mother church

noun

1. a church from which other churches have had their origin or derived their authority.

2. a cathedral or a metropolitan church.

3. the church attended in one's youth or for the greater part of one's life.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mother church¹

Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325

Example Sentences

The British monarch is head of the Church of England, the mother church of global Anglicanism.

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The Church of England – which some people call "The Mother Church" because it was the first Anglican Church – is broadly considered to have moved in a more liberal direction than some churches elsewhere, not least in Africa, where it is estimated that two-thirds of Anglicans live.

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The long ago protest led to the founding of the first Black denomination in the United States, which Murray described as “the mother church of Black America.”

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Dean Monteith took up the role a year ago in Canterbury, which he described as the mother church for 80 million Anglicans.

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Divisions have run deep for decades on how the centuries-old institution - mother church for the world's 85 million Anglicans across 165 countries - deals with homosexuality and same-sex unions.

Read more on Reuters