First of all, it is now known that Pope John sees the renewal and purification of the Church as an absolutely necessary step toward Christian unity.

Secondly, a whole series of addresses and actions by the Pope and by others show that concern for Christian unity is still very much alive and growing within the Church.

The First Christian Church of Pampa was the setting for the wedding last Sunday of Miss Marcile Marie Glison and Thomas Earl Loving Jr., who will live at 8861 Gaston after a wedding trip to New Orleans, La.

Of particular meaning to the Charles MacWhorter family, 3181 SW 24th Ter., will be the Family Dedication Service planned for 10:50 a.m. Sunday at First Christian Church.

Every family of Riviera Presbyterian Church has been asked to read the Bible and pray together daily during National Christian Family Week and to undertake one project in which all members of the family participate.

a report that 200 Protestant clergymen and laity attended a votive Mass offered for Christian unity at a Catholic church in Slough during the Church Unity Octave.

When they fall by the wayside and fail to achieve Christian stature, it is an indictment of the Church.

Those who join the Church need to be instructed in the faith and the meaning of Christian discipleship before they take the sacred vows.

We do well to remind ourselves that from men and women of New England ancestry also issued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Science, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Bible Society, and New England theology.

In metaphysics, Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.

With a membership currently estimated at over 85 million members worldwide, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Unlike other Christian groups, the Catholic Church teaches that those who die in a state of grace, but still carry venial sin go to a place called Purgatory where they undergo purification to enter Heaven.

Articles of faith are sets of beliefs usually found in creeds, sometimes numbered, and often beginning with " We believe ...", which attempt to more or less define the fundamental theology of a given religion, and especially in the Christian Church.

Of all the various disagreements within the Christian Church, the Arian controversy has held the greatest force and power of theological and political conflict, with the possible exception of the Protestant Reformation.

* Schaff, Philip Theological Controversies and the Development of Orthodoxy, History of the Christian Church, Vol III, Ch.

Ambrose's intense episcopal consciousness furthered the growing doctrine of the Church and its sacerdotal ministry, while the prevalent asceticism of the day, continuing the Stoic and Ciceronian training of his youth, enabled him to promulgate a lofty standard of Christian ethics.

It was known as Asuristan during this period, and became a main centre of the Church of the East ( now the Assyrian Church of the East ), with a flourishing Syriac ( Assyrian ) Christian culture which exists there to this day.

Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops.

This lineage of ordination is traceable, according to " apostolic " churches, to the original Twelve Apostles, thus making the Church the continuation of the early Apostolic Christian community.

The 1937 British Methodist Conference located the " true continuity " with the Church of past ages in " the continuity of Christian experience, the fellowship in the gift of the one Spirit ; in the continuity in the allegiance to one Lord, the continued proclamation of the message ; the continued acceptance of the mission ;..." a long chain which goes back to the " the first disciples in the company of the Lord Himself ...

Present-day Christian religious bodies known for conducting their worship services without musical accompaniment include some Presbyterian churches devoted to the regulative principle of worship, Old Regular Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, Churches of Christ, the Old German Baptist Brethren, the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church and the Amish, Old Order Mennonites and Conservative Mennonites.

Opponents of musical instruments in the Christian worship believe that such opposition is supported by the New Testament and Church history.

Those who oppose instruments today believe that emerging opposition of these Church Fathers demonstrates a better understanding of God's desire, but there are significant differences between the teachings of the Church Fathers and Christian opposition to instruments today.

Even in the United States, with its freedom of religious belief and worship and its vast denominational differentiation, there is a general consensus regarding the basic Christian values.

One could interpret this passage as being another example of the mainstream Christian belief in a general resurrection ( both for those in heaven and for those in hell ).

When the Roman Empire turned Christian during the following century, this imagery came to be used in a more metaphysical sense, and removed legal impediments to the development and public use of the Anno Domini dating system, which came into general use during the reign of Charlemagne.

It approved the state's blue law restricting commercial activities on Sunday, noting that while such laws originated to encourage attendance at Christian churches, the contemporary Maryland laws were intended to serve " to provide a uniform day of rest for all citizens " on a secular basis and to promote the secular values of " health, safety, recreation, and general well-being " through a common day of rest.

It is a classical concept of the Jewish religious tradition, and the Christian faith has long been criticized for the general superiority complex of males.

The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt, which involved a great deal of other damage: Adhemar of Chabannes recorded that the church of St George at Lydda ' with many other churches of the saints ' had been attacked, and the ' basilica of the Lord's Sepulchre destroyed down to the ground '.

The relationship between the congregations, regions and the general church are detailed in The Design of the Christian Church ( Disciples of Christ ).

The term " holism " was coined in 1926 by Jan Christian Smuts, a South African general and polarizing historical figure who was inspired by Clements ' superorganism concept.

However, the group saw its membership fall sharply in the late 1980s, as many centre-right members moved to the rival European People's Party group, dominated by the German CDU and the ideology of Christian democracy in general.

" On second reading, the reader should realize that " breast " does not carry the general androgynous connotation of " chest " but instead the specific idea of a woman's breasts, which are so attractive that a man of any religion would kiss the Christian cross to be near.

In general, an Orthodox Christian could travel the globe and feel familiar with the services even if he or she did not know the language in which they were celebrated.

" It was a blistering attack on the hypocrisy of the United States in general and the Christian church in particular.

By 1909 after the failure of a syndicalist general strike in France, Sorel and his supporters left the radical left and went to the radical right, where they sought to merge militant Catholicism and French patriotism with their views-advocating anti-republican Christian French patriots as ideal revolutionaries.

There had been a long-standing general Christian prohibition on contraception and abortion, with such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria and Saint Augustine condemning the practices.

He learnt of the opportunities from the Saharan trade routes that terminated there, and became fascinated with Africa in general ; he was most intrigued by the Christian legend of Prester John and the expansion of Portuguese trade.

The general view is that the central theme of the Grail is Christian, even when not explicitly religious, but that much of the setting and imagery of the early romances is drawn from Celtic material.

In what appears to be a 7th century indication of the survival of cult practices of this general sort, Saint Eligius, in his Sermo warns the sick among his recently converted flock in Flanders against putting " devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads ", and, according to Saint Ouen would urge them " No Christian should make or render any devotion to the deities of the trivium, where three roads meet ...".

Though their development was gradual, we can date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical ( as opposed to simply popular or local ) acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, " we first hear of the church's use of religious images.

The general scholarly view is that while the Testimonium Flavianum is most likely not authentic in its entirety, it is broadly agreed upon that it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus with a reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate which was then subject to Christian interpolation.

Falwell repeatedly denounced certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, calling them breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism, which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality.

ECPA President Mark Kuyper said, " In many ways this series established Christian fiction as a significant category in publishing in general.

In 1880, the general conference included in the Discipline a broad statement which included, “ Temperance is a Christian virtue, Scripturally enjoined .” Due to the temperate stance of the church, the practice of Eucharist was altered — to this day, Methodist churches most commonly use grape juice symbolically during Communion rather than wine.

According to LDS Church general authority Monte J. Brough, " Mormons who baptized 380, 000 Holocaust victims posthumously were motivated by love and compassion and did not understand their gesture might offend Jews ... they did not realize that what they intended as a ' Christian act of service ' was ' misguided and insensitive .'".

However, until the rise of Romanticism and the general acceptance of freedom of religion in Western civilization, " paganism " was almost always used disparagingly of heterodox beliefs falling outside the established political framework of the Christian Church.