A Day in the Life of a Christian Vicar

The Christian holy book, which is made up of two main parts: the Old Testament, (the law, prophecy and writings of the Jewish people) and the New Testament (the gospels, letters and writings about Jesus and the first Christians).

Messiah is used in the Jewish tradition to refer to the expected leader sent by God, who will bring salvation to God’s people. Jesus’ followers applied this title to him, and its Greek equivalent, Christ, is the where we get the words ‘Christian’ and ‘Christianity’.

For Christians, Jesus is the ‘Christ’ – that is the one sent by God to save people from the consequences of the things they do wrong.

Christianity takes its name from the title of Jesus, Christ, which means ‘Messiah’. There are around 2.2 billions Christians in the world.

There are many denominations of Christianity though Christians generally follow the teachings Jesus and Christian interpretations of the Bible.

(i) The whole community of Christians. (ii) The building in which Christians worship. (iii) A particular denomination, such as the Church of England, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Methodist, and so on.

A Christian might say, “For me, the church is made up of the communities of Christians, not just those who attend their local church.”

A branch of the Christian Church, e.g. Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Non-conformists, Orthodox, Quakers, Roman Catholic etc.

A Christian might say, “There are many denominations of the Christian Church but they share a lot of beliefs about God and Jesus.”

A Christian service of thanksgiving where the death and resurrection of Jesus are remembered, using bread and wine to represent or actually become his body and blood.

Many Christians celebrate the Eucharist at Church on Sundays, but the service can take place at any time.

The creator of the whole universe and everything in it. Christians believe there is only one God and that humans can have a relationship with him through prayer and worship.

For most Christians, God is three ‘persons’ in one: the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. This is called ‘The Trinity’.

The word ‘Gospel’ is Greek for “Good News” and refers to the first four books of the New Testament; the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which tell the story of the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

For Christians, the “good news” of the Gospels is the belief that people can be saved from the consequences of sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

This means communicating with God. Prayer can be part of a religious service or just something people do whenever they want to ‘talk with God’.

There are many sorts of prayer; asking for things for oneself or others, offering thanks, requesting guidance, confessing sins, praising God and so on.

In Christianity, this is a ceremony that is believed to provide believers with God’s blessing.

In the Roman Catholic Church there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance (saying sorry for sins), Anointing of the sick, Matrimony (marriage) and Holy Orders (becoming a priest).