CHURCH

Wild Word Friday!

CHURCH, a wild word? Well sometimes.

When I was six years old, my mother  told me that I had been mispronouncing the word CHURCH. It was not turch, it was CHURCH and I was old enough to say it correctly.

“CHURCH?” I said. “It can’t be CHURCH. Everybody says turch.” 

“No, Sue Ann,” my mother told me (with a great deal of patience), “only you say turch.” I was wildly indignant.

It turned out that my mother was right. (You knew that, didn’t you.) Even my three-year-old brother said CHURCH, sort of. Oh rats, oh bother, oh dear.

Eventually I broke the habit of saying turch and embraced CHURCH. Actually, I’ve embraced CHURCH ever since, the CHURCH as a body of believers – in my case Christian believers – the CHURCH as a place for prayer and for worship and for fellowship. For comfort.

CHURCH – the word – came to English-speakers from the Middle English chireche, chirche, kirke and the Anglo-Saxon cirice, cyrice. The Late Greek form is kyriakon, meaning “House of the Lord”, kyrios being the master.

Yes, Sue Ann, it is CHURCH, the Lord’s house. And that’s where I’ll be this Sunday.

Happy Easter and a Blessed Good Friday,

Sue