Religious community

A religious community is a community (group of people) who practice the same religion. The term is used in a wider sense and a different narrower sense.

In the wider sense the term is used to refer to members of one religion who may live in groups, or near or intermingled with members of other religions. Community members may mix with others in everyday life, but worship separately, typically in a dedicated temple such as a church or mosque. One might speak of the Catholic community of Belfast (a city), or the Jewish community of France (a country). The community may be delimited informally: people who define themselves as having a particular religion are considered to be members of the religion's community. In other cases a person must be formally accepted by community authorities to become acknowledged as a member. In Israel only couples both from the same officially recognized religious community may marry.

The term is also used in a different, narrower sense to mean a group of people of the same religion living together specifically for religious purposes, often subject to formal commitments such as religious vows, as in a monastery.