A congregation is a group of people gathered together. It has at least three uses. The most common is a congregation as the group of members who make up a local Christian group or Jewish synagogue.
In some Christianity groups, the word Church isn't used because it means Christianity meeting building in many Christianity groups.
A more specialized use of congregration is its use as the name of a branch of Roman Catholic Church government. Those divisions are:
- Congregation for Bishops
- Congregation for Catholic Education (for Seminaries and Institutes of Study)
- Congregation for the Causes of Saints
- Congregation for the Clergy
- Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
- Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
- Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Congregation is sometimes also used to refer to the assembly of senior members of a university, especially in the United Kingdom, e.g. Regent House in the University of Cambridge, and the House of Congregation and the Ancient House of Congregation in the University of Oxford.