free churchn.
/ˌfriː ˈtʃəːtʃ/, U.S. /ˌfri ˈtʃərtʃ/ 1. Chiefly U.S. A church in which no charge is made for the use of the seats.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > sanctuary or holy place > church or place of worship > [noun] > in which seats are free
free church1793
1793 W. Leigh (title) A sermon preached at Bath..pointing out the necessity of building a free church.
1798 Times 10 Nov. 3/1 Wednesday the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells..and Dr. Phillot..consecrated the Free Church in the city of Bath.
1822 Christian Jrnl. (N.Y.) June 189/1 (heading) Plan for a free church.
1835 J. Martin New Gazetteer Virginia 126 It contains several dwelling houses—one free church—one common school.
1860 Massachusetts Acts & Resolves c. 181 An act to incorporate the trustees of the free church of Saint Mary, for sailors.
1960 G. W. Potter To Golden Door xxxiv. 385 Father J. P. Dunn of Philadelphia, a forthright priest, who started the first Free Church for the poor in that city.
1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 12 Mar. c1/1 [He] abolished pew fees, declared St. George's a free church and set about establishing recreational and health facilities for the neighborhood's poor in the parish house.
2. Frequently with capital initials.
a. A church free from state control; a Nonconformist church; spec. (chiefly with reference to England) any of the Protestant churches other than the Established Church, as Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc. Usually in plural.
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society > faith > church government > kinds of church government > Free Churchism > [noun] > instance
free church1820
1820 (title) A new arrangement of the liturgy: or book of common prayer, for the use of free churches, chapels and private families.
1869 H. S. Skeats (title) A history of the Free Churches of England from a.d. 1688– a.d. 1851.
1897 Fairbairn in Oxf. Free Church Mag. Jan. 1 (heading) The Free Churches and the education of their sons.
1951 E. Barker Princ. Social & Polit. Theory i. ix. 26 The free churches, as groups or societies, only achieved recognition of their right to exist, and to assemble for worship, by the Toleration Act of 1689.
1975 Derby Diocesan News Dec. 5 The Roman Catholic and Free Church chaplains are part-time.
1994 Jrnl. Sci. Study Relig. 33 206 About 5% [of the Swedish population] are members in one of about fifteen other denominations—the so-called ‘free churches’.
2000 Church Times 10 Mar. 15/5 A revival of Catholicism which made it, in the 20th century, the most numerous and most successful of the English Free Churches.
b. Frequently more fully as Free Church of Scotland. The organization formed by the ministers who seceded from the Church of Scotland in the Disruption of 1843 (see disruption n. 3).The majority of members joined with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which itself reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929. The names Free Church of Scotland and United Free Church of Scotland were retained by smaller groups which remain independent. Cf. Free Kirk n., the Wee Free Kirk at wee adj. e.
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society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Presbyterianism > Presbyterian sects and groups > [noun] > Free Church > collective
kirk?1566
Auld Kirk1780
Free Church of Scotland1843
Free Kirk1843
free1863
1843 Acts Gen. Assembly Free Church 30 May 38 We the Ministers and Elders of the Free Church of Scotland, convened in this our General Assembly [etc.].
1843 R. S. Candlish Speech 6 Sept. in Mem. (1880) 315 The Free Church, since the Disruption, has in a wonderful manner kept herself free from..attacks on the existing Establishment.
1887 Times 28 May 8/1 In the Free Church a new departure has been taken in choosing as Moderator a post-Disruption Minister.
1895 ‘I. Maclaren’ Days Auld Lang Syne ii. v. 113 Doctor Davidson motioned to the Free Church minister to take his place at the head.
1904 Times 31 Dec. 8/1 The funds must be handed over to the remnant of the old Free Church—the ‘Wee Frees’, as Scotland nicknames them.
1953 Scotsman 20 May in Sc. National Dict. (1956) IV. at Free They in the Free Church represented a tradition which had served Scotland well in the past and which had bred Christian character.
1997 O. D. Edwards in A. Reid & B. D. Osborne Discovering Sc. Writers 16 Buchan was born on 26th August 1875 in Perth, son of a Free Church of Scotland minister, later domiciled in Glasgow and Peebles.
2003 Scotsman (Nexis) 31 Oct. 18 It is rare for women to precent in the Free Church.
Compounds
Free Churchman n. a man belonging to a Free Church.
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society > faith > church government > kinds of church government > Free Churchism > [noun] > supporter
Free Churchman1843
1843 Times 10 Oct. 3/5 His Lordship replied..that the true way to get the Free Churchman out of the parish was ‘to preach him out’.
1897 Oxf. Free Ch. Mag. Jan. 3 These important bonds of faith between all Free Churchmen.
1941 Musical Times Apr. 142/1 Most Anglican organists have to take more services and practices than Free Churchmen.
1990 Methodist Recorder 7 June 10/4 He was the first Free Churchman to be invited to address the Council of Bishops in Lambeth.
Derivatives
Free ˈChurchism n. (support for) the principles or doctrines of the Free Churches.
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society > faith > church government > kinds of church government > Free Churchism > [noun]
Free Churchism1846
1846 C. F. Buchan (title) Free churchism.
1847 G. Smith (title) Truth as revealed: or, voluntaryism and free churchism opposed to the Word of God.
1868 Edinb. Evening Courant 9 Sept. 6/4 From that Liberalism, nothing whatever could be expected in favour of true Free Churchism.
1916 G. Cross in G. B. Smith Guide Study Christian Relig. vii. 403 The struggle between state-churchism and Free-churchism in England, Holland, and America.
2002 E. Langland in M. Oliphant Phoebe Junior 25 She grew up in the Free Church of Scotland... Her family, however, did not identify Free Churchism with English Dissent.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1793