Place of worship

A place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or her location where a group of people (a congregation) comes to perform acts of religious study, honor, 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.

Contents 1 Names used for places of worship 1.1 Bahá'í Faith 1.2 Buddhism 1.3 Christianity 1.4 Greek Religions 1.5 Hinduism 1.6 Jainism 1.7 Judaism 1.8 Islam 1.9 Roman Religions 1.10 Norse Paganism 1.11 Shinto 1.12 Sikhism 1.13 Taoism 1.14 Zoroastrianism 1.15 Vietnamese ancestral worship 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading

Names used for places of worship

Different religions have different names for their places of worship:

Bahá'í Faith

• Bahá'í House of Worship (Mashriqu'l-Adhkár)

Buddhism

• Vihara – Buddhism
• Wat – Buddhism (in Cambodia, Thailand

Christianity

• Basilica (Roman Catholic)
• Cathedral or minster (seat of a diocesan bishop within the Catholic church and the Anglican church)
• Chapel (Capel in Welsh) – Presbyterian Church of Wales (Calvinistic Methodism), and some other denominations, especially non-conformist denominations. In Catholicism and Anglicanism, some smaller and "private" places of worship are called chapels.
• Church – Anglican, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Protestant denominations
  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.^[2] 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 body of believers who worship there.^[3] Instead, these groups use words sucom 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.
• Kirk (Scottish–cognate with church)
• Meeting House – Religious Society of Friends
• Meeting house – Christadelphians
• meetinghouse and temple – Mormons
  Latter-day Saints use meetinghouse and temple to denote two different types of buildings. Normal worship services are held in ward meeting houses (or chapels) while Mormon temples are reserved for special ordinances.
• 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.
  • Orthodox temple – Orthodox Christianity (both Eastern and Oriental)
    an Orthodox temple is a place of worship with base shaped like Greek cross.
• Kingdom Hall – Jehovah's Witnesses may apply the term in a general way to any meeting place used for their formal meetings for worship, but apply the term formally to those places established by and for local congregations of up to 200 adherents. Their multi-congregation events are typically held at a meeting place termed Assembly Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses (or Christian Convention Center of Jehovah's Witnesses).

Greek Religions

• Greek temple – Greek religion

Hinduism

• Hindu Temple (Mandir) - Hinduism^[4]

Jainism

• Jain temple – Jainism

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 Reform and Conservative Jewish congregations use the term 'shul' to describe their place of worship.

Islam

• Masjid

Roman Religions

• Roman temple – Roman religion
  • Templums for native deities
  • Fanums for foreign deities

Norse Paganism

• Hof – Norse Paganism

Shinto

• Jinja – Shinto

Sikhism

• Gurdwara – Sikhism

Taoism

• Daoguan – Taoism

Zoroastrianism

• Fire temple - All Zoroastrian temples fall into the Fire temple category.
  • Atash Behram
  • Agyari
    • Dadgah

Vietnamese ancestral worship

• Nhà thờ họ

See also

• Altar
• Ibadat Khana
• Religious architecture
• Reliquary
• List of largest church buildings in the world
• List of largest mosques in the world

References

1. ^ Hans Kung (2006), Tracing the Way : Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions, Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 248
2. ^ "The New Testament Definition of the Church". http://www.xenos.org/classes/um1-1a.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-23. 
3. ^ Gee, Matthew (8 May 2009). "Meeting for Church Affairs". The Friend (London, UK) 167 (19): 8. ISSN 0016-1268. http://www.thefriend.org/articledisplay.asp?articleid=3897. 
4. ^ ^ Robinson, James. Religions of the World: Hinduism.1st. Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. Page 72. ^ Werner, Karel (1994). A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism. Curzon Press. ISBN 0-7007-1049-3. ^ a b c Narayanan,Vasudha. "The Hindu Tradition". In A Concise Introduction to World Religions, ed. Willard G. Oxtoby and Alan F. Segal. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 ^ Bain, Keith, Pippa Bryun, and David Allardice. Frommer’s India. 1st. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, 2010. Page 75 ^ Harley, Gail M (2003). Hindu and Sikh Faiths in America. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-4987-4. ^ http://www.mandir.org/awards&opinions/Buildings%20and%20structures.htm

Further reading

• James P. Wind, Places of worship : exploring their history, Rowman Altamira, 1997
• Vaughan Hart, Places of worship, Phaidon, 1999
• Eric Kang, The Place of Worship, Essence Publishing, 2003