	Religion: Armenian Apostolic Church (more than 90% nominally affiliated). (references)
	Ukraine	The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) is independent of Moscow. (references)
Human Rights	Tuvalu	Visits by church groups and family members are permitted. (references)
	Colombia	The guerrillas also burned 20 homes, a school, and a church. (references)
	Nauru	Prison visits by church groups and family members are permitted. (references)
Indigenous People	Canada	The nonaborignal fishermen sparked violence by cutting Burnt Church lobster trap lines and damaging aboriginal property. (references)
	Canada	The Federal Government negotiated interim fishing agreements with 30 of the 34 native communities in Atlantic Canada, but the Burnt Church First Nation in New Brunswick and 3 other groups in Nova Scotia have refused to sign the interim agreements and have been accused of contravening federal regulations by fishing for lobster out-of-season. (references)
Minorities	Moldova	Local church member volunteers reportedly sleep in his house to protect him. (references)
Political Economy	Laos	Forced renunciation campaigns and church closings intensified in some areas. (references)
	Sudan	There is a longstanding dispute between the Episcopal Church and the Government. (references)
	China	However, the campaign also has targeted some dissidents, separatists, and underground church members. (references)
Political Rights	Uganda	The Anglican Church directed its clergy to stop campaigning in churches and not to display candidates' posters. (references)
	United Kingdom	The upper chamber (the House of Lords), which has the power to revise and delay the implementation of laws, is made up of hereditary and appointed life peers and senior clergy of the established Church of England. (references)
	Congo	While no agreement was reached by year's end, the participants agreed to resume the dialog in South Africa in February 2002. In March 2000, church groups attempted to hold a National Consultation, an initiative that the Government seized to carry out its own agenda; it filled meetings with its own supporters. (references)
Travel	Ghana	Labone Crescent, Labone, next to SDA Church and School. (references)
	Egypt	Coptic has remained the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. (references)
	Bahamas	Many churches in The Bahamas have proud traditions of gospel choir singing, and church services can be quite lively. (references)
Women	Philippines	Church opposition to divorce is strong in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation. (references)
	Congo	Human rights groups and church organizations are working to combat this custom, but there generally is no government intervention or legal recourse available. (references)
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Marion House, a social services agency established by the Catholic Church in 1989 and staffed by four trained counselors and three foreign volunteers, provides counseling and therapy services. (references)
Worker Rights	Chile	A 1998 Catholic Church study estimated that 50,000 children under the age of 15 worked. (references)
	Peru	Inspectors maintain contact with a wide variety of local NGO's, church officials, law enforcement officials, and school officials. (references)
	Colombia	A second conference sponsored by the IOM, the Catholic Church, several local NGO's, and the city of Medellin took place in Medellin in November. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	INFIDEL, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does. (See GIAOUR.) A kind of scoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mollahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, obeah-men, abbes, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, prebendaries, pilgrims, prophets, imaums, beneficiaries, clerks, vicars-choral, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, preachers, padres, abbotesses, caloyers, palmers, curates, patriarchs, bonezs, santons, beadsmen, canonesses, residentiaries, diocesans, deans, subdeans, rural deans, abdals, charm-sellers, archdeacons, hierarchs, class-leaders, incumbents, capitulars, sheiks, talapoins, postulants, scribes, gooroos, precentors, beadles, fakeers, sextons, reverences, revivalists, cenobites, perpetual curates, chaplains, mudjoes, readers, novices, vicars, pastors, rabbis, ulemas, lamas, sacristans, vergers, dervises, lectors, church wardens, cardinals, prioresses, suffragans, acolytes, rectors, cures, sophis, mutifs and pumpums.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Spoken Usage: Church

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Bob Schieffer	Church theology is the church's business and can be as nuanced as church members care to make. But protecting children from sexual predators is everyone's business, and it's not at all complicated.
Mark Shields	Bob, contrary to the defensiveness of some church leaders, Archbishop Flynn was crystal clear and emphatic. He praised the media for bringing this scandal, this crisis in the Church to public light and forcing the Church to act upon it.
Pamela Anderson	Well, I believe in God. I definitely believe that He is the reason that I've gotten through everything that I have. And I go to church. My kids go to Sunday school. And it's definitely a part of my life.
Rush Limbaugh	What Jay didn't understand was just how different the nation was at our founding, and how individual states feared a Church of England-type national religion.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speeches: Church

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Ronald Reagan	1981-1989	Our private-sector initiatives task force is seeking out successful community models of school, church, business, union, foundation and civic programs that help community needs.
Bill Clinton	1993-2001	The next two folks I've had the honor of meeting and getting to know a little bit, the Reverend John and the Reverend Diana Cherry of the AME Zion Church in Temple Hills, Maryland.
George W. Bush	2001-2005	Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Usage Frequency: Church

"Church" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.97% of the time. "Church" is used about 20,511 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	94.97%	19,479	458
Noun (proper)	5.03%	1,032	7,196
Total	100.00%	20,511	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Name Usage Frequency: Church

The following table summarizes the usage of "church" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.

Name	Usage/Gender	Usage per 100 million Persons	Rank in USA
Church	Last name	16,000	763
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Usage in Company Names: Church

Country	Name	Country	Name
United Kingdom	Church & Co Plc	USA	Church & Dwight Co Inc
	(more examples...)

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

Expressions: Church

Expressions using "church": alonzo Church ♦ anglican Church ♦ Apostolic church ♦ Arminian Church ♦ at church ♦ baptist church ♦ be as poor as a church mouse ♦ be asked in church ♦ Body of a church ♦ broad Church ♦ Byzantine church ♦ catholic church ♦ christian church ♦ church advocate ♦ church attendance ♦ church bell ♦ church bench ♦ church building ♦ church calendar ♦ church Catechism ♦ church Creek ♦ church doctrine ♦ church Father ♦ church festival ♦ church government ♦ church Hill ♦ church history ♦ church integer ♦ church key ♦ church living ♦ church member ♦ Church militant ♦ church mode ♦ Church modes ♦ church mouse ♦ church music ♦ church of Christ Scientist ♦ church of england ♦ church of Ireland ♦ Church of Rome ♦ church of the Brethren ♦ church of the SubGenius ♦ church officer ♦ church organ ♦ Church owl ♦ church Point ♦ church power ♦ church property ♦ church rate ♦ church Road ♦ church roll ♦ church school ♦ church seat ♦ church service ♦ Church session ♦ church Slavic ♦ church spire ♦ church steeple ♦ church tax ♦ church tower ♦ Church triumphant ♦ church View ♦ church warden ♦ church wedding ♦ Church work ♦ church year ♦ collegiate church ♦ congregational Christian Church ♦ congregational Church ♦ Conventual church ♦ Coptic Church ♦ country church ♦ curse of the church ♦ Dean of cathedral church ♦ disestablish the church ♦ doctor of the church ♦ Eastern Church ♦ eastern orthodox church ♦ English church ♦ enter the church ♦ episcopal Church ♦ Established church ♦ Evangelical Church ♦ Falls Church ♦ Free church ♦ funeral church ♦ go to church ♦ go to the church ♦ greek church ♦ greek orthodox church ♦ high Anglican Church ♦ high church ♦ hungry as a church mouse ♦ independent church ♦ Latin Church ♦ Lebanon Church ♦ low Church ♦ lutheran Church ♦ mennonite Church ♦ methodist Church ♦ mormon Church. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "church": church-aided, Church-ale, church-ales, church-andstate, church-as-a-field, church-as-a-force, church-attendance, church-banner, church-based, Church-bench, church-bishop, church-builder, church-building, church-burning, church-by-church, church-comer, church-dues, church-fellowship, church-fortresses, church-free, church-goer, church-goers, church-going, church-hall, Church-haw, church-inspired, church-keys, church-led, church-life, church-like, church-loaded, church-loan, church-man, church-membership, church-men, church-music, church-nominated, Church-of-englandism, church-owl, church-owned, church-planting, church-related, church-roof, Church-Rosser Theorem, church-run, church-slavonic, church-sponsored, church-square, church-state, church-tower, church-towers, church-town, church-type, church-warden, church-wardens, church-y, church-yard.
	Ending with "church": inter-church, non-church, woman-church.
	Containing "church": non-church-goers.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Church

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
church	12,466	church software	410
catholic church	1,982	lds church	405
lutheran church	1,868	christian church	385
church of christ	1,327	church saddleback	377
church of jesus christ of latter day saint	1,284	roman catholic church	366
charlotte church	1,247	church construction	361
virginia falls church	1,132	universal life church	352
church of satan	1,129	church furniture	339
church bulletin	1,002	church of the nazarene	334
church building	769	church of latter day saint	328
baptist church	663	church of god in christ	298
lakewood church	625	church fund raiser	290
church of god	586	church bell	271
episcopal church	550	presbyterian church	267
church supply	542	united church of christ	253
mormon church	530	first baptist church	245
church of euthanasia	520	church fund raising	245
church management software	477	church upskirt	239
international church of christ	457	church history	231
church sign	457	unity church	222
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Modern Translation: Church

Language		Translations for "church"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaans		kerk (church-building, harrier, kirk, kite). (various references)

Albanian		kishë (abbey, Kirk). (various references)

Arabic		‏كنيسة (abbey, kirk, minster, temple), ‏طائفة (brotherhood, communion, confession, congregation, denomination, fellowship, persuasion, religion, sect, sodality). (various references)

Asturian		ilesia. (various references)

Basque		eliza. (various references)

Bulgarian		храм (sanctuary, tabernacle, temple), християните (christendom, the faithful), църква, духовенството (the pulpit). (various references)

Catalan		eslésia (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

Cebuano		simbahan. (various references)

Chamorro		ekglesia. (various references)

Chinese		教会, 教堂 (chapel). (various references)

Cornish		eglos. (various references)

Czech		chrám (cathedral, temple), církev (Kirk), pobožnost (worship), mše (mass, service), kostel (Kirk). (various references)

Danish		kirke (church-building, house of worship, kirk, place of worship). (various references)

Dutch		kerk (church-building, harrier, house of worship, kirk, kite, place of worship). (various references)

Esperanto		preĝejo (kirk), eklezio. (various references)

Faeroese		trúarsamfelag, kirkjulið, kirkja (church-building, house of worship, place of worship), kikja. (various references)

Farsi		کلیساءی , کلیسا (Abbey), درکلیسامراسم مذهبی بجااوردن . (various references)

Finnish		kirkko (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

French		église (church-building). (various references)

Frisian		tsjerke (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

German		Kirche (cathedral, church-building, house of worship, Kirk, place of worship, tabernacle). (various references)

Greek		εκκλησία (meetinghouse). (various references)

Guarani		tupao. (various references)

Hebrew		כנסייה, כנסיה (assembly). (various references)

Hungarian		templom (church-building, Fane, house of prayer, house of worship, kirk, place of worship, tabernacle, temple), egyház. (various references)

Indonesian		gereja. (various references)

Inuktitut		tuksiaqvik. (various references)

Irish		teach pobail (house of worship, place of worship), séipéal (chapel, house of worship, place of worship), eaglais (house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

Italian		chiesa (church-building, house of worship, Kirk, Minster, place of worship). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		聖堂 (sanctuary, temple), チフス菌 (a channel, chaff, chalk, Chalmers, champion, champion flag, championship belt, chance, channel, channelling, chapel, chapter, charge, charity, Charleston, charm, charm point, charming, chart, chart file, charter, chat, chattering, child, child seat, chime, China, Chinese, Chinese collar, chunk, key-bounce, Mandarin collar, most attractive feature, opportunity, pennant, self-challenge, Tchaikovsky, Tibet, trying hard to do something, typhoid bacillus, zipper), 教会　, 教会堂 (chapel), 教会 , 会堂 (chapel, synagogue, tabernacle). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		チャーチ , きょうかいどう (chapel), きょうかい (admonishment, association, boundary, exhortation, feelings, heart, organization, preaching, society), せいどう (braking, bronze, path of duty, path of righteousness, politics, refined copper, sanctuary, temple, the correct path, the right track, vitality), かいどう (aronia, assembly, chapel, highway, meeting, sea route, synagogue, tabernacle, unusually large or strong youth). (various references)

Kongo		nzo a nzambi. (various references)

Korean		교회. (various references)

Macedonian		crkva. (various references)

Malay		gereja (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

Manx		doonagh. (various references)

Maori		haahi. (various references)

Mohawk		Ononhsatokenhti. (various references)

Norwegian		kirke (church-building, house of worship, kirk, place of worship). (various references)

Occitan		glèisa. (various references)

Papago		cheopi. (various references)

Papiamen		iglesia. (various references)

Pig Latin		urchchay.(various references)

Polish		kościół (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

Portuguese		igreja (kirk, meeting-house, place of worship, sanctuary). (various references)

Provencal		glèisa. (various references)

Quechua		inlishaneqpi (near the church). (various references)

Romanian		hram, bisericesc (churchly, ecclesiastical, religious), bisericå (church-building, house of worship, place of worship), bisericã (abbey, clergy, Fane, fold, Kirk, sanctuary). (various references)

Romansch		baselgia. (various references)

Romany		khàngerì. (various references)

Ruanda		isengero. (various references)

Russian		храм (fane, sanctuary, shrine, tabernacle, temple), церковь церковный, церковь (free church, kirk, place of worship), вероисповедание (communion, cult, denomination, persuasion), богослужение (chapel, church service, ministration, worship). (various references)

Samoan		falesa. (various references)

Scottish		eaglais (a church, church-building, harrier, house of worship, kite, place of worship). (various references)

Sepedi		kereke. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		crkveni (ecclesiastic, ecclesiastical), crkva (kirk), religija (religion). (various references)

Sicilian		chiesa. (various references)

Sotho		kereke (the church). (various references)

Spanish		iglesia (chapel, church-building, clergy, house of worship, kirk, place of worship). (various references)

Sranan		kerki (church-building, house of worship, place of worship), gado-oso (church-building, house of worship, place of worship, temple). (various references)

Swahili		kanisa (church-building, house of worship, kirk, place of worship). (various references)

Swazi		lí-sontfo (Sunday). (various references)

Swedish		kyrka (chapel, church-building, harrier, house of worship, Kirk, kite, place of worship). (various references)

Tagalog		simbáhan (church-building, house of worship, place of worship), sambáhan (church-building, house of worship, place of worship). (various references)

Thai		โบสถ์ (Buddhist sanctuary, fold, kirk). (various references)

Turkish		kilise ile ilgili, kilise ayini, kilise (Fane, fold, Kirk, meeting house, parish, public worship), hristiyanlıkla ilgili cemaat, hristiyan din adamları. (various references)

Turkmen		buthana. (various references)

Ukrainian		храм (sanctuary, tabernacle, temple, wakes), церква (sect, temple), церковний (ecclesiastic, ecclesiastical, spiritual), віросповідання (creed, cult, persuasion, profession), богослужіння (worship). (various references)

Vietnamese		lấy chồng (condition). (various references)

Welsh		eglwys (house of worship, place of worship). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Ancestral Language Translations: Church

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	basilica, basilicae, basilicam, ecclesia, quam, templa, templi, templis, templo, templum, templumque. (various references)
Old English	450-1100	cirice, mynster. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Bible Trace: Church

Language	Date	Source	Acts Chapter 15, Verse 2
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	GenomenhV oun stasewV kai suzhthsewV ouk olighV tw paulw kai tw barnaba proV autouV etaxan anabainein paulon kai barnaban kai tinaV allouV ex autwn proV touV apostolouV kai presbuterouV eiV ierousalhm peri tou zhthmatoV toutou
Latin	405	Vulgate	Facta ergo seditione non minima Paulo et Barnabae adversum illos statuerunt ut ascenderent Paulus et Barnabas et quidam alii ex illis ad apostolos et presbyteros in Hierusalem super hac quaestione
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Therfor whanne ther was maad not a litil discencioun to Poul and Barnabas ayens hem, thei ordeyneden, that Poul and Barnabas, and summe othere of hem, schulden go vp to the apostlis and preestis in Jerusalem, on this questioun.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	And when ther was rysen dissencion and disputinge not a litle vnto Paul and Barnabas agaynst them. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certayne other of them shuld ascende to Ierusalem vnto the Apostles and elders aboute this question.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of them, should go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	And after Paul and Barnabas had had no little argument and discussion with them, the brothers made a decision to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them to the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem about this question.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Matched Bible Translations: Church

Language	Acts Chapter 15, Verse 2
Albanian	Duke qenë se u bë një grindje jo e vogël dhe një diskutim nga ana e Palit dhe e Barnabës me ata, u dha urdhër që Pali, Barnaba dhe disa të tjerë nga ata të ngjiten në Jeruzalem tek apostujt dhe te pleqtë për këtë çështje.
Cebuano	Ug sa diha nga, tali kanila ug kang Pablo ug Bernabe, nahitabo ang usa ka dili diyutayng panagkabangi ug panaglalis, si Pablo ug si Bernabe ug ang pipila sa uban gipanagtudlo aron sa pagtungas sa Jerusalem, sa pagpakigkita sa mga apostoles ug sa mga anciano bahin niining gikalantugian.
Croatian	Kad izmeðu njih te Pavla i Barnabe nasta prepirka i raspra nemalena, odrediše da Pavao i Barnaba i još neki drugi izmeðu njih uzaðu u Jeruzalem k apostolima i starješinama poradi tog pitanja.
Danish	Da nu Paulus og Barnabas kom i en ikke ringe Splid og Strid med dem, så besluttede man, at Paulus og Barnabas og nogle andre af dem skulde drage op til Jerusalem til Apostlene og de Ældste i Anledning af dette Spørgsmål.
Dutch	Als er dan geen kleine wederstand en twisting geschiedde bij Paulus en Barnabas tegen hen, zo hebben zij geordineerd, dat Paulus en Barnabas, en enige anderen uit hen, zouden opgaan tot de apostelen en ouderlingen naar Jeruzalem, over deze vraag.
Finnish	Kun siitä syntyi riita ja kun Paavali ja Barnabas kiivaasti väittelivät heitä vastaan, niin päätettiin, että Paavalin ja Barnabaan ja muutamien muiden heistä tuli mennä tämän riitakysymyksen tähden apostolien ja vanhinten tykö Jerusalemiin.
French	Paul et Barnabas eurent avec eux un débat et une vive discussion; et les frères décidèrent que Paul et Barnabas, et quelques-uns des leurs, monteraient à Jérusalem vers les apôtres et les anciens, pour traiter cette question.
German	Da sich nun ein Aufruhr erhob und Paulus und Barnabas einen nicht geringen Streit mit ihnen hatten, ordneten sie, daß Paulus und Barnabas und etliche andere aus ihnen hinaufzögen gen Jerusalem zu den Aposteln und Ältesten um dieser Frage willen.
Hungarian	Mikor azért Pálnak és Barnabásnak nagy háborúsága és vetekedése lõn azok ellen, azt végezék, hogy Pál és Barnabás és némely mások õ közülök menjenek fel az apostolokhoz és a vénekhez Jeruzsálembe e kérdés ügyében.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Paulus dan Barnabas menentang keras pendapat orang-orang itu. Akhirnya ditentukan supaya Paulus dan Barnabas dengan beberapa orang lain dari Antiokhia pergi ke Yerusalem untuk membicarakan masalah itu dengan rasul-rasul dan pemimpin-pemimpin di sana.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Maka timbullah suatu perselisihan dan perbalahan yang besar di antara Paulus dan Barnabas dengan mereka itu, lalu mereka itu pun menetapkan Paulus dan Barnabas dan beberapa orang lain dari antara mereka itu akan pergi naik ke Yeruzalem kepada rasul-rasul dan ketua-ketua bertanyakan masalah itu.
Italian	Poiché Paolo e Barnaba si opponevano risolutamente e discutevano animatamente contro costoro, fu stabilito che Paolo e Barnaba e alcuni altri di loro andassero a Gerusalemme dagli apostoli e dagli anziani per tale questione.
Maori	Na kihai i iti te whawhai, te uiui a Paora raua ko Panapa ki a ratou, ka whakaritea ko Paora, ko Panapa, ko etahi atu hoki o ratou, e haere ki nga apotoro ki nga kaumatua ki Hiruharama, mo tenei putake.
Norwegian	Da det nu opstod strid, og Paulus og Barnabas fikk et ikke lite ordskifte med dem, vedtok de at Paulus og Barnabas og nogen andre av dem skulde dra op til apostlene og de eldste i Jerusalem og legge dette spørsmål frem for dem.
Rumanian	Pavel wi Barnaba au avut cu ei un viu schimb de vorbe wi pqreri deosebite; wi frayii au hotqrkt ca Pavel wi Barnaba, wi ckyiva dintre ei, sq se suie la Ierusalim la apostoli wi presbiteri, ca sq -i kntrebe asupra acestei neknyelegeri.
Shuar	Tuma asamtai Papru Pirnapíjiai, Núchaiti tusar, Nú aishmanjai ti kakaram chicharnaikiarmiayi. Túrasha nuu Enentáiniak Enentáimsatniun tujinkiarmiayi. Tuma asamtai Antiukíanmaya Yus-shuar Páprun Pirnapíncha, atumsha Chíkich aentsjai Jerusarénnum wétarum tusar akupkarmiayi. "Tura nui Jesusa akatramurisha Yus-shuaran Wáinniusha iniasrum itiurmainkit tusarum pénker nekaatarum" tiarmiayi.
Swahili	Jambo hili lilisababisha ubishi mkubwa, na baada ya Paulo na Barnaba kujadiliana nao, ikaamuliwa Paulo na Barnaba pamoja na waumini kadhaa wa lile kanisa la Antiokia waende Yerusalemu kuwaona wale mitume na wazee kuhusu jambo hilo.
Swedish	Då uppstod söndring, och Paulus och Barnabas kommo i ett ganska skarpt ordskifte med dem. Det bestämdes därför, att Paulus och Barnabas och några andra av dem skulle, för denna tvistefrågas skull, fara upp till apostlarna och de äldste i Jerusalem.
Uma	Uma mowo pe'ewa-ra Paulus pai' Barnabas mpobaro tudui' -ra toe. Ka'omea-na, to Kristen to hi Antiokhia mpo'uli': "Agina tasuro ba hangkuja dua doo-ta hilou hi Yerusalem, mpobua' kara-kara toe hi suro Pue' Yesus pai' totu'a ntani' -na." To rasuro hilou toe, hira' Paulus, Barnabas, pai' ba hangkuja dua to ntani' -na.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations & Misspellings: Church

Derivations
	Words beginning with "church": churched, churches, churchgoer, churchgoers, churchgoing, churchgoings, churchianities, churchianity, churchier, churchiest, churching, churchings, churchless, churchlier, churchliest, churchliness, churchlinesses, churchly, churchman, churchmanship, churchmanships, churchmen, churchwarden, churchwardens, churchwoman, churchwomen, churchy, churchyard, churchyards. (additional references)
	Words ending with "church": antichurch, interchurch, nonchurch, superchurch, unchurch. (additional references)
	Words containing "church": nonchurchgoer, nonchurchgoers, superchurches, unchurched, unchurches, unchurching, unchurchly. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Church" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Achurch, chach, Chaorach, Charsh, chech, Cheech, cherche, Cherk, chirche, chirho, choch, chorch, chotch, chuch, Chuchu, chucrch, churche, Churchi, churchs, Churk, chursh, Dhorcha, hurgh, Hurich, phwurgh, Schuricht. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Rhyming with "Church"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "church" (pronounced kher"kh)
2	-er" kh	birch, lurch, perch, research, search.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Anagrams: Church

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-c-h-h-r-u"
	-1 letter: curch.
	-3 letters: cur, huh.
	-4 letters: uh.
	Words containing the letters "c-c-h-h-r-u"
	+1 letter: churchy.
	+2 letters: churched, churches, churchly, unchurch.
	+3 letters: archduchy, churchier, churching, churchman, churchmen, nonchurch.
	+4 letters: antichurch, churchgoer, churchiest, churchings, churchless, churchlier, churchyard, unchurched, unchurches, unchurchly.
	+5 letters: archduchess, archduchies, churchgoers, churchgoing, churchliest, churchwoman, churchwomen, churchyards, interchurch, superchurch, unchurching.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern

5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art

9. Sounds
10. Quotations: Familiar
11. Quotations: Historic
12. Quotations: Fiction

13. Quotations: Non-fiction
14. Quotations: Spoken
15. Quotations: Speeches
16. Usage Frequency

17. Names: Frequency
18. Names: Company Usage
19. Expressions
20. Expressions: Internet

21. Translations: Modern
22. Translations: Ancient
23. Bible Trace
24. Derivations

25. Rhymes
26. Anagrams
27. Bibliography

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.