churchless

American  

[church-lis] / ˈtʃɜrtʃ lɪs /

adjective

1. without a church.

2. not belonging to or attending any church.

3. without church approval or ceremony.

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Etymology

Origin of churchless

First recorded in 1635–45; church + -less

Example Sentences

This is most easily tracked in the rise of churchless Christians.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2024

And what about the “kind-ofs,” the churchless Protestants, the “raised Catholics,” and the cultural Jews who don’t attend services and for whom religion is more of an inherited abstraction than a lived experience?

From Slate • Oct. 18, 2021

“I am so sad that a place of prayer and solace has become a place of fear,” said Kim Jeong-ja, 58, a churchless churchgoer in Seoul.

From New York Times • Mar. 22, 2020

No moldy traditionalist is Father James J. A. Troy, Wartime army chaplain, who took over the new and churchless St. Austin's parish in Minneapolis two years ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the cities we see stately churches, once thronged, now well-nigh desolate, while their walls echo to the tread upon the sidewalk of a churchless multitude.

From Organizing and Building Up the Sunday School Modern Sunday School Manuals by Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman