the church
Sunday worship building
The church, with the definite article, typically refers to institutional Christianity or organized religion as a whole, as distinct from any particular building or congregation: the separation of church and state, the church's position on abortion.
It can also mean the clergy as a profession: He went into the church after seminary.
Sometimes it designates a specific denomination understood from context: The church forbids remarriage (said by a Catholic).
- baptismRitual water purification ceremony
- holy waterSacramental liquid for blessings
- bishopDiocesan clergy head
- altarSacred ritual table
- congregationAssembled group of worshippers
Sunday service · basilica · priest · last rites · cathedral · communion · original sin · chapel · house of worship · trinity · steeple · prayer · sermon · liturgy · gospel · reformation · choir · scripture
the churchsecular authority
Governmental power without religious basis
civil society · the crown · Caesar · mammon · civil government
the churchpersonal faith
Individual religious belief
private devotion · spiritual but not religious · folk religion · mysticism · house churches
church, churches, churchyard, churchgoing, churchman, churchly, churchgoer, churchgoers, churchmen