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Of or pertaining to the church. See Ecclesiastical. "Ecclesiastic government." Swift.

Of or pertaining to the church; relating to the organization or government of the church; not secular; as, ecclesiastical affairs or history; ecclesiastical courts. Every circumstance of ecclesiastical order and discipline was an abomination. Cowper. Ecclesiastical commissioners for England, a permanent commission esta…

The science or theory of church building and decoration.

General; universal; in ecclesiastical usage, that which concerns the whole church; as, an ecumenical council. [Written also .] Ecumenical Bishop, a title assumed by the popes. -- Ecumenical council. See under Council.

oral, intellectual, or spiritual improvement; instruction. The assured edification of his church. Bp. Hall. Out of these magazines I shall supply the town with what may tend to their edification. Addison.

fabric; -- chiefly applied to elegant houses, and other large buildings; as, a palace, a church, a statehouse.

To guard as a churchwarden does. [Obs.] J. Gregory.

nfers; as, the elders of Israel; the elders of the synagogue; the elders in the apostolic church.

firmity, or long and faithful services; -- said of an officer of a college or pastor of a church.

A title of honor, especially applied to a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

A festival commemorative of the founding of a city or the consecration of a church; also, the ceremonies (as at Oxford and Cambridge, England) commemorative of founders or benefactors.

property, fund, or revenue permanently appropriated to any object; as, the endowment of a church, a hospital, or a college.

To throw into disorder; to disturb. [Obs.] "To engarboil the church." Bp. Montagu.

To cover with, or as with, a shroud; to shroud. Churchill.

her. The literary prigs epicene. Prof. Wilson. He represented an epicene species, neither churchman nor layman. J. A. Symonds.

A church festival celebrated on the 6th of January, the twelfth day after Christmas, in commemoration of the visit of the Magi of the East to Bethlehem, to see and worship the child Jesus; or, as others maintain, to commemorate the appearance of the star to the Magi, symbolizing the manifestation of Christ to the Gentl…

Government of the church by bishops; church government by three distinct orders of ministers -- bishops, priests, and deacons -- of whom the bishops have an authority superior and of a different kind.

Governed by bishops; as, an episcopal church.

overnment by bishops; episcopal; specifically, of or relating to the Protestant Episcopal Church.

ssed to their Christian brethren by Apostles. Epistle side, the right side of an altar or church to a person looking from the nave toward the chancel. One sees the pulpit on the epistle side. R. Browning.