The Church

• Individual worship - done alone, forms a personal relationship with God and done in addition to church worship.
• Informal worship - does not follow a set pattern or structure, often done in modern charismatic or evangelical churches and focuses on the presence of the Holy Spirit.
• Liturgical worship - formal and follows a set pattern such as what is performed in Catholic and C of E services.
• Sacrament - ‘visible sign of invisible grace’ - in other words a ritual in which a person received God’s grace or blessing. There are 7 sacraments in the Catholic Church.
• The 7 Catholic Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance/Confession, Anointing the sick, Holy Orders (ordination), Marriage.
• Altar - a table often made from stone on which the bread and wine are blesses during the Holy Communion service.
• Pulpit - where the priest delivers talks or sermons.
• Stoup - a small basin attached to the wall just inside the door containing ‘holy water’. Catholics dip their hands in the water and cross themselves.
• Font - a stone basin used to baptise babies in holy water.
• The primary role of the local church is to provide a place of worship. They must reach out to the community (to follow the example of Jesus). Many churches have a function room attached to them (a hall).
• For Christians, prayer is a means of communication and developing a relationship with God. Prayers can take many forms: adoration, confession, penitence, thanksgiving, and supplication.
• Inter-faith dialogue is when different faith communities and groups cone together to better understand each other and to serve their wider community with a mutual respect that allows them to live peacefully alongside each other, in spite of differences in beliefs and ways of life.