"How can you go to church if you're not Christian?"
This question was asked of me recently when I was speaking of going to church. It seems some people (even some fellow Pagans) associate church with Christian worship. Now this is not my normal term to use when speaking of gathering with Pagans. In this instance it is the term used by the person organizing the gathering, so it's the term I used when speaking of it.
A church is defined as: (source)
1.
a building for public Christian worship.2.
public worship of God or a religious service in such a building: to attend church regularly.3.
the whole body of Christian believers; Christendom.4.
any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a Christian denomination: the Methodist Church.
5.
that part of the whole Christian body, or of a particular denomination, belonging to the same city, country, nation, etc.
Even our dictionaries have a difficult time separating one religion from the term. However in this instance I am using the word as a description of a group of people believing in the same creed, gathering in one place to worship.
Do you see "church" as a Christian-only term?
Do you have a problem with Pagans using Church to describe group gatherings?
