Sunday 29 June 2014

What You Should Know About Staten Island Church

By Elsa English


A church is a building that is used for religious worship. This often refers to buildings of the Catholic and Christian religions whereas Muslims call their place of worship a mosque, while Buddhists call theirs as temples. There are thousands of churches all over the world, to cater to the religious needs of millions of Catholics and Christians alike. Churches are generally majestic and grand, too, and you can see it in the architectural styles of cathedrals all over Europe and Staten Island church.

Churches are often admired for their sublime appearances and beautiful craftsmanship. Most of them are even considered tourist attractions that are really visited by millions, even though some of them are not even Christians. They are as timeless as the religion they are representing. They have survived significant events in human history yet they have preserved that aura of grandeur they were originally built with.

For some, these buildings are nothing but places where people worship the God that they believe in. The truth of the matter is that these different structures have different functions. For starters, very many people mistakenly use the term cathedral to define a castle like church with its magnanimous proportions. Not all big churches are cathedrals, and there are cathedrals that are not as imposing as the others.

A cathedral gets its name from the Latin cathedra. This literally means the throne of the bishop, and it goes without saying that this infrastructure is where the bishop performs his ecclesiastical obligations. It also serves as a pilgrimage site and a venue for important events, so they had to be spacious to be able to hold the throng of people quite comfortably.

Basilicas are styled after the famous Roman architecture. They often take after the shape of a cross. They have long central aisles with a nave at the center. Two more aisles extend on both sides of the said nave, which are separated by colonnades.

The Catholic religion recognizes four major basilicas. All of them are found in Europe. Three are found in Rome, Italy, while the other one is in Vatican city. In addition, there are about a thousand of other minor basilicas all over the globe. Churches are granted basilica status because they house within their halls some objects that are venerated and relics of a recognized saint.

Abbey churches are those that belong to a monastic order. These buildings are often included inside a complex which also features dormitories, refectories, libraries, and cloisters. These are often occupied by orders such as Augustinians, Franciscans, Jesuits, and many others.

They served so many functions for people back then. The abbey often served as a refuge for the locals. Abbeys turned into parish churches at the end of a monastic era.

Truly, churches have a very colorful history behind every pillar and every pew. But, it does not necessarily mean that those which as not as magnificent as aforementioned are less. All of these serve the same purpose and deserve the same treatment.




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