church
(tʃɜːʳtʃ )
Word forms: churches
1. variable noun B2
A church is a building in which Christians worship. You usually refer to this place as church when you are talking about the time that people spend there.
...one of Britain's most historic churches.
...St Helen's Church.
I didn't see you in church on Sunday.
Synonyms: chapel, temple, cathedral, kirk [Scottish]
2. countable noun [oft adjective NOUN] B1+
A Church is one of the groups of people within the Christian religion, for example Catholics or Methodists, that have their own beliefs, clergy, and forms of worship.
...co-operation with the Church of Scotland. [+ of]
Church leaders said he was welcome to return.
...the separation of church and state.
3. broad church phrase [oft verb-link PHRASE]
You can refer to an organization, group, or area of activity as a broad church when it includes a wide range of opinions, beliefs, or styles.
It rapidly became apparent that rock'n'roll was a very broad church indeed.
Image of church
© Hayk_Shalunts, Shutterstock
Idioms:
a broad church [British]
an organization, group or area of activity that includes a wide range of opinions, beliefs or styles
Rock music in France is a very broad church indeed.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
poor as a church mouse [old-fashioned]
very poor
I was as poor as a church mouse, but I bought that wreck of a car.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
church authorities church building church candle church ceremony church congregation church denomination church doctrine church elder church institution church member church membership church minister church ministry church mission church organ church organist church organization church pew church spire church sponsor church steeple church teaching church tower church tradition church unity church worship church youth evangelical church historic church institutional church local church mainstream church medieval church official church rebuild a church rural church underground church universal church
Church authorities were alarmed by this 'heresy' and tried to suppress it.
Christianity Today
Church authorities thought they were too secular, so all carols had to be sung at home or in the street.
Times, Sunday Times
Church authorities were therefore guilty of 'substitution of persons'.
Times, Sunday Times
Church authorities permitted its publication only in 1982.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Church authorities wanted to change this, so they ordered new art and reconstruction of old churches.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The church building contains four bedrooms, a bathroom, an open-plan kitchen/ sitting/ dining room with lancet windows, and a reading room.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
A fire damaged a church building and its contents.
Christianity Today (2000)
The church building would be locked and the offices closed.
Christianity Today (2000)
The prospective new members are already in the church building.
Christianity Today (2000)
Using similar foliage, she makes a tall table decoration with a thick church candle at its centre.
Times, Sunday Times
It goes well with the antique bath, distressed mirror and tall church candle stand that decorate the bathroom.
Times, Sunday Times
A log-burning stove pumps out heat on winter days and chunky church candles flicker atop old pine tables.
Times, Sunday Times
Church candles and hurricane lamps are tasteful but bland.
Times, Sunday Times
Church candles flicker in the lounge, with its scattering of coffee tables and comfy sofas.
Times, Sunday Times
The couple married in a beautiful church ceremony surrounded by friends and family.
The Sun
There was a church ceremony, followed by a traditional ceremony.
Times, Sunday Times
For their wedding, they wanted a traditional church ceremony and to have the reception in the same place.
Times, Sunday Times
But if that's important to you, people would probably understand if you had a civil wedding tomorrow and a church ceremony a month or two later.
Christianity Today
The stars could, equally, hold a church ceremony in the estate's private chapel and seek a wedding licence later.
Times, Sunday Times
A church congregation or board can create an investment policy to direct investment decisions.
Christianity Today
A church congregation wanted to relocate because an increasing number of members lived in another part of town.
Christianity Today
A church congregation votes to build a new education building next to the sanctuary.
Christianity Today
Church congregations consist of one or more parishes.
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The complete analysis includes breakdowns based on church denomination, income budget, size, and geographical setting.
Christianity Today
He accepted the main doctrines of the church and received baptism; he then left his previous church denomination.
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It tries to work in conjunction with as many church denominations as possible, to provide services at very low costs.
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This split created a separate, eventually worldwide, series of church denominations.
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He compiled nearly thirty different collections of sacred music for various church denominations.
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Under this analysis, the civil courts apply neutral principles of law involving no inquiry into church doctrine in resolving church property disputes.
Christianity Today
Everyone receives pamphlets giving more detail on individual ministries and church doctrine.
Christianity Today
The courts will enforce such provisions, so long as they can do so without interpreting church doctrine.
Christianity Today
Religious education was emphasised by concentration on the catechism, church doctrine and principles being taught twice every week.
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The court concluded that the defendant's statements to his senior pastor were not privileged, since a church elder was present during the conversation.
Christianity Today
In his role as church elder, he reports that encouragement cards open doors to friendships with people.
Christianity Today
Near the end of the long line, a church elder congratulated me.
Christianity Today
A church elder frogmarched him off.
Times, Sunday Times
He believed people should reach out, not the church institution, so we shouldn't have programs.
Christianity Today
Church institutions provide the venue for the proclamation of the gospel.
Christianity Today
But church institutions made a better 'fridge' for keeping these ivories over the past millennium, which may in part explain why the overwhelming majority of these items are religious.
The Times Literary Supplement
Many instrumental and vocal ensembles were active at various church institutions.
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The church could meet every day, but each church member would not attend each meeting.
Christianity Today
A church member donates $2,500 to his church during the first six months of 1994.
Christianity Today
For example, a church member uses her car to visit other members in the hospital.
Christianity Today
Church membership among 18- to 29-year-olds has dropped slightly, from 60 percent in 1983 to 59 percent in 1993.
Christianity Today
Church membership even felt the ministry impact.
Christianity Today
Church membership had doubled by 1908 and a brick structure replaced it in 1914.
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Church membership was only open to those who were baptised as adults, and this did not change until 1930.
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Church membership continued to grow, reaching three thousand by 1964 and eight thousand by 1968.
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Church ministers found the comfort they had once offered was inadequate when it came to the tensions that threatened to divide the community.
Times, Sunday Times
Church ministers can regain their faith with a 'that's lucky' set of coincidences.
Times, Sunday Times
Church ministers were confronted with a stark choice: accept the new situation or lose their livings.
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Church ministers were forced to accept the new situation or lose their livings.
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Church ministers were empowered to collect the duty, and were allowed to keep 10% of this fee as compensation for their trouble.
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More than a secretary in a business firm, a church secretary performs a vital church ministry.
Christianity Today
My first dozen stops were like a tour of duty in local church ministry.
Christianity Today
I needed to learn the mechanics of church ministry.
Christianity Today
How do you juggle the responsibilities of motherhood, church ministry, and filmmaking?
Christianity Today
Because she knew how it felt to have a loved one with cancer, she joined a church ministry of volunteers who helped cancer patients with chores and doctor visits.
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I think that's happened with a lot of church mission statements.
Christianity Today
He plans to grey-shirt before going on a church mission.
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Initiatives among students and between church mission agencies led the way.
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Those needing aid write letters to friends and relatives, but they can also apply for support (another application form) from the church missions committee.
Christianity Today
He also made a $500 contribution to the church building fund, and another $500 contribution to the church missions fund.
Christianity Today
Ever try to sing folk songs to a classical church organ, without a lead singer?
Christianity Today
In the early 1930s he was tearing up pianos, pondering how to get the big boom of a church organ while also making the instrument smaller and more affordable.
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The electronic drone of thousands of slot machines fills the air with the grating sound of someone leaning on a church organ.
Globe and Mail
It has chrome keys like church organ stops, weighs as much as an armchair and comes with a fully wired remote control.
Times, Sunday Times
Damage affected the roof, the confessional box, statues, artworks and a valuable church organ.
The Sun
The council meeting droned on as members, for the umpteenth time, complained about the church organist.
Christianity Today
His uncle, a church organist, encouraged his interest and gave him piano lessons.
Times, Sunday Times
Initially he was able to live normally, his precocious talents as a church organist in demand while adult musicians were away on military service.
Times, Sunday Times
A church organist plays at all church services, weddings, and other special events, at no charge to the church.
Christianity Today
She had been church organist for decades, since age seventeen.
Christianity Today
The structure of the church organization and where the staff position fits in it.
Christianity Today
I think we're saying that rather than the church organization announcing someone belongs, people decide whether they feel included.
Christianity Today
Second, we needed to clarify, once again, the lines of authority within the church organization.
Christianity Today
Church organizations also made a similar appeal to the faithful and ordinary citizens through publications, questionnaires and advertisements in newspapers.
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The upholstery has, perhaps, slightly more in common with the church pew than the living room sofa.
Times, Sunday Times
A candle flickered on my small circular table next to old church pews and a grandfather clock.
Times, Sunday Times
You can eat in the small bar, which has little window seats, tables with church pews, and stools by the bar.
Times, Sunday Times
Church pews have always been contentious.
Times, Sunday Times
Church pews were rented with the rental fee also purchasing a space in the cemetery plot.
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Make use of your local church spire.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
It's as marvellous as a church spire running off down a country lane to join the circus.
Indian Balm - Travels in the Southern Subcontinent (1994)
A Norman church spire overlooking it all.
FRIENDS FOR LIFE (2003)
By putting up the fence, are you blocking out the view of a wonderful tree in a neighbouring plot, or perhaps a church spire in the distance?
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Beyond the church spire, blue water shines, and Kate aches, almost trembles with wanting to live here.
SEA MUSIC (2003)
Our church sponsors hayrides a couple of times each year for our congregation.
Christianity Today
A church sponsors a weekend seminar for members who would like to become counselors.
Christianity Today
Local churches sponsor and directly support all missionary, benevolent, and educational work.
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The church sponsored his music studies, but family circumstances prevented him proceeding to college, and he had to take a position as a pupil-teacher.
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The church sponsors, and takes part in, a wide range of community outreach activities.
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To the west, past an impressive church steeple, a park rises above a line of cafés and restaurants to another headland.
Times, Sunday Times
From one church steeple to another, the sport became steeplechasing and it has endured.
Times, Sunday Times
Thirty-five years ago, the church steeple rose above the rooftops, calling the community to worship.
Christianity Today
I've never looked at a raven or church steeple the same way since.
The Sun
Church vaults were often used to store large quantities of gunpowder, a terrible place to hoard explosives as lightning frequently strikes high church steeples.
Times, Sunday Times
Conservatives were equally angry, arguing that he was putting himself at odds with 2,000 years of church teaching.
Times, Sunday Times
Church teaching on the equality of all, and the founding of hospitals, schools and other philanthropic institutions, marked a profound change.
The Times Literary Supplement
Church teaching could therefore be revised in line with theological principle, as well as pastoral reality.
The Times Literary Supplement
Church teaching was 'not aimed at destroying the commitment to justice but guiding it along the right path'.
Times, Sunday Times
Church teaching heavily influenced the legal concept of marriage.
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From the edge of a village with a drearily impoverished church tower, a dusty road climbed a hill to serve isolated farms.
DISPLACED PERSON (2002)
In the distance she could hear an alarm bell jangling menacingly from a church tower.
DREAMS OF INNOCENCE
I am in a village two miles from the sea, checking out its unusual round church tower.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The shadow of the church tower nudged across the far side of the plaza mayor.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
From the church tower overlooking the Place midday was announced by an unbeautiful bell.
MOONDROP TO MURDER (2002)
I belong to a church tradition that has not emphasized direct and striking healings.
Christianity Today
This marvelously empathetic seminarian has unwittingly subordinated church tradition, theology, and ordination to his own needs.
Christianity Today
Church tradition and polity also play a part.
Christianity Today
It retrieves elements of the historic church tradition relating to friendship and commitment.
Christianity Today
One of my greatest temptations was to sacrifice my integrity to maintain church unity.
Christianity Today
Emphasizing allegiance and church unity, they expected members to submit to their authority in all matters.
Christianity Today
Some members still feared the fragmentation of church unity.
Christianity Today
They also defend him against accusations of pragmatism in putting church unity first.
Times, Sunday Times
Little account was taken of his conservative view of leadership, requiring him to put church unity before his own views.
Times, Sunday Times
Visitors to church worship services, or special holiday or musical programs.
Christianity Today
Shut-ins are visited by an associate teacher who delivers curriculum materials and tapes of church worship services.
Christianity Today
Seeds are often planted that way, but usually conversions result from the nurturing that takes place in church worship services and fellowship groups.
Christianity Today
He broadened our approach to church worship.
Christianity Today
There was also a disruption of the church worship.
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Today, the leaders of the church youth group often have two choices.
Christianity Today
Such trips are common, especially for church youth groups.
Christianity Today
A youth pastor asks a church member if she would drive several members of the church youth group to an activity.
Christianity Today
She talked to her church youth worker, gathered a few close friends, advertised the event and recruited young volunteers to run the day's activities.
Times, Sunday Times
She's also actively involved with the church youth group and takes her faith seriously.
Christianity Today
This article points up tragic situations in our country and in the ministry of the evangelical church.
Christianity Today
Economic growth and evangelical church growth are counter cyclical.
Christianity Today
A handbook for ministers on corporate worship in the evangelical church, including a history of worship and suggestions for preparing the order of services.
Christianity Today
It's a big question for the evangelical church and the church as a whole-our society.
Christianity Today
These practices, however, do not represent the beliefs and practices of open brethren assemblies which tend to affiliate themselves more with mainstream conservative evangelical churches.
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The young folks valued their growing families and the older folks valued their historic church facility.
Christianity Today
You enter the hotel through a historic church facade at street level and reach the 65 rooms via the lift.
Times, Sunday Times
The bells of an historic church will continue to chime after 200 people signed a petition protesting a bid to silence them.
Times, Sunday Times
After the safety of the historic church building became an issue, the pastor and board of trustees decided to close the church and move to a new location.
Christianity Today
So they didn't immediately abandon the institutional church.
Christianity Today
The upshot was that the institutional church was effectively eliminated as a viable community of faith.
Christianity Today
He went to the coal miners and marginalized people outside the institutional church.
Christianity Today
We have to admit the contemporary injustices left to fester by the institutional church.
Christianity Today
But he later had a significant falling out with the institutional church.
Christianity Today
A memorial service was held at a local church yesterday to honour the victims.
The Sun (2017)
Members of breakaway sects still practise 'plural marriage' (to which the law generally turns a blind eye), but are excommunicated from the mainstream church.
Times, Sunday Times
They exist on the outer edge of the mainstream church like the old orders, and they enjoy many of the disciplines and liturgies developed within the old orders.
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For the past few decades it has been the decline of the liberal wings of mainstream churches that made headlines.
Times, Sunday Times
Clerics, including the representatives of mainstream churches, reject such tests.
Times, Sunday Times
Everywhere they met with firm opposition from the mainstream churches.
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Like the medieval church, it needs the compulsory extortion of taxes to prosper.
Times, Sunday Times
Some villages in the county amount to little more than a large medieval church with a farmhouse next door.
Times, Sunday Times
More poignantly, not a single swift has returned this year to nest in the medieval church tower.
Times, Sunday Times
However, they tracked down a restorer of medieval church paintings who said he could fix it.
Times, Sunday Times
The medieval church was built on the ashes of burnt books.
Christianity Today
Several interested folks in the congregation were appointed as official church photographers.
Christianity Today
The incident occurred off of church property and was not in the course of an official church activity.
Christianity Today
Could they form an official church in the denomination?
Christianity Today
The allowance must be designated by official church action, and it must be designated in advance.
Christianity Today
I'm a firm believer in building allies, particularly with the official church board.
Christianity Today
In my case the call was to rebuild a church that had been severely flooded.
Christianity Today
The vicar made it clear that he wanted to rebuild his church with a progressive building.
Times, Sunday Times
They argue that these funds were given based on church defendants' promise to rebuild the church, and that the funds may not be used for any other purpose.
Christianity Today
Plans in the nineteenth century to rebuild the church, which was in ruins by 1776, came to nothing.
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It was proposed in 2010 to demolish the cinema and rebuild the church.
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Rural churches are often full.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Rural churches can provide a rich experience for pastors willing to adapt.
Christianity Today (2000)
The downside in a smaller or rural church is that you have to adjust more to the people than the people adjust to you.
Christianity Today (2000)
Those inside- including students, teachers, and leaders of the underground church - were taken away in police vans, the group said.
Times, Sunday Times
It was a picture of a small underground church that met together in spite of incredible persecution and hostility.
Christianity Today
They often take measures to close and arrest underground church groups that pray in private homes.
Times, Sunday Times
He was convinced by underground church leaders to leave and become a voice for the persecuted church.
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After the war, the government moved the remains of the monument across the esplanade and, funded by popular subscription, rebuilt a bigger version with an underground church.
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But that universal church growth doesn't necessarily translate into the numerical growth of individual congregations - even healthy ones.
Christianity Today
She viewed the divisions in the universal church as the result of unfortunate historical events with little bearing on the present.
Christianity Today
Membership in a universal church replaced citizenship in a universal empire.
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They do not recognize any single bishop as universal church leader, but rather each bishop governs only his own diocese.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It views itself as the unbroken continuation of the early apostolic and later medieval universal church, rather than as a new formation.
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Translations:
Chinese: 教堂
Japanese: 教会
- overwhelming margin
- overwhelming need
- overwhelming number
- overwhelming opposition
- overwhelming popularity
- overwhelming power
- overwhelming presence
- overwhelming pressure
- overwhelming priority
- overwhelming reaction
- overwhelming response
- overwhelming sadness
- overwhelming sensation
- overwhelming sense
- overwhelming success
- overwhelming support
- overwhelming urge
- overwhelming victory
- overwhelm the system
- overwork
- overworked
- overworked
- overwrought
- ovulate
- ovulation