What is a parish? Definition and essence

Being interested in the question of what a church parish is,to begin with, we will understand how it differs from the temple. In the people often the words "parish" and "temple" are used as synonyms, but the difference between them still exists. It is believed that the temple - it's just a building of a cult purpose, and the parish is a people coming to the temple who are called parishioners. And they make up a whole community. What is the parish, very well explains the Gospel, in which there are such words, uttered by Jesus himself: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." This indicates that people go to church to worship, to communicate with the Lord and with each other.

What are the parishes?

Definition must be sought in history. Let's try to understand how the parishes arose, and what contributed to this. To begin with, until 313, Christianity on the territory of the Roman Empire was banned. True believers gathered secretly for worship in separate places - in caves or houses.

After the cessation of persecution for their services, the ancientChristians began to re-equip and consecrate the former pagan temples. That's how the concept of the parish as the primary structure of the Church and the form of self-organization of church life is gradually emerging.

Who is a parishioner?

The Bible says that the Church is a mysticalthe body of Jesus Christ, and the parish is the cell of one large organism. A truly believing person should feel his involvement in the Universal Church through such a community. This involvement is mainly carried out through the sacrament of the Eucharist, where the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ takes place (through these holy gifts the Orthodox unite with the Lord), and through Him alone there is unification with the whole Ecumenical Church. The very understanding of "being a Christian", first of all, includes participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Mission and Charity

However, parish life is not onlyworship, it includes non-church forms of activity - mission and charity. Missionary activity implies the education and upbringing of new members of the community. It is followed by charity: it is help to the sick and infirm, the elderly, the disabled, orphans and widows.

Worship

You can come every day to the temple, stand onservice and participate in the sacraments, not forgetting about yourself and your salvation, and also about saving your relatives, but you can not remain indifferent and not be interested in what is happening in your community.

It's hard to call such people members of the parishor community. A true member will be one who realizes community life as a common cause. This is the Liturgy, which is not only part of the liturgical circle, it includes everything: church worship, missionary work and charity.

In the question of what a parish is, one should also note that the parish is not something separate and self-sufficient, it must necessarily be closely associated with the Church.

Service in the Church

Every believer needs to tryit is possible to delve deeper into the activities of the entire Christian Orthodox Church. Only then can we give the right answer to the question of what a parish is. And here it is still important to understand that the Church, as the body of Christ, is in its own way a huge living organism, which, in addition to the main organ (heart), must also have other organs - the head of the hands, feet, liver, etc. And if the priest does not preach, then the community does not have a language, if there is no help to relatives, then it is armless, there is no training in the basics of the Christian Orthodox faith - it is headless.

Summarize the topic "What is the coming", it is possible the following: the church community, the parish is a single whole, some kind of completeness in its own way. And if something is missing, the parish does not fulfill its spiritual functions.