Anglican practices and rituals are primarily found in the Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book of Anglicanism, which helps define Anglican beliefs and worship practices on every level. The book is almost as important as the Bible itself to Anglicans. The Book of Common Prayer, which defines the “common”
The Baptist denomination is the largest free church denomination in the world with 43 million members. It is one of the largest Protestant Free Church denominations. More than 75 percent of all Baptists – about 33 million – live in America. There are about 216,000 Baptists in Great Britain, 850,000
The Catholic Church, known as the Roman Catholic Church, has well over one billion members, about one-sixth of the world’s population. It’s the world’s largest Christian denomination. It’s also the largest organized body of any world religion. Catholics are led by the Pope, also known as the Bishop of Rome,
Lutheranism is not a single entity. It is organized in autonomous regional or national churches. Globally, there are some 150 such Lutheran church bodies. Lutheranism is one of the largest Protestant denominations. It is also the oldest Protestant denomination. Lutheranism retains much of the tradition of the ancient and medieval
There are Methodist Churches in nearly every country in the world and global membership numbers about 70 million in 138 countries. The World Methodist Council (WMC), an association of churches in the Methodist tradition, comprises more than 40.5 million Methodists. There are at least 19 Wesleyan Methodist denominations in the
A locked heirloom with a faulty latch. A face revealed by flashlight. A broken chain of custody. The ingredients of the film Brother Joseph Again suggest a historical detective story, with a question worthy of the great Sherlock Holmes: Does this daguerreotype actually depict Joseph Smith? What draws me in
When God Meets His People by Jonathan A. Powers The CBS television interviewer, Dan Rather, once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “When you pray, what do you say to God?” Teresa replied, “I don’t say anything, I listen.” Rather pressed further: “Well okay, when God speaks to you,
The Book of Revelation was written by John from exile on the island of Patmos to churches enduring real persecution under a hostile empire. It’s easy to assume a book so full of dramatic imagery must be a puzzle to solve or a timeline to decode. But Revelation names its
How to Discover and Capitalize On Your Church’s Unique Voice If you’re copying another church, you’re not being the church God called you to be. And the kingdom of God is poorer for not having your voice in it. Small churches try to imitate larger churches, even cathedrals, backward-looking churches
I first met Wendell Berry—who died this August—on a farm east of Louisville, Kentucky. His daughter and then son-in-law had replanted former tobacco fields with grapes from which they made a respectable variety of wines. My wife and I drove from Cincinnati one Saturday evening to attend an outdoor dinner
That the Church forms a collective body, which can be like the real body of Christ; that this body, like any particular body, is one by its life and multiple by its parts and by its organs, and thus by its actions, its functions, its operations; that baptism accomplishes the