About Us Introducing Christianity What is the Church?
What is the Church?
What is the Church?
‘Church’ really means ‘gathering’ or ‘congregation’.
These days the word ‘church’ is often used to refer to a building – the place where Christians meet for worship.
But the word ‘church’ really means ‘gathering’ or ‘congregation’ or ‘assembly’. It is the word (in Greek, ‘ecclesia’, ‘called out’) that Jesus gave to the community of his disciples.
So the old chestnut of a question, ‘Do you have to go to church to be a Christian?’ rests on a misunderstanding. Christians do not ‘go to church’; they are the Church.
In this sense, ‘the Church’ refers to the whole company of Christians in every place. ‘The Church’ includes Christians from Alaska to Zimbabwe, in the UK and Australia, in Africa, Asia and America. It includes Christians today, but also in past generations – people like St Chad, St Francis of Assissi, Florence Nightingale and Martin Luther King.
Since the earliest days of the Church, ‘membership’ of the community of Jesus has been marked by:
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Holy Baptism: |
the ceremonial washing in water, by which Christians are initiated into Christ’s family and are united to Christ himself and to one another; and |
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Holy Eucharist: |
the ceremonial sharing in bread and wine, by which Christians re-enact the Last Supper Jesus shared with his first followers, and remember his death for our sins. In this ‘Eucharist’, or thanksgiving, which is also known as ‘the Holy Communion’, ‘the Lord’s Supper’, ‘the Liturgy’ or ‘the Mass’, Christians find Christ’s living presence. |
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