ecclesiastical society

American  

noun

1. (in Congregational churches) a legal corporation with power to sue and be sued and to administer all of the temporalities of the church.

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Example Sentences

But by naming Tertullian we suggest one view, at least, of the ecclesiastical society which Origen would meet when he visited Rome.

From Project Gutenberg

Upon hearing their accounts of the easy familiarities and light tone of the higher ecclesiastical society of recent times, we can the better understand the traditions that have come down to us of Pasquino and his shop full of highnesses and eminences.

From Project Gutenberg

Considering that Crutchley was making more money with his gargoyles than himself with his novels John resented the accusation of having deserted his friend for a handful of silver; and as for the ribbon which he was accused of putting in his coat, John thought that the architect was the last person to underline such an accusation, when himself for the advancement of his work had joined every ecclesiastical society from the English Church Union to the Alcuin Club.

From Project Gutenberg

Constitution, Subsequent Laws.—An ecclesiastical society formed before the adoption of the state constitution is not by that constitution and subsequent laws concerning religious societies divested of its legal character.125 69.

From Project Gutenberg

It is surmounted, at the west end, by a fine tower of successive stories; on one side of which is a clock, conspicuous from the most distant parts of the city and suburbs.—You are aware, probably, that there are in this country no Congregationalists, so called; Presbyterians supply the place of this denomination in the ecclesiastical society of all the south and west.

From Project Gutenberg