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1000 articles found for “Church calendar”

• Amen

  [Bible]

  Amen is a Hebrew word meaning "truly, it is so" or "so be it." In the Bible it serves as a response of assent to prayer, praise, and proclamation, and the church today continues to use it widely as a response in prayer and worship.

• Maranatha

  [Bible]

  Maranatha is an Aramaic expression found in 1 Corinthians 16:22, meaning "Our Lord, come" or "Our Lord is coming." It is known as a phrase the early church used while awaiting the Lord's return.

• Diakonia

  [Bible]

  Diakonia is a Greek word meaning "service," "ministry," or "office." In the New Testament it refers to the service of Jesus, almsgiving, the ministry of the word, and church office.

• Historical Books

  [Bible]

  In the genre classification of the Bible, the Historical Books are the books that recount the history of Israel and the early church in narrative form. In Protestant usage, the term refers to the twelve Old Testament books from Joshua through Esther and to the New Testament book of Acts.

• Apostle

  [Church Offices]

  An apostle, meaning "one who is sent," is one of those whom Jesus Christ personally appointed to proclaim the gospel and lay the foundation of the early church.

• Deuterocanonical Books

  [Bible]

  The deuterocanonical books are books such as Tobit, Judith, and Maccabees that the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church include in the Old Testament but that are absent from the Hebrew Bible and the Protestant Old Testament. Protestants commonly call them the Apocrypha.

• Great Tribulation

  [Doctrine & Theology]

  The Great Tribulation is an eschatological term for a period of intense suffering said to occur immediately before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Interpretations of its duration and nature, and of whether the church will pass through it, vary among theological positions.

• Breaking of Bread

  [Bible]

  The breaking of bread is an expression derived from the Jewish mealtime custom of breaking bread by hand and sharing it. In the New Testament it refers to the meals of Jesus and to the communal meals and the Lord's Supper of the early church.

• Colossae

  [Bible]

  Colossae was a city in the region of Phrygia in Asia Minor, in what is today southwestern Türkiye. Paul sent the Epistle to the Colossians to the church there, and Philemon and Onesimus are also regarded as associated with this church.

• Miletus

  [Bible]

  Miletus was a port city on the western coast of Asia Minor where Paul, traveling to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, summoned the elders of the church at Ephesus and delivered his farewell address.

• Herod's Temple

  [Bible]

  Herod's Temple is the Second Temple in Jerusalem as extensively renovated and expanded by Herod the Great beginning in the late first century BC. It is the "temple" of the New Testament, frequented by Jesus and the early church, and it was destroyed by the Roman army in AD 70.

• Cenchreae

  [Bible]

  Cenchreae was the eastern port of Corinth in New Testament times. Paul had his hair cut there because of a vow (Acts 18:18), and it was home to the church that Phoebe served (Romans 16:1).

• Basilides

  [People]

  Basilides was a Christian Gnostic teacher who taught in Alexandria, Egypt, in the first half of the second century. The Church Fathers treated him as a leading representative of heresy and attributed to him the claim that Simon of Cyrene was crucified in place of Jesus.

• Song of Simeon

  [Worship & Rites]

  The Song of Simeon is Simeon's hymn of praise recorded in Luke 2:29–32. Also known as the Nunc Dimittis, from its opening words in Latin, it has been sung in many church traditions at evening prayer and in Communion and funeral services.

• Mount Tabor

  [Bible]

  Mount Tabor is a mountain in the Galilee region of northern Israel, rising northeast of the Jezreel Valley. In the Old Testament it appears as the battleground of Deborah and Barak, and church tradition has long identified it as the Mount of Transfiguration.

• Solomon's Porch

  [Bible]

  Solomon's Porch was a roofed colonnade along the outer court of the Jerusalem Temple in New Testament times. Scripture presents it as the place where Jesus walked during the Feast of Dedication and where the believers of the early church gathered.

• Martyrdom

  [Christian Life]

  Martyrdom is being put to death for keeping the faith or for refusing to renounce it. A person who dies in this way is called a martyr, and from its earliest days the church has remembered martyrs as examples of faith.

• Cyprian

  [People]

  Cyprian (c. 200–258) was a third-century bishop of Carthage in North Africa and a martyr. His writings on readmitting to the church those who had renounced the faith during persecution, and on the unity of the church, laid the foundations of Western ecclesiology.

• Perpetual Virginity of Mary

  [Doctrine & Theology]

  The perpetual virginity of Mary is the teaching that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained a virgin throughout her life, not only before but also after giving birth to Jesus. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church profess it as doctrine, while Protestants generally do not accept it.

• Constantine I

  [People]

  Constantine I (c. 272–337) was the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity and convened the Council of Nicaea. During his reign the church changed from a persecuted minority into a religion enjoying imperial protection.