What is a parish? Definition and essence

Being interested in the question of what a church parish is, first of all we will understand how it differs from the church. 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 is just a structure of a cult purpose, and the parish is 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 the temple for 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 in 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 ancient Christians began to re-equip and consecrate the former pagan temples. This is how the concept of the parish as the primary structure of the Church and the form of self-organization of church life gradually emerges.

Who is a parishioner?

The Bible says that the Church is the mystical body of Jesus Christ, and the parish is the cell of one big 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", in the first place, includes participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Mission and charity

However, parish life is not only worship, 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 visit the temple every day, stand in the service 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 parish or 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, it should also be noted that the parish is not something separate and self-sufficient, it must necessarily be closely associated with the Church.

Service in the Church

Every believing person should try to penetrate as deeply as possible 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 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.

To sum up 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 kind. And if something is missing, the parish does not fulfill its spiritual functions.