(Eccl.) A portion of the Church of England, consisting of persons who claim to hold a position, in respect to doctrine and fellowship, intermediate between the High Church party and the Low Church, or evangelical, party. The term has been applied to other bodies of men holding liberal or comprehensive views of Christian doctrine and fellowship. [ 1913 Webster ]

Side by side with these various shades of High and Low Church, another party of a different character has always existed in the Church of England. It is called by different names: Moderate, Catholic, or Broad Church, by its friends; Latitudinarian or Indifferent, by its enemies. Its distinctive character is the desire of comprehension. Its watch words are charity and toleration. Conybeare. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Chop to barter. ] (Old Eng. Law) An exchanger or an exchange of benefices. [ Cant ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. chirche, chireche, cherche, Scot. kirk, from AS. circe, cyrice; akin to D. kerk, Icel. kirkja, Sw. kyrka, Dan. kirke, G. kirche, OHG. chirihha; all fr. Gr. kyriako`n the Lord's house, fr. kyriako`s concerning a master or lord, fr. ky`rios master, lord, fr. ky^ros power, might; akin to Skr. çūra hero, Zend. çura strong, OIr. caur, cur, hero. Cf. Kirk. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A building set apart for Christian worship. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A Jewish or heathen temple. [ Obs. ] Acts xix. 37. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A formally organized body of Christian believers worshiping together. “When they had ordained them elders in every church.” Acts xiv. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A body of Christian believers, holding the same creed, observing the same rites, and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a denomination; as, the Roman Catholic church; the Presbyterian church. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The collective body of Christians. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Any body of worshipers; as, the Jewish church; the church of Brahm. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The aggregate of religious influences in a community; ecclesiastical influence, authority, etc.; as, to array the power of the church against some moral evil. [ 1913 Webster ]

Remember that both church and state are properly the rulers of the people, only because they are their benefactors. Bulwer. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Church is often used in composition to denote something belonging or relating to the church; as, church authority; church history; church member; church music, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Apostolic church. See under Apostolic. --
Broad church. See Broad Church. --
Catholic church or
Universal church, the whole body of believers in Christ throughout the world. --
Church of England, or
English church, the Episcopal church established and endowed in England by law. --
Church living, a benefice in an established church. --
Church militant. See under Militant. --
Church owl (Zool.), the white owl. See Barn owl. --
Church rate, a tax levied on parishioners for the maintenance of the church and its services. --
Church session. See under Session. --
Church triumphant. See under Triumphant. --
Church work, work on, or in behalf of, a church; the work of a particular church for the spread of religion. --
Established church, the church maintained by the civil authority; a state church. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Churched p. pr. & vb. n. Churching. ] To bless according to a prescribed form, or to unite with in publicly returning thanks in church, as after deliverance from the dangers of childbirth; as, the churching of women. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A church or parish festival (as in commemoration of the dedication of a church), at which much ale was used. Wright. Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A seat in the porch of a church. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The institution, government, or authority of a church. [ R. ] Bp. Pearson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who attends church. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Habitually attending church. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Summoning to church. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sound of the churchgoing bell. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Church + haw a yard. ] Churchyard. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Strict adherence to the forms or principles of some church organization; sectarianism. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Without a church. T. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Befitting a church or a churchman; becoming to a clergyman. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Regard for the church. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or suitable for, the church; ecclesiastical. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Churchmen 1. An ecclesiastic or clergyman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An Episcopalian, or a member of the Established Church of England. “A zealous churchman.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One was is attached to, or attends, church. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or becoming, a churchman. Milman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or quality of being a churchman; attachment to the church. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Mus.) The modes or scales used in ancient church music. See Gregorian. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. State of being a church. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One of the officers (usually two) in an Episcopal church, whose duties vary in different dioceses, but always include the provision of what is necessary for the communion service. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A clay tobacco pipe, with a long tube. [ Slang, Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

There was a small wooden table placed in front of the smoldering fire, with decanters, a jar of tobacco, and two long churchwardens. W. Black. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The office of a churchwarden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Relating to a church; unduly fond of church forms. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like graves in the holy churchyard. Shak.

Syn. -- Burial place; burying ground; graveyard; necropolis; cemetery; God's acre. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The native church of Egypt or church of Alexandria, which in general organization and doctrines resembles the Roman Catholic Church, except that it holds to the Monophysitic doctrine which was condemned (a. d. 451) by the council of Chalcedon, and allows its priests to marry. The “pope and patriarch” has jurisdiction over the Abyssinian Church. Since the 7th century the Coptic Church has been so isolated from modifying influences that in many respects it is the most ancient monument of primitive Christian rites and ceremonies. But centuries of subjection to Moslem rule have weakened and degraded it. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. To deprive of status as a church, or of membership in a church. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

. That portion of the Christian church which prevails in the countries once comprised in the Eastern Roman Empire and the countries converted to Christianity by missionaries from them. Its full official title is The Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Eastern Church. It became estranged from the Western, or Roman, Church over the question of papal supremacy and the doctrine of the filioque, and a separation, begun in the latter part of the 9th century, became final in 1054. The Eastern Church consists of twelve (thirteen if the Bulgarian Church be included) mutually independent churches (including among these the Hellenic Church, or Church of Greece, and the Russian Church), using the vernacular (or some ancient form of it) in divine service and varying in many points of detail, but standing in full communion with each other and united as equals in a great federation. The highest five authorities are the patriarch of Constantinople, or ecumenical patriarch (whose position is not one of supremacy, but of precedence), the patriarch of Alexandria, the patriarch of Jerusalem, the patriarch of Antioch, and the Holy Synod of Russia. The Eastern Church accepts the first seven ecumenical councils (and is hence styled only schismatic, not heretical, by the Roman Catholic Church), has as its creed the Niceno-Constantinopolitan (without the later addition of the filioque, which, with the doctrine it represents, the church decisively rejects), baptizes infants with trine immersion, makes confirmation follow immediately upon baptism, administers the Communion in both kinds (using leavened bread) and to infants as well as adults, permits its secular clergy to marry before ordination and to keep their wives afterward, but not to marry a second time, selects its bishops from the monastic clergy only, recognizes the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon as the three necessary degrees of orders, venerates relics and icons, and has an elaborate ritual. See also Greek Church, under Greek. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Of or pertaining to, or favoring, the party called the High Church, or their doctrines or policy. See High Church, under High, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The principles of the high-church party. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. -men One who holds high-church principles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being a high-churchman. J. H. Newman. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not placing a high estimate on ecclesiastical organizations or forms; -- applied especially to Episcopalians, and opposed to high-church. See High Church, under High. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The principles of the low-church party. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. -men One who holds low-church principles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being a low-churchman. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The established church of the Russian empire up to the revolution of 1917, at which time the ruling Communist party tried to suppress all religious worship. The czar was the nominal head of the church, but he never claimed the right of deciding questions of theology and dogma. It still forms a portion, by far the largest, of the Orthodox (Eastern) Church and is governed by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod. In 1988 the church, with official approval, celebrated the 1000 year anniversary of the baptism of Russia. After breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian Church began to regain some its old influence in Russian life, and the government turned over some of the confiscated churches back to church control. The Russian Church was recognized anew as the official church of Russia, with special priveleges, by an act of the Russian Duma in 1997. The Metropolitan of Moscow, as Patriarch of the church, is regarded as the first among equals in order of deference among bishops of the church. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

v. t. [ 1st pref. un- + church. ] 1. To expel, or cause to separate, from a church; to excommunicate. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deprive of the character, privileges, and authority of a church. South. [ 1913 Webster ]