disfellowship
Cast out formally
Disfellowship is to exclude someone from a religious community, particularly among Jehovah's Witnesses and some other Christian groups.
The term implies formal expulsion and shunning—members may be forbidden from social contact with the disfellowshipped person: He was disfellowshipped for apostasy.
As a noun, disfellowship refers to the state of exclusion or the act itself.
Expel from church membership
- expelRemove forcibly from membership
- banishOfficially send away
- oustRemove from position
- removeTake something away
church discipline · shunning · anathema · apostasy · heresy · blasphemy · schism · congregation
Deliberately keep away
- avoidStay away from
- snubDeliberate dismissive rejection
- cold-shoulderIntentional social rejection
- rejectDismiss as unsuitable
spurn · alienate · ignore · isolate · blackball · cut off · turn away · exclude
excommunicate
Expel from church membership
remove · church discipline · shunning · anathema · apostasy · heresy · blasphemy · schism · congregation · elders
shun
Deliberately keep away
- avoidStay away from
- snubDeliberate dismissive rejection
- cold-shoulderIntentional social rejection
reject · spurn · alienate · ignore · isolate · blackball · cut off · turn away · exclude · rebuff
disassociate
Sever connection with
disconnect · divide · separate · estrange · cut ties · isolation · quarantine · boundary · removal · expulsion
- excommunicationexpulsion, banishment, casting out, anathema, cutting off
- church penaltiesexcommunication, interdict, suspension, anathema, censure
- Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah's Witnesses, Jehovah, Kingdom Hall, Watchtower, disfellowshipping
- religious penaltiesexcommunication, anathema, shunning, banishment, stoning
- rejectionrejection, reject, denial, refuse, refusal
- exclusionsexclude, exclusion, excluding, except, exception