Chapel in the context of Religious body

A church, church building, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. The word church also describes a body or assembly of Christian believers, while "the Church" refers to the worldwide Christian religious community.

In traditional Christian architecture, the plan view of a church often forms a Christian cross. The center aisle and seating create the vertical beam, while the bema and altar form the horizontal arms. Towers or domes rise above the heaven-facing roof line to encourage contemplation of the divine. Modern churches employ varied architectural styles, and many buildings originally designed for other purposes have been converted to churches. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, Western Europe experienced a wave of church construction.

Christianity is the largest religion in Norway and it has historically been called a Christian country. A majority of the population are members of the Church of Norway with 64.9% of the population officially belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2021. At numerous times in history, Norway sent more missionaries per capita than any other country. This changed considerably from the 1960s. In 2004, only 12% of the population attended church services each month. The Church of Norway receives a fixed sum from the Government not based on membership numbers. Other religious organisations receive approximately the same amount per member.

In 1993, there were 4,981 churches and chapels in Norway.

A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities (as cenobites) or alone (as hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary and outlying granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.

In English usage, the term monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics (nuns), particularly communities of teaching or nursing religious sisters. Historically, a convent denoted a house of friars (reflecting the Latin), now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in more specific ways.

Religious activities generally need some infrastructure to be conducted. For this reason, there generally exist religion-supporting organizations, which are some form of organization that manages:

• the upkeep of places of worship, such as mosques, churches, temples, synagogues, chapels and other buildings or meeting places.
• the payment of salaries to religious leaders, such as Roman Catholic priests, Hindu priests, Protestant ministers, imams and rabbis.

In addition, such organizations usually have other responsibilities, such as the formation, nomination or appointment of religious leaders, the establishment of a corpus of doctrine, the disciplining of leaders and followers with respect to religious law, and the determination of qualification for membership.

Christ Church (Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple or house, ædes, of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniquely a joint foundation of the university and the cathedral of the Oxford diocese, Christ Church Cathedral, which also serves as the college chapel and whose dean is ex officio the college head.

As of 2022, the college had 661 students. Its grounds contain a number of architecturally significant buildings including Tom Tower (designed by Sir Christopher Wren), Tom Quad (the largest quadrangle in Oxford), and the Great Dining Hall, which was the seat of the parliament assembled by King Charles I during the English Civil War. The buildings have inspired replicas throughout the world in addition to being featured in films such as Harry Potter and The Golden Compass, helping Christ Church become the most popular Oxford college for tourists with almost half a million visitors annually.

The Tempietto del Bramante is a martyrium designed by Donato Bramante to commemorate the site traditionally regarded as the location of Saint Peter’s crucifixion. The small, freestanding chapel was commissioned by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile and was completed c. 1502 for the cloister of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, Italy. The structure is considered a masterpiece of High Renaissance architecture, with scholars and architects noting Bramante’s harmonious proportions and his symbolic adaptation of Classical and early Christian architectural elements.

Zeyrek Mosque (Turkish: Zeyrek Camii) or the Monastery of the Pantokrator (Greek: Μονή του Παντοκράτορος Χριστού; Turkish: Pantokrator Manastırı), is a large mosque on the Fazilet Street in the Zeyrek district of Fatih in Istanbul, overlooking the Golden Horn. It is made up of two former Byzantine churches and a chapel joined together and represents the best example of Middle Byzantine architecture in Constantinople. After Hagia Sophia, it is the largest Byzantine religious edifice still standing in Istanbul.

It is less than 1 km to the southeast of Eski Imaret Mosque, another Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque.

A chaplain is religious worker, either a cleric or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence agency, embassy, school, labor union, business, police department, fire department, university, sports club), or a private chapel. The term chaplaincy refers to the chapel, facility or department in which one or more chaplains carry out their role.

Though the term chaplain originally referred to representatives of the Christian faith, it is now also applied to people of other religions or philosophical traditions, as in the case of chaplains serving with military forces and an increasing number of chaplaincies at U.S. universities. In recent times, many lay people have received professional training in chaplaincy and are now appointed as chaplains in schools, hospitals, companies, universities, prisons and elsewhere to work alongside, or instead of, official members of the clergy. The concepts of a multi-faith team, secular, generic or humanist chaplaincy are also gaining increasing use, particularly within healthcare and educational settings.

The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian, "Cappella dei Brancacci") is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Felice Brancacci and begun in 1422. The paintings were executed over the years 1425 to 1427. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.

The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel. Masolino's associate, 21-year-old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27. Portions of the chapel were completed later by Filippino Lippi. During the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.

A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly one inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, and they are traditionally the largest side chapel of a cathedral, placed eastward from the high altar and forming a projection from the main building, as in Winchester Cathedral. Most Roman Catholic, as well as some Lutheran and Anglican cathedrals still have such chapels, while mid-sized churches have smaller side-altars dedicated to the Virgin.

The occurrence of lady chapels varies by location and exist in most of the French cathedrals and churches where they form part of the chevet. In Belgium they were not introduced before the 14th century; in some cases they are of the same size as the other chapels of the chevet, but in others (probably rebuilt at a later period) they became much more important features. Some of the best examples can be found in churches of the Renaissance period in Italy and Spain.

A funeral home, funeral parlor (funeral parlour in the UK) or mortuary is a business that provides burial, entombment and cremation services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared visitation and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral, memorial service/service of remembrance or celebration of life.

A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to travel distance.

Often, a chapel of ease is deliberately built as such, being more accessible to some parishioners than the main church. Such a chapel may exist, for example, when a parish covers several dispersed villages, or a central village together with its satellite hamlet or hamlets. In such a case the parish church will be in the main settlement, with one or more chapels of ease in the subordinate village(s) and/or hamlet(s). An example is the chapel belonging to All Hallows' Parish in Maryland, United States. The chapel was built in Davidsonville from 1860 to 1865 because the parish's "Brick Church" in South River was 5 miles (8 km) distance which took an hour to walk each way. A more extreme example is the Chapel-of-Ease built in 1818 on St. David's Island in Bermuda to spare St. David's Islanders crossing St. George's Harbour to reach the parish church, St. Peter's, on St. George's Island.

The Kamppi Chapel (Finnish: Kampin kappeli, Swedish: Kampens kapell) is a chapel in the neighbourhood of Kamppi in Helsinki, Finland, located on the Narinkka Square. It is also known as the "Chapel of Silence" since it is intended to be a place to calm down and have a moment of silence in one of the busiest areas of the city.

The chapel is operated on a partnership basis by the Helsinki Parish Union and the Social Services Department of the City of Helsinki, while the parish unions of the neighbouring cities of Espoo and Vantaa also participate in the chapel's activities. Regular church services are not being held in the chapel, though it is planned to hold regular moments of prayer in the future.

Christ Church Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of England in Oxford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Oxford and the principal church of the diocese of Oxford. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford; this dual role is unique in the Church of England. It is administered by the dean of Christ Church, who is also the head of the college, and a governing body.

The first church on the site of the cathedral was a nunnery and parish church which was burnt during the St Brice's Day massacre in 1002; it was re-founded as a priory of Augustinian canons by 1122. The priory was suppressed in 1524 by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who intended to demolish the church in order to found a new college on the site. The cardinal fell from favour in 1529 and the project was taken over by Henry VIII, who preserved the church. When the diocese of Oxford was created in 1542 its cathedral was the former Osney Abbey, however it was supplanted by Christ Church in 1546.