The decisive question is what happens within each congregation and, finally, in the minds and hearts of the individual members.

The basic unit in the church, of whatever denominational polity, is always the congregation.

Most people do not realize that the congregation, as a gathered fellowship meeting regularly face to face, personally sharing in a common experience and expressing that experience in daily relationships with one another, is unique.

On the other hand, many a pastor is so absorbed in ministering to the intimate, personal needs of individuals in his congregation that he does little or nothing to lead them into a sense of social responsibility and world mission.

Religious faith can be considered a necessary condition of membership in a congregation, since the decision to join a worshiping group requires some motive force, but faith is not a sufficient condition for joining ; ;

The key to Protestant development, therefore, is economic integration of the nucleus of the congregation.

The congregation perishes when it is no longer possible to replenish that core from the neighborhood ; ;

The vulnerability of Protestantism to social differences stems from the peculiar role of the new religious style in middle-class life, where the congregation is a vehicle of social and economic group identity and must conform, therefore, to the principle of economic integration.

the lay ministry is a means to recruit like-minded people who will strengthen the social class nucleus of the congregation.

once the pool of recruits diminishes, the congregation is helpless -- friendly contacts no longer keep it going.

The identification of the basic unit of religious organization -- the parish or congregation -- with a residential area is self-defeating in a modern metropolis, for it simply means the closing of an iron trap on the outreach of the Christian fellowship and the transmutation of mission to co-optation.

The entrance to a church has been walled up, so that the congregation, most of which is in the western sector, cannot worship God there anymore.

He has a powerful way of speaking, and he insists to the congregation that the plague is a scourge sent by God to those who have hardened their hearts against him.

* An abbot president is the head of a congregation ( federation ) of abbeys within the Order of St. Benedict ( for instance, the English Congregation, The American Cassinese Congregation, etc.

It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses ; it may have simply been chanted by the congregation.

Though the anthem of the Church of England is analogous to the motet of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches, both being written for a trained choir and not for the congregation, it is as a musical form essentially English in its origin and development.

It is invoked after the recitation or singing of the Canticles, and it is the only part of the services in which the congregation traditionally turns to face the altar, if they are seated transversely in the quire.

The Apostles ' Creed is then recited by candidates, sponsors and congregation, each section of the Creed being an answer to the celebrant's question, ' Do you believe in God the Father ( God the Son, God the Holy Spirit )?

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Bishop is the leader of a local congregation, called a ward.

The bishop does not deliver sermons at every service ( generally asking members to do so ), but is expected to be a spiritual guide for his congregation.

In some smaller Protestant denominations and independent churches the term bishop is used in the same way as pastor, to refer to the leader of the local congregation, and may be male or female.

In the Presbyterian Church ( U. S. A .), the term bishop is an expressive name for a Minister of Word and Sacrament who serves a congregation and exercises " the oversight of the flock of Christ.

Many individuals who have made significant contributions to Acadia University, including the first president John Pryor, were members of the First Baptist Church Halifax congregation.

After the Christian couple Priscilla and Aquila corrected his incomplete Christian doctrine, his special gifts in preaching Jesus persuasively made him an important person in the congregation at Corinth, Greece after Paul's first visit there.

Birka was also important as the site of the first known Christian congregation in Sweden, founded in 831 by Saint Ansgar.

It was the first congregation in Europe.

The ordaining bishop then places his omophor and right hand over the ordinand's head and recites aloud the first Prayer of Cheirotonia and then prays silently the other two prayers of cheirotonia while a deacon quietly recites a litany and the clergy, then the congregation, chant “ Lord, have mercy ”.

The congregation of refugees, small enough at first to be accommodated in an apartment of the Count d ' Espense's residence, grew gradually from increased emigration to Brandenburg, caused by the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685.

It is not unusual in Methodism for each congregation to normally hold an annual Covenant Service on the first convenient Sunday of the year, and Wesley's Covenant Prayer is still used, with minor modification, in the order of service.

The first congregation, the New London Synagogue was established on 29 August 1964.

The congregation appointed its first rabbi, Rabbi Ehud Bandel in 2006.

Following a pattern set in the first congregation of Christians in Jerusalem described in the Book of Acts in the New Testament, the church is governed by presbyters ( a term and category that includes elders and Ministers of Word and Sacrament, historically also referred to as " ruling or canon elders " because they measure the spiritual life and work of a congregation and ministers as " teaching elders ").

The first ordained female Reconstructionist rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, served as rabbi of the Manhattan Reconstructionist Congregation in 1976 and gained a pulpit in 1977 at Beth El Zedeck congregation in Indianapolis.

On the Sunday following the registration — April 17, 1774 — the first true Unitarian congregation discreetly convened in the provisional Essex Street Chapel.

Congregation ceremonies were held at the University of Manchester on Oxford Road, but in 1991 the first congregation ceremony was held in the Great Hall at UMIST itself in the Sackville Street Building.

The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, from where James Freeman began teaching Unitarian doctrine in 1784, and was appointed rector and revised the Prayer Book according to Unitarian doctrines in 1786.

The movement gained popularity in England in the wake of the Enlightenment and began to become a formal denomination in 1774 when Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings with Joseph Priestley, founding the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Church in London.

The first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the part of a congregation in America was by King's Chapel in Boston, which settled James Freeman ( 1759 – 1835 ) in 1782, and revised the Prayer Book into a mild Unitarian liturgy in 1785.

* April 17 – The first avowedly Unitarian congregation, Essex Street Chapel, is founded in London by Theophilus Lindsey.

Within a week, however, he was giving his first sermon to a congregation that included his old teacher, John Major.

Today known as First United Methodist Church, this congregation built a small log church building in 1820 ; it was London's first church and orphanage.

The first graduate to be ordained was Morris Mandel who went to lead Adas Israel congregation ( Washington, D. C .).

So called because of its position at the old West Gate of the town wall, the Chapel first officially opened for worship as Westgate Meeting in 1700 as English Presbytarian but soon joined by an Independent congregation.

In the Biblical account, earlier regulations had specified that property was to be inherited by heirs who were male, but the daughters were the only children of their now deceased father, and so they came to the door of the Tent of Meeting and asked Moses, Eleazer, the tribal chieftains, and the rest of the congregation, for advice on what was to be done, as there were no obvious male heirs ; in the Talmud, opinions vary as to whether this means that the daughters petitioned all of these groups at the same time, with them gathered together, or if it means that the daughters first petitioned the congregation, then the chieftains, then Eleazar, and finally petitioned Moses.