free church

American  

[free church] / ˈfri ˈtʃɜrtʃ /

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letters) a church free from state control.

2. (sometimes initial capital letters) a dissenting or nonconforming church.

3. (initial capital letters) Also Free Kirk (in Scotland) the church established by those who left the Church of Scotland in 1843.

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Free Church British  

noun

1. 1. any Protestant Church, esp the Presbyterian, other than the Established Church

   2. ( as modifier )

      Free-Church attitudes

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Etymology

Origin of free church

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

We stand for a free pulpit and a free church.

From Time Magazine Archive

A 1967 graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, York has been backed by a number of local churches in operating a "free church" that ministers to Berke ley hippies.

From Time Magazine Archive

At the same time he was anxious that the church should preserve the fullest liberty, and he believed in the principle of “a free church in a free state.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 5 "Cat" to "Celt" by Various

Should he, like the Père Hyacinth, go and found a free church in some corner of the republic, and rove through Europe, like him, to confer about morality, the rights of women and virtue?

From The Grip of Desire by France, Hector

When the great split occurred in Scotland between the old and the free church, he stuck to the old, merely saying that the church of his forefathers was good enough for him.

From Captains of Industry or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money by Parton, James