Meeting house


A meeting house is a building where religious and sometimes private meetings take place. It is associated mostly with Christian worship of certain movements after the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, or else later movements evolving from a Christian basis.

Terminology

Protestant denominations distinguish between a church, which is a body of people who believe in Christ, and a meeting house or chapel, which is a building where the church meets.
In early Methodism, meeting houses were typically called "preaching houses".

The meeting house in England

In England, where it originated, a meeting house is distinguished from a church or cathedral by being a place of worship for dissenters or nonconformists.

Meeting houses in America

The colonial meeting house in America was typically the first public building built as new villages sprang up. A meeting-house had a dual purpose as a place of worship and for public discourse, but sometimes only for "...the service of God." As the towns grew and the separation of church and state in the United States matured, the buildings that were used as the seat of local government were called town-houses or town-halls. Most communities in modern New England still have active meetinghouses, which are popular points of assembly for town meeting days and other events.File:PewsOldShip.jpeg|thumb|right|Sheep-pen pews, Old Ship Meeting house, Hingham, Massachusetts, ca. 1880
File:Igreja SUD uruguaiana rs.jpg|thumb|A meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Uruguaiana, Brazil, used for weekly services
The nonconformist meeting houses generally do not have steeples, with the term "steeplehouses" referring to traditional or establishment religious buildings.
Christian denominations or religions with Christian roots that use the term "meeting house" to refer to the building in which they hold their worship include: