Church

The church is not a building. Nor is it an organisation or human institution. The church is simply the people whose sins have been forgiven through their faith Jesus Christ... (An extract from the book Once a Catholic by Tony Coffey)

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Synopsis

Christians marching in a procession at Lourdes.

A church building is a building used in Christian worship. The church is the Christian community of believers.

Contents

See also Easton's Bible Dictionary entry on Church

Related topics

• Church building
• Church history
• Denominations
• World-wide church directory
• Church Terms Index

Comments, Personal Articles, Studies and Sermons

Church (discussion) (For short comments and opinions)

• What is the Church? (G.G.)
• The Church (justforcatholics.org)

For related quotations see Church (quotes)

Main article

The word "church" is derived through Middle and Old English cirice, circe from the Greek κυριακον (δωμα) Lord's (house). However, most English versions of the New Testament use the word "church" to translate ecclesia (Greek ἐκκλησία "congregation, assembly", a word originally used without specific reference to religious gatherings).

In English, the word can be used in reference to a gathering of people for a religious meeting, but is sometimes used to refer to a building or group of buildings. It is also used to refer to a denomination that places the leadership of all congregations in a central location, such as the "Roman Catholic Church". It can also be used in an institutional sense to refer to all churches, such as "... the church today...."

Church building

Christians worhsip in church buildings. Although the Church (the people that belong to Jesus) can meet anywhere, they have since early times built buildings specifically for worshipping God in. There are many well known church buildings around the world such as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. A common architecture for churches is a building in the shape of a cross, often with a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens.

Photos of church buildings

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  The main church in Echmiadzin, the physical centre of the Armenian Orthodox Church

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  The door of the famous church in Wittenburg where Martin Luther is thought to have nailed his 95 Theses to the door

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  The church in Olney where John Newton, author of the hymn Amazing Grace worked

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  Stanford Memorial Church in California

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  A small local church, Trinity Baptist Church in Adelaide, Australia, once known as the "City of Churches"

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  The Église Collégiale Sainte Marthe in Tarascon, France

Church history

Since the church was formed after the resurrection of Jesus, major events and conflict, often over matters of doctrine have resulted in significant rifts. Initially the early Christians spread the good news of Jesus throughout the Roman empire and small congregations of Christians sprang up in many towns. Rome soon became the geographical centre of the church. However, there was a rift between the Church in Greece and the one in Rome that slowly developed over centuries culminating in a schism in 1054 AD. Later, in sixteenth century, Christians in northern Europe split from the Roman church, an event known as the Reformation. Today there seems to be a bewildering array of denominations. Some of the larger ones include Roman Catholicism, the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches and the wide variety of Protestant churches.

Links

• Wikipedia - Church

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