Blacks Law - 4th Edition
WORSHIP
CHURCH. In its most general sense, the religious
society founded and established by Jesus Christ,
to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines
and ordinances.
It may also mean a body of communicants gathered into
church order, Stebbins v. Jennings, 10 Pick. (Mass.) 193;
body or community of Christians, united under one form
of government by the profession of the same faith, and
the observance of the same ritual and ceremonies, McNeilly
v. First Presbyterian Church in Brookline, 243 Mass. 331,
137 N.E. 691, 694; building, Combined Congregations of
District of Columbia v. Dent, 140 F.2d 9, 10, 78 U.S.App.
D.C. 254; congregation, Trustees of Pencader Presbyterian
Church in Pencader Hundred v. Gibson, Del., 22 A.2d 782,
787, 788; organization for religious purposes, Williams v.
Williams, 215 N.C. 739, 3 S.E.2d 334, 338; place where persons
regularly assemble for worship, Stubbs v. Texas Liquor
Control Board, Tex.Civ.App., 166 S.W.2d 178, 180;
religious society or body, In re . Werner's Will, Sur., 181 N.
Y.S. 433, 434; society of persons who profess the Christian
religion, Church of the Holy Faith v. State Tax Commission,
39 N.M. 403, 48 P.2d 777, 784.
In English ecclesiastical law. An institution established
by the law of the land in reference to religion. 3 Steph.
Comm. 54. The word "church" is said to mean, in strictness,
not the material fabric, but the cure of souls and the
right of tithes. 1 Mod. 201.
A congregational church is a voluntary association of
Christians united for discipline and worship, connected
with, and forming a part of, some religious society, having
a legal existence. Anderson v. Brock, 3 Me. 248.
Church Building Acts
Statutes passed in England in and since the year
1818, to extend the accommodation afforded by the
national church. 3 Steph.Comm. 152-164.
Church Discipline Act
The statute 3 & 4 Viet. c. 86, containing regulations
for trying clerks in holy orders charged with
offenses against ecclesiastical law, and for enforcing
sentences pronounced in such cases. Phillim.
Ecc.Law, 1314.
Church of England
A distinct branch of Christ's church, it is also
an institution of the state of which the sovereign
is the supreme head. Wharton. Pawlet v. Clark,
9 Cranch 292, 3 L.Ed. 735.
Church Property
Within constitutional exemption from taxation,
it means property used for religious worship and
instruction. Church of the Holy Faith v. State
Tax Commission, 39 N.M. 403, 48 P.2d 777, 784.
Church Rate
In English law. A sum assessed for the repair
of parochial churches by the representatives of
the parishioners in vestry assembled. Wharton.
Church Reeve
A church warden; an overseer of a church.
Now obsolete. Cowell.
Church-Scot
In old English law. Customary obligations paid
to the parish priest; from which duties the religious
sometimes purchased an exemption for
themselves and their tenants.
Church Wardens
A species of ecclesiastical officers who are intrusted
with the care and guardianship of the
church building and property. See 3 Steph.Comm.
90; 1 BIa.Comm. 394; Cowell; Terrett v. Taylor,
9 Cranch, 43, 3 L.Ed. 650.
Church-Yard
See Cemetery.
Community Church
A name signifying a federation of churches retaining
their separate identity and distinctive
doctrines. Christian Church of Vacaville v. Crystal,
78 Cal.App. 1, 247 P. 605, 608.
DISTURBANCE OF PUBLIC OR RELIGIOUS
WORSHIP. Any acts or conduct which interfere
with the peace and good order of an assembly of
persons lawfully met together for religious exercises.
Minter v. State, 104 Ga. 743, 30 S.E. 989,
991; Stafford v. State, 154 Ala. 71, 45 So. 673, 674.
DISTURBANCE OF PEACE. Interruption of the
peace, quiet, and good order of a neighborhood or
community, particularly by unnecessary and distracting
noises. Platt v. Greenwood, 69 P.2d 1032,
1034, 50 Ariz. 158; Levert v. Katz & Besthoff, 164
La. 1094, 115 So. 281, 283.
DULY ORDAINED MINISTER OF RELIGION.
Person who has been ordained in accordance with
the ceremonial, ritual, or discipline of a recognized
church, religious sect, or religious organization,
to teach and preach its doctrines and to administer
its rites and ceremonies and public worship,
and who customarily performs those duties. In
re Rogers, D.C.Tex., 47 F.Supp. 265, 266.
ECCLESIA. Lat. An assembly. A Christian assembly;
a church. A place of religious worship.
In the law, generally, the word is used to denote
a place of religious worship, and sometimes a parsonage.
Spelman.
ECCLESIASTICAL MATTER. One that concerns
doctrine, creed, or form of worship of the church,
or the adoption and enforcement within a religious
association of needful laws and regulations for the
government of the membership, and the power of
excluding from such associations those deemed unworthy
of membership. Olear v. Haniak, 235 Mo.
App. 249, 131 S.W.2d 375, 380.
LIFE. That state of animals and plants or of an
organized being, in which its natural functions
and motions are performed, or in which its organs
are capable of performing their functions. Webster.
The sum of the forces by which death is
resisted. Bichat.
"Life" begins in contemplation of law as soon as an
infant is able to stir in the mother's womb. State v. Forte,
222 N. C. 537, 23 S.E.2d 842, 843.
"Life" protected by the Federal Constitution includes all
personal rights and their enjoyment embracing the use and
enjoyment of the faculties, acquiring useful knowledge, the
right to marry, establish a home, and bring up children,
freedom of worship, conscience, contract, occupation,
speech, assembly and press. Rosenblum v. Rosenblum, 42
N.Y.S.2d 626, 630, 181 Misc. 78.
Natural life. See Natural Life.
RELIGION. Man's relation to Divinity, to reverence,
worship, obedience, and submission to
mandates and precepts of supernatural or superior
beings. In its broadest sense includes all
forms of belief in the existence of superior beings
exercising power over human beings by volition,
imposing rules of conduct, with future rewards
and punishments. McMasters v. State, 21 Okl.
Cr. 318, 207 P. 566, 568, 29 A.L.R. 292.
One's views of his relations to his Creator and to the
obligations they impose of reverence for his being and
character, and of obedience to his will. It is often confounded
with cultus or form of worship of a particular
sect, but is distinguishable from the latter. People ex rel.
Fish v. Sandstrom, 3 N.Y.S.2d 1006, 1007, 167 Misc. 436.
Bond uniting man to God, and a virtue whose purpose is
to render God worship due him as source of all being and
principle of all government of things. Nikulnikoff v.
Archbishop, etc., of Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church, 255 N.Y.S. 653, 663, 142 Misc. 894.
As used in constitutional provisions forbidding
the "establishment of religion," the term means a
particular system of faith and worship recognized
and practised by a particular church, sect, or denomination.
Reynolds v. U. S., 98 U.S. 149, 25 L.
Ed. 244; Board of Education v. Minor, 23 Ohio
St. 241, 13 Am.Rep. 233
WORSHIP. Any form of religious service showing
reverence for Divine Being, or exhortation . to
obedience to or following of the mandates of such
Being. People on Complaint of Doyle v. Smith,
259 N.Y. 48, 180 N.E. 891. Religious exercises participated
in by a number of persons assembled for
that purpose, the disturbance of which is a statutory
offense in many states. Hamsher v. Hamsher,
132 Ill. 273, 22 N.E. 1123, 8 L.R.A. 556; State v.
District Board, 76 Wis. 177, 44 N.W. 967, 7 L.R.A.
330, 20 Am.St.Rep. 41; State v. Buswell, 40 Neb.
158, 58 N.W. 728, 24 L.R.A. 68; State v. Norris,
59 N.H. 536; Woodall v. State, 4 Ga.App. 783, 62
S.E. 485.
English Law
A title of honor or dignity used in addresses to
certain magistrates and other persons of rank or
office. Co. 2d Inst. 666; Bacon, Abr. Misnomer
( A 2).
Public Worship
This term may mean the worship of God, conducted
and observed under public authority; or
it may mean worship in an open or public place,
without privacy or concealment; or it may mean
the performance of religious exercises, under a
provision for an equal right in the whole public
to participate in its benefits; or it may be used in
contradistinction to worship in the family or the
closet. In this country, what is called "public
worship" is commonly conducted by voluntary societies,
constituted according to their own notions
of ecclesiastical authority and ritual propriety,
opening their places of worship, and admitting to
their religious services such persons, and upon
such terms, and subject to such regulations, as
they may choose to designate and establish. A
church absolutely belonging to the public, and
in which all persons without restriction have
equal rights, such as the public enjoy in highways
or public landings, is certainly a very rare institution.
Attorney General v. Merrimack Mfg. Co., 14
Gray (Mass.) 586.
CHURCH. In its most general sense, the religious
society founded and established by Jesus Christ,
to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines
and ordinances.
It may also mean a body of communicants gathered into
church order, Stebbins v. Jennings, 10 Pick. (Mass.) 193;
body or community of Christians, united under one form
of government by the profession of the same faith, and
the observance of the same ritual and ceremonies, McNeilly
v. First Presbyterian Church in Brookline, 243 Mass. 331,
137 N.E. 691, 694; building, Combined Congregations of
District of Columbia v. Dent, 140 F.2d 9, 10, 78 U.S.App.
D.C. 254; congregation, Trustees of Pencader Presbyterian
Church in Pencader Hundred v. Gibson, Del., 22 A.2d 782,
787, 788; organization for religious purposes, Williams v.
Williams, 215 N.C. 739, 3 S.E.2d 334, 338; place where persons
regularly assemble for worship, Stubbs v. Texas Liquor
Control Board, Tex.Civ.App., 166 S.W.2d 178, 180;
religious society or body, In re . Werner's Will, Sur., 181 N.
Y.S. 433, 434; society of persons who profess the Christian
religion, Church of the Holy Faith v. State Tax Commission,
39 N.M. 403, 48 P.2d 777, 784.
In English ecclesiastical law. An institution established
by the law of the land in reference to religion. 3 Steph.
Comm. 54. The word "church" is said to mean, in strictness,
not the material fabric, but the cure of souls and the
right of tithes. 1 Mod. 201.
A congregational church is a voluntary association of
Christians united for discipline and worship, connected
with, and forming a part of, some religious society, having
a legal existence. Anderson v. Brock, 3 Me. 248.
Church Building Acts
Statutes passed in England in and since the year
1818, to extend the accommodation afforded by the
national church. 3 Steph.Comm. 152-164.
Church Discipline Act
The statute 3 & 4 Viet. c. 86, containing regulations
for trying clerks in holy orders charged with
offenses against ecclesiastical law, and for enforcing
sentences pronounced in such cases. Phillim.
Ecc.Law, 1314.
Church of England
A distinct branch of Christ's church, it is also
an institution of the state of which the sovereign
is the supreme head. Wharton. Pawlet v. Clark,
9 Cranch 292, 3 L.Ed. 735.
Church Property
Within constitutional exemption from taxation,
it means property used for religious worship and
instruction. Church of the Holy Faith v. State
Tax Commission, 39 N.M. 403, 48 P.2d 777, 784.
Church Rate
In English law. A sum assessed for the repair
of parochial churches by the representatives of
the parishioners in vestry assembled. Wharton.
Church Reeve
A church warden; an overseer of a church.
Now obsolete. Cowell.
Church-Scot
In old English law. Customary obligations paid
to the parish priest; from which duties the religious
sometimes purchased an exemption for
themselves and their tenants.
Church Wardens
A species of ecclesiastical officers who are intrusted
with the care and guardianship of the
church building and property. See 3 Steph.Comm.
90; 1 BIa.Comm. 394; Cowell; Terrett v. Taylor,
9 Cranch, 43, 3 L.Ed. 650.
Church-Yard
See Cemetery.
Community Church
A name signifying a federation of churches retaining
their separate identity and distinctive
doctrines. Christian Church of Vacaville v. Crystal,
78 Cal.App. 1, 247 P. 605, 608.
DISTURBANCE OF PUBLIC OR RELIGIOUS
WORSHIP. Any acts or conduct which interfere
with the peace and good order of an assembly of
persons lawfully met together for religious exercises.
Minter v. State, 104 Ga. 743, 30 S.E. 989,
991; Stafford v. State, 154 Ala. 71, 45 So. 673, 674.
DISTURBANCE OF PEACE. Interruption of the
peace, quiet, and good order of a neighborhood or
community, particularly by unnecessary and distracting
noises. Platt v. Greenwood, 69 P.2d 1032,
1034, 50 Ariz. 158; Levert v. Katz & Besthoff, 164
La. 1094, 115 So. 281, 283.
DULY ORDAINED MINISTER OF RELIGION.
Person who has been ordained in accordance with
the ceremonial, ritual, or discipline of a recognized
church, religious sect, or religious organization,
to teach and preach its doctrines and to administer
its rites and ceremonies and public worship,
and who customarily performs those duties. In
re Rogers, D.C.Tex., 47 F.Supp. 265, 266.
ECCLESIA. Lat. An assembly. A Christian assembly;
a church. A place of religious worship.
In the law, generally, the word is used to denote
a place of religious worship, and sometimes a parsonage.
Spelman.
ECCLESIASTICAL MATTER. One that concerns
doctrine, creed, or form of worship of the church,
or the adoption and enforcement within a religious
association of needful laws and regulations for the
government of the membership, and the power of
excluding from such associations those deemed unworthy
of membership. Olear v. Haniak, 235 Mo.
App. 249, 131 S.W.2d 375, 380.
LIFE. That state of animals and plants or of an
organized being, in which its natural functions
and motions are performed, or in which its organs
are capable of performing their functions. Webster.
The sum of the forces by which death is
resisted. Bichat.
"Life" begins in contemplation of law as soon as an
infant is able to stir in the mother's womb. State v. Forte,
222 N. C. 537, 23 S.E.2d 842, 843.
"Life" protected by the Federal Constitution includes all
personal rights and their enjoyment embracing the use and
enjoyment of the faculties, acquiring useful knowledge, the
right to marry, establish a home, and bring up children,
freedom of worship, conscience, contract, occupation,
speech, assembly and press. Rosenblum v. Rosenblum, 42
N.Y.S.2d 626, 630, 181 Misc. 78.
Natural life. See Natural Life.
RELIGION. Man's relation to Divinity, to reverence,
worship, obedience, and submission to
mandates and precepts of supernatural or superior
beings. In its broadest sense includes all
forms of belief in the existence of superior beings
exercising power over human beings by volition,
imposing rules of conduct, with future rewards
and punishments. McMasters v. State, 21 Okl.
Cr. 318, 207 P. 566, 568, 29 A.L.R. 292.
One's views of his relations to his Creator and to the
obligations they impose of reverence for his being and
character, and of obedience to his will. It is often confounded
with cultus or form of worship of a particular
sect, but is distinguishable from the latter. People ex rel.
Fish v. Sandstrom, 3 N.Y.S.2d 1006, 1007, 167 Misc. 436.
Bond uniting man to God, and a virtue whose purpose is
to render God worship due him as source of all being and
principle of all government of things. Nikulnikoff v.
Archbishop, etc., of Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church, 255 N.Y.S. 653, 663, 142 Misc. 894.
As used in constitutional provisions forbidding
the "establishment of religion," the term means a
particular system of faith and worship recognized
and practised by a particular church, sect, or denomination.
Reynolds v. U. S., 98 U.S. 149, 25 L.
Ed. 244; Board of Education v. Minor, 23 Ohio
St. 241, 13 Am.Rep. 233
WORSHIP. Any form of religious service showing
reverence for Divine Being, or exhortation . to
obedience to or following of the mandates of such
Being. People on Complaint of Doyle v. Smith,
259 N.Y. 48, 180 N.E. 891. Religious exercises participated
in by a number of persons assembled for
that purpose, the disturbance of which is a statutory
offense in many states. Hamsher v. Hamsher,
132 Ill. 273, 22 N.E. 1123, 8 L.R.A. 556; State v.
District Board, 76 Wis. 177, 44 N.W. 967, 7 L.R.A.
330, 20 Am.St.Rep. 41; State v. Buswell, 40 Neb.
158, 58 N.W. 728, 24 L.R.A. 68; State v. Norris,
59 N.H. 536; Woodall v. State, 4 Ga.App. 783, 62
S.E. 485.
English Law
A title of honor or dignity used in addresses to
certain magistrates and other persons of rank or
office. Co. 2d Inst. 666; Bacon, Abr. Misnomer
( A 2).
Public Worship
This term may mean the worship of God, conducted
and observed under public authority; or
it may mean worship in an open or public place,
without privacy or concealment; or it may mean
the performance of religious exercises, under a
provision for an equal right in the whole public
to participate in its benefits; or it may be used in
contradistinction to worship in the family or the
closet. In this country, what is called "public
worship" is commonly conducted by voluntary societies,
constituted according to their own notions
of ecclesiastical authority and ritual propriety,
opening their places of worship, and admitting to
their religious services such persons, and upon
such terms, and subject to such regulations, as
they may choose to designate and establish. A
church absolutely belonging to the public, and
in which all persons without restriction have
equal rights, such as the public enjoy in highways
or public landings, is certainly a very rare institution.
Attorney General v. Merrimack Mfg. Co., 14
Gray (Mass.) 586.