Place of worship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or other location where a group of people (a congregation) comes to perform acts of religious praise, honour, or devotion. The form and function of religious architecture has evolved over thousands of years for both changing beliefs and architectural style. The term temple is often used as a general term for any house of worship; but churches and mosques are not generally called temples.
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[edit] Names used for places of worship
Different religions have different names for their places of worship:
[edit] Bahá'í Faith
[edit] Buddhism
[edit] Christianity
- Church – Anglican, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian
The word church derives from the Greek ekklesia, meaning the called out ones. Its original meaning is to refer to the body of believers, or the body of Christ[1]. Whilst the word church is used to refer to a Christian place of worship by some Christian denominations including Anglicans and Roman Catholics, other Christian denominations, including the Religious Society of Friends, Mennonites, Christadelphians, and some unitarians, object to the use of the word church to refer to a building, as they argue that this word should be reserved for the believers who worship there[2]. Instead, these groups use words such as meeting house or chapel to refer to their places of worship.- In Western Christianity, some "private" temples are called chapels, while major public ones are designated by a term reflecting its ecclesiastical status, such as cathedral (seat of a diocesan bishop), basilica, or minster, and/or proper to a cultural tradition, including kirk (Scottish–cognate with church) or dom.
- Orthodox temple – Orthodox Christianity (both Eastern and Oriental)
an Orthodox temple is a place of worship with base shaped like Greek cross. - Temple – French protestants
Protestant denominations installed in France in the early modern era use the word temple (as opposed to church, supposed to be Roman Catholic); some more recently built temples are called church. - Meeting House – Religious Society of Friends
- Meeting house – Christadelphians
- Chapel or Capel – Presbyterian Church of Wales (Calvinistic Methodism)
- meetinghouse and temple – Latter-day Saints
Mormons use meetinghouse and temple to denote two different types of buildings. Normal worship services are held in ward meetinghouses while Mormon temples are reserved for special ordinances. - Kingdom Hall – Jehovah's Witnesses use the term Kingdom Hall to identify their places of worship, and seldom, if ever, use the word 'church' to describe any building in use by them for the purpose of such assembly.
[edit] Greek Religions
- Greek temple – Greek religion
[edit] Hinduism
[edit] Islam
[edit] Jainism
[edit] Judaism
- Synagogue – Judaism
- Some synagogues, especially Reform synagogues, are called temples, but Orthodox and Conservative Judaism consider this inappropriate as they do not consider synagogues a replacement for the Temple in Jerusalem. Some Orthodox Jewish congregations use the term 'shul' to describe their place of worship.
[edit] Roman Religions
- Roman temple – Roman religion
[edit] Norse Paganism
[edit] Shinto
- Jinja – Shinto
[edit] Sikhism
[edit] Taoism
[edit] Zoroastrianism
- Fire temple - All Zoroastrian temples fall into the Fire temple category.
[edit] References
- ^ "The New Testament Definition of the Church" (in English). http://www.xenos.org/classes/um1-1a.htm. Retrieved on 2009-06-23.
- ^ Gee, Matthew (08 May 2009). "Meeting for Church Affairs" (in English). The Friend (London, UK) 167 (19): 8. ISSN 0016-1268. http://www.thefriend.org/articledisplay.asp?articleid=3897.
