Question: what's the difference between a church and a cathedral?

[billyskank]

Or put another way, what makes a cathedral a cathedral, to distinguish itself from any other place of (Christian) worship?

[leeroysphitz]

1. I think a cathedral is the seat of a given Bishopric.

So a cathedral doesn't have to be huge. It's just the bishop's "home base" so to speak.

[billyskank]

2. I figured it had to be something more specific than mere size.

Thanks.

[rug]

8. That's correct. It stems from "cathedra", chair, of a bishop.

[NewJeffCT]

3. My guess as an atheist

so, take it for what its worth...

would be it depends on who is the head of the church or cathedral. If it's a priest, it's a church, if it's a bishop, it's a cathedral.

[billyskank]

5. Thanks!

Your answer agrees with leeroysphits', which sounds good to me. :)

[tjwmason]

9. Not quite - but very nearly.

A Bishop isn't actually in charge of a cathedral, and there have been many many cases where disputes between the Bishop of the clergy (in the C.ofE. the Dean and Chapter) who run the cathedral have been deep and long running.

The Bishop's throne (in Greek cathedra) is one of the emblems of his authority, and this is housed in the cathedral, hence the name. A Bishop runs a Diocese which includes many churches (for example I'm in the Oxford Diocese which covers the whole of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire - ooodles of churches in there), but he doesn't actually control the Cathedral.

Famous cases of non-cathedrals are St. Peter's - the actual cathedral of Rome is St. John Lateran; and Westminster Abbey (which, confusingly, isn't an abbey either), though it was a cathedral for a few years under Henry VIII.

This is all relevant to Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches - I've got no idea how other folk organise themselves.

[billyskank]

10. I knew you could answer this satisfactorily!

Thank you! :hug:

[zanne]

4. A Cathedral is large with pointy things on the top. nt

[billyskank]

6. But I've seen lots of churches that are large

and they had pointy things on top too.

[zanne]

7. Nobody likes a smartass.....

:evilgrin:

[Crazy Dave]

11. And there's "chapels"

What's up with those? :shrug:

Edit: Oh what the heck....I did a Wiki after posting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel