Comparing St. Margaret's Catholic Church and St. Stephen's Church of England

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

In this assignment I will describe the main features of church buildings and their furnishing. The two churches that I am comparing are St. Margaret’s Catholic Church and St. Stephen‘s Church of England. St. Margaret’s Catholic Church is one that is quite modern and has worshippers of Catholic denomination. On the other hand St. Stephen‘s Church of England, is quite traditional and has a community of …… denomination.

Throughout, this coursework I will differentiate and draw similarities between these two churches, occasionally commenting on specific details.

I am intending to explore the history and culture of the two churches, in order to conclude the atmosphere presented by them.

Information on the early splits of churches

After the downfall of the Roman Empire in 410, power in the church shifted from the west to the east.

However, a council of bishops, meeting at Chalcedon in 451, adopted a resolution that many eastern bishops could not accept.

As a result, the church began to show its first real signs of disintegration with the formation of the eastern oriental church. It was not till 1054 that the split between east and west became final when the great schism took place. The Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman ...

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Information on the early splits of churches

After the downfall of the Roman Empire in 410, power in the church shifted from the west to the east.

However, a council of bishops, meeting at Chalcedon in 451, adopted a resolution that many eastern bishops could not accept.

The claim of the pope in Rome to have supreme authority over the whole church.
The desire of Rome to become the leading centre of Christianity.
A change by Rome in the wording of the creed, which eastern Christians considered to be untouchable.

So Christendom broke into two parts. The Orthodox Church was formed and the breach between it and the catholic has never been healed.

So the two churches that were split up were the st. Stephen’s Church of England and st. Margaret’s roman catholic church and although the furnishing and the main features are the same they all take a different meaning and symbolism.

St. Stephen’s Church of England

Altar table- this is a holy table in the church where the bread and wine is blessed, however this is also used for communion which is celebrated in a way that people will take some time to just sit quietly and pray and to review their lives.

Others will tell god how they feel, where we think we have failed, how we want to improve, how our heart is tugged and we listen to all the thoughts that god place in our minds.

The way these two churches celebrate communion is that the st. Margaret Roman Catholic Church will celebrate it in a more traditional way and the other church st. Stephen’s church of England would be celebrated in a modern way. However the other object related to an altar table is a tabernacle, which keeps the Blessed Sacrament inside.

There is also stained glass just above the altar table plus some candles, which are designed with special substance around the candle or the candleholder.

Font- this is a sort of a big bowl, which full of holy water that is used for baptism, baptism is done on adults and children but the way it differs from the st. Margaret Roman Catholic Church is that it is very olden styled and the other churches font is made in a very traditional way.

This reflects this because the church that have the modern font will have more people want to not take Christianity very seriously as much the church would the font more older.

Baptism is quite important in Christianity because it tells people what Christianity is really all about and also for children baptism had just started because people thought that anabaptised babies would die infany and not go to heaven just born are being bought in the world of Christianity from darkness to light.