The Church

The Church also refers to an institution of worship. Generally but not necessarily, the institution is a Christian one. Many subtypes exist, foremost of these being the Roman catholic Church and the Anglican Church. Other sects of varying sizes exist such as the church of the latterday saints, and the protestant church. Kudos to Landover Baptist Church - they have my soul.

The different sects are idealistically due to differences in opinion, however often the motives behind their formation were political instead of ideological - for instance the Anglican religion - see Henry VIII. Historically, much blood has been shed based on religious wars.

Seventh-Day Adventist Beliefs: The Church

The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world; and we join together for worship, for fellowship, for instruction in the Word, for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, for service to all mankind, and for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word, and from the Scriptures, which are the written Word. The church is God's family; adopted by Him as children, its members live on the basis of the new covenant. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head. The church is the bride for whom Christ died that He might sanctify and cleanse her. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish.

--Fundamental Beliefs, 11

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The Church is also a legendary underground antipodean party in London, UK which takes place only on Sundays (hence the name). Think filth, think beer (VB, Castle etc), think nakedness, think strip shows, boat races and young adults generally acting like mad children.

The Church started way back in 1979 and has since moved from venue to venue (you can imagine that this crowd is able to make itself unwelcome pretty much anywhere) and is now based in a warehouse-thing near Kings Cross station.

The Church is open from 12 noon on Sundays and closes at 3.30pm. A short sharp culture shock. Try it if you dare. You just might see Stevie Starr: The Regurgitator there...

http://www.thechurch.co.uk

Sundays, the people who owned the lot next to the church burnt their trash. It smelled like tires burning. The playground smelled the worst, and you could see the flames through the fence that separated the two. I watched the burning garbage next door, the fire blurring the air, as I swung on the tire swing in the grove of trees in the back corner of the playground. Between the trees was a makeshift trampoline, a box spring with a piece of plywood on top.

If our church had a name, I didn’t know what it was. The name of the building was The Live Oak, bought by the Petermans in the 1970s, but the church is the people, not the building. Our church was the only one of its kind. It didn’t need to have a name, because all believers were part of the same church.

Like the first churches, ours started in people’s homes. In the Bible, the disciples met in people’s homes, and they had to draw the fish on the ground in front of the house where they met, so that other church-members could find them but the Pharisees and Romans wouldn’t know what they were meeting about. This was in the Book of Acts.

We thanked God that we could meet in public and proclaim our faith, but our way of life was in danger. Soon we would be persecuted for believing in Jesus. It would be here like it was in Russia. We would have to smuggle Bibles in. (It would be okay to smuggle and disobey the laws of the land that were in conflict with the Word of God.) Soon we would be tested. The government would say that if you believe in Jesus, they will kill you, but you cannot deny your faith; that would be worse than dying.

The playground had a swingset too, with wooden swings, a wooden tower with a wide, low slide, beneath the walnut tree, and a wooden playhouse, built off the ground. You climbed up the steps into the house. I was too tall, so I crouched inside. I brought dirt for cooking, sifting it through the sieve, to bake a pie.

My mother let me stay on her lap during communion one Sunday. She thought I was old enough at five to take the body and blood of Christ. She handed me the Ak-mak sesame cracker, and the pastor told us to bow our heads in prayer. I tried to eat the cracker quietly, but my mother heard me crunching it and took it away. She led me to the Sunday school room silently before the pastor poured the grape juice.

from The Book of Revelation

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