Church

Look up church in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A Church has two commonly used meanings. Often the word 'Church' is used to describe a place of worship, a church building, or congregation or local gathering of religious believers. It is used to describe the local congregation or the larger body of a religious community.

Church may refer to:

In Christianity:

• Church (building), building used for religious services and worship.
• Christian Church, worldwide body of Christians.
  • Church body, Christian religious body (local, national, or worldwide) made up of congregation(s), members, and clergy.
  • Invisible church, the "invisible" body of the elect who according to Christianity are known only to God.
  • Orthodox Church, various Eastern but otherwise-unrelated Churches including
    • Eastern Orthodox Church, various Christian Churches rejecting the supremacy of the Pope, and separated from the Roman Catholic Church since the 11th century East-West Schism.
    • Oriental Orthodox Church, any one of various Christian Churches rejecting the Chalcedonian Creed and separated from Chalcedonian Christianity since the 5th century.
  • Roman Catholic Church, Christian church that adheres to the Papacy, and separated from Eastern Orthodoxy since the 11th century East-West Schism
  • Protestant Church, form of Christian faith and church organization originating from the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation.
  • State church, various Christian Churches officially endorsed by the state
  • Established church, various Christian Churches officially sanctioned and supported by the government of a country
• Church service, time of communal worship, often on Sundays.
• Christian clergy, formal Christian religious leadership.

In other faiths:

• Unitarian Church, a phrase to describe Unitarian Universalism.

In names:

• Church (surname), English surname (and list of people with that name).
• Church, Lancashire, suburb of Accrington, England.
• Adam Gilchrist, nicknamed "Church", retired Australian cricketer.

In music:

• The Church (band), Australian rock band.
• "The Church", song by Hawkwind from Church of Hawkwind.
• "Church", song by OutKast from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
• "Church", song by Galactic from Coolin' Off.
• "Church", song by T-Pain from his album Epiphany.

In fiction:

• Church (Red vs. Blue), fictional character
• Church, family cat in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary

Other uses:

• Church (sociology of religion), classification of religious movements in the sociology of religion

See also

• Church and State
• Churchianity
• Place of worship
• Religion and politics
• List of new religious movements
• Religion-supporting organization

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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