The word ‘church’ in common language has many meanings depending on the context. This is the story …
Origin of the English word ‘church’
The English word ‘church’ itself is Anglo-Saxon in origin. The word first appeared in Anglo-Saxon translations of the Gospels as ‘chyrcan’ and then in the Wycliffe Bible as ‘chirche’, and the word developed into the modern English word ‘church’. It is Germanic and may come from Gothic. It is related to ‘Kirche’ in German, ‘Kerk’ in Dutch, ‘Kirk’ in Scots and similar words in Scandinavian languages. It seems to be etymologically derived from the Greek ‘kyriakos oikos’ which means ‘house of the Lord’, so it may well always have had the nuance of a building.
Origin of the biblical term
The use of the word ‘church’ in the Bible was to translate the Greek word ἐκκλησία. This word can be transliterated into the Roman alphabet as ‘ekklesia’, and it came into Latin as ‘ecclesia’. The Latin word ‘ecclesia’ gives us the English word ‘ecclesiastical’, but also the word for church in some other languages such as ‘église’ in French, ‘iglesia’ in Spanish, and ‘eglwys’ in Welsh.
The Greek word ‘ekklesia’ was not invented by Christians. The word was originally a secular word used for a gathering of people, such as a crowd, or an assembly or group called for a particular purpose. In Greek society an ‘ekklesia’ was often the town council composed of local Greek freemen, where slaves, non-Greeks and women were not allowed to join.
The word ‘ekklesia’ was used by Greek-speaking Jews for their gatherings. It was used about a hundred times in the Septuagint (often abbreviated as LXX), which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from the third century BC. The word ekklesia was used to translate the Hebrew קְהַ֖ל (qahal), which is usually translated into English as ‘assembly’ or ‘gathering’, first in Deuteronomy 4:10. The person who spoke or preached to the ekklesia was called the ekklesiastes, which became the title in Greek of one of the books of the Septuagint, which is a book we still call Ecclesiastes as a result. The ‘ekklesia of the LORD’ was the assembly of Israel. Later the word ‘synagogue’ came to be used as well, and then instead.
Christian context
Later the early Christians, who used Greek as their lingua franca and were steeped in the Septuagint, naturally continued to use the word ekklesia for their gatherings, and so it appears in their writings. St Matthew used the word three times, once in Matthew 16:18, and twice in Matthew 18:17. In these places, William Tyndale in his translation of the New Testament in 1526, preferred to use the word ‘congregation’. The Geneva Bible changed that to ‘Church’, and this was also used in the King James Version, which established the current use of the word.
Even in the New Testament the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ is used in secular, Jewish and Christian contexts. In Acts 7:38, ‘ekklesia’ refers to Israel and is most often translated ‘congregation’. When the word is used in the secular context in Acts 19:32 to refer to a local crowd, it is translated in most English Bible translations as ‘assembly’. The rest of the time when the word is used for a Chistian group, it is translated in most English Bibles as ‘church’.
St Paul uses the term over sixty times. It may be that in Galatians 3:28 when St Paul wrote “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (NKJV), he was contrasting the membership criteria of a Greek ekklesia with a Christian church. St James seems to have preferred the word ‘synagogue’ in James 2:2, where it is usually translated as assembly or meeting, although Darby kept the word synagogue in his translation.
In the epistles we see the word ‘ekklesia’ referring to a Christian community in a certain place. So, in Colossians 4:15 we read of the church which met in a house, then in 1 Corinthians 12:28 St Paul outlines different roles which people can have in the church. In Ephesians 5:25, St Paul writes about Christ who loves the Church, and here he means all Christians. So, in the New Testament context, the church had the idea of either a local Christian community in a particular place, or the collective community of all Christians everywhere. Over time the word ‘church’ stretched and extended its semantic range to have other associated meanings not found in the Bible.
Church services
Over the centuries the word church also came to refer to the acts of religious service, which a church community held. So, when people talk of ‘going to church’ or ‘attending church’ they mean attending the act of religious service.
Church buildings
At first these Christian churches met in people’s houses, barns or in caves. Only in later centuries as Christianity was established and free from persecution, did these church communities build their own places of worship, which later came to be known as churches themselves. Some church congregations meet in schools, village halls or other places which are not church buildings dedicated for Christian use. Conversely, sometimes a church building may not even have a church congregation anymore. There is a British organisation called the Friends of Friendless Churches, which sounds like an oxymoron, but it exists to look after redundant places of worship, and plays a role in preserving ecclesiastical heritage.
Church universal
In theology ‘the Church’ is the entire body of all Christians regardless of age and denomination, sometimes called ‘the Church universal’. This may refer to all Christians living in the world today, or may be broader as the entire body of Christians from all time whether living and dead. Sometimes people distinguish between the Church Militant, being all Christians alive on Earth now, and the Church Triumphant, being those who have ‘gone to glory’.
It was only after the Reformation when other Christian church organisations arose that the word ‘Church’ was also applied to a denomination, such as the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and later others like the Elim Pentecostal Church and the United Reformed Church. Often when the press and media refer to discussions and changes in ‘the Church’, it is actually shorthand for the Anglican Church or the Catholic Church.
Spelling convention
In writing the convention is usually that when church is spelt with a small initial c, it refers to a local church congregation where ‘a church’ is a single group of Christians in one place. However, when Church is spelt with an initial capital C it refers to a larger collective group, such as the Church of England, or the Church universal of all believers. Usually it is clear in context, but not always. Moreover, the distinction of a lower-case c or upper-case C is a convention in written English, but it is lost when the word is heard or spoken.
How the word developed
The word ‘church’ has become a prefix, and we can use the words churchgoer, churchyard, churchwarden, churchman and churchmanship. The word ‘church’ has also become a verb, and you can be churched or even de-churched. There is even a ceremony called churching, where women are blessed after childbirth. The Book of Common Prayer includes a service for the Churching of Women.
Churchmanship
Some people talk of churchmanship to refer to the style of governance and management used by their style of church. People talk of “High Church” to mean churches with an emphasis on ceremony, liturgy and tradition, sometimes in the Anglican context also called Anglo-Catholic. In contrast “Low Church” refers to churches whose structure and service are simpler, less formal and a greater emphasis on Scripture, often more evangelical. High Church to Low Church is a spectrum and the terms are typically used by Anglicans, and sometimes Catholics and occasionally in other traditions. It is also a matter of perspective and depends on what you are comparing to. The term “Broad Church” refers to the idea of being supportive of different styles of churchmanship within the same denomination. The phrase “broad church” is also used in British English for any group, organisation, or political party, such as the Conservative Party, which includes and tolerates a wide set of opinions, by analogy to the breadth of views in the Church of England.
In many parts of Wales and rural England, the words “church” and “chapel” have come to be used as labels for types of churchmanship. A person who is described as “church” or who attends “church” is usually Anglican, while a person who is “chapel” or attends “chapel” is a non-conformist, typically Baptist, Methodist, Independent or Congregationalist. In England and Wales, just the use of the phrase “I am going to chapel” is recognised as an indicator that the person is not from the Established Church. In Scotland, people might use the word “Kirk” instead of church.
Alternatives to the word ‘church’
The word ‘church’ has sometimes been used beyond the Christian context by way of analogy. The Church of Scientology has no connections with Christianity at all, but the use of the word ‘Church’ gives it a sound of religious respectability.
Due to misunderstandings and confusion, some Christian traditions have deliberately tried to avoid the word ‘church’. For some people the use of the word ‘church’ as a building and as a denomination were unhelpful and unbiblical, and this encouraged the use of alternative phraseology.
The early Quakers called themselves Friends who met as ‘societies’, their buildings were called ‘meeting houses’, and their organisation is called the Society of Friends. They referred to traditional places of worship not as churches, but as steeplehouses. John Wesley and the early Methodists met in ‘societies’, and their buildings were called ‘chapels’, and they referred to their organisation as ‘the Connexion’. John Nelson Darby preferred to use the word ‘assembly’ in his translation of the Bible, which is why Brethren talk about an assembly, typically meeting in a Gospel Hall or Mission Hall. Likewise, one Pentecostal grouping is called “the Assemblies of God”. Christadelphians refer to their meetings as ecclesias.
Some Fresh Expressions of church may prefer to refer to themselves as a house church, or may prefer not to use the word at all, and call themselves a congregation, a gathering, a fellowship or a worshipping community, if that is more helpful in their context.
Some purists lament the use of the word ‘church’ beyond its biblical usage. However, the nature of language is that languages change, words gain different meanings, and the meaning of any word is dependent upon its context. One solution in English is to simply keep the word ‘church’ and add in a clarifying word to disambiguate the meaning. So, we can refer to a church congregation, a church service, a church building, a church denomination and the Church universal.
