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{{summary Infobox_Contents | text topic_name =Church Building[[Image:Olney_church.jpg|thumb|center|The church building in the village in [[Olney]].]] | subtopics = [[Famous church buildings index]]* [[Cathedral]] | [[Basilica]] | [[Chapel]]* [[Church signs]]* [[Church]] | opinion_pieces = {{short_opinions}} |}} A church building (or simply church) is a building used in [[Christian ]] [[worship]]. 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.}} ===History of church buildings===

[[Image:Olney_church.jpg|thumb|The [[church building]] first Christians were, like Jesus, Jews resident in Israel who worshiped on occasion in the village Temple in Jerusalem and weekly in [[Olney]]local synagogues.]]

{{topics}}Many of these early Christians met in homes, sometimes called house-churches. * As the number of Christians grew during, numbers became too large to meet in houses, and congregations began to build or acquire buildings that were specifically for Christian worship. A number of pagan temples were converted into churches, especially following the adoption of Christianity as the state religion by the Roman Empire in the fourth century. A famous example of this is the [[Pantheon]] in [[Rome]], once used for a temple to pagan gods, it was later used as a church (it is now only a tourist attraction). ===Famous church buildings index=== ===Architecture types=== ===Photos of churches=== <center><gallery>Image:DCP 4427.jpg|The main church in [[Echmiadzin]], the physical centre of the [[Armenian Orthodox Church]]* Image:Wittenburg church door gg.jpg|The door of the famous church in [[CathedralWittenburg]] where [[Martin Luther]] is thought to have nailed his [[95 Theses]] to the doorImage:Olney church.jpg| The church in [[Olney]] where [[BasilicaJohn Newton]] , author of the hymn [[Amazing Grace (song)| Amazing Grace]] workedImage:Stanfordmemorialchurch.jpg|Stanford Memorial Church in [[ChapelCalifornia]]* Image:Trinity baptist colonel light gardens.jpg|A small local church, [[Trinity Baptist Church (Colonel Light Gardens, South Australia)|Trinity Baptist Church signs]]in [[Adelaide]], [[Australia]], once known as the "City of Churches"* Image:Église Collégiale Sainte Marthe (Tarascon).jpg|The Église Collégiale Sainte Marthe in [[Tarascon]], [[ChurchFrance]]</gallery></center>