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((Short description|Scottish term for 'church'))
((other uses|Kirk (disambiguation)))
((Use dmy dates|date=April 2022))
((More citations needed|date=April 2010))
[[File:Ten Commandments panel, National Museum of Scotland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.65|Ten Commandments panel from a Scottish kirk (1706)]]
'''Kirk''' is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning 'church'. The term ''the Kirk'' is often used informally to refer specifically to the [[Church of Scotland]], the Scottish national church which developed from the [[Scottish Reformation|16th-century Reformation]]. Many place names and personal names are derived from [[wiktionary:kirk|'''kirk''']].

==Basic meaning and etymology==
As a [[common noun]], ''kirk'' (meaning 'church') is found in [[Scots language|Scots]], [[Scottish English]], [[Ulster-Scots dialects|Ulster-Scots]] and some [[English language in England|English]] [[dialect]]s,<ref>((cite book | last = Millar | first = Robert McColl | title = Northern and Insular Scots| url = https://archive.org/details/northerninsulars00mill_363 | url-access = limited | publisher=Edinburgh University Press | year = 2007|  page = [https://archive.org/details/northerninsulars00mill_363/page/n107 99] | isbn = 978-0-7486-2317-4)) <br />"There is a considerable amount of Scandinavian lexis in all Scots dialects. Because it is a secondary contact dialect in relation to the large-scale Scandinavian settlement in northern England in the early Middle Ages (Samuels 1989), a large part of this lexical material - words which appear typically 'Scots', such as ''brigg'', 'bridge', and ''kirk'', 'church' - is shared with the dialects of northern England, however."</ref> attested as a noun from the 14th century onwards, but as an element in placenames much earlier. Both words, ''kirk'' and ''church'', derive from the [[Koine Greek]] '''κυριακόν (δωμα)''' (kyriakon (dōma)) meaning ''Lord's (house)'', which was borrowed into the [[Germanic languages]] in late antiquity, possibly in the course of the [[Gothic Christianity|Gothic missions]]. (Only a connection with the idiosyncrasies of [[Gothic language|Gothic]] explains how a Greek neuter noun became a Germanic feminine).

Whereas ''church'' displays [[Old English language|Old English]] [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalisation]], ''kirk'' is a [[loanword]] from [[Old Norse]]((citation needed|date=July 2022)) and thus retains the original mainland Germanic consonants. Compare [[cognate]]s: [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] & [[Faroese language|Faroese]] ''kirkja''; [[Swedish language|Swedish]] ''kyrka'' (where the first ‘k’ was later palatalized as well); [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Nynorsk]]) ''kyrkje''; [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Bokmål]]) ''kirke''; [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Afrikaans]] ''kerk''; [[German language|German]] ''Kirche'' (reflecting palatalization before unstressed front vowel); [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]] ''tsjerke''; and borrowed into non-Germanic languages [[Estonian language|Estonian]] ''kirik'' and [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ''kirkko''.

==Church of Scotland==
As a [[proper noun]], ''the Kirk'' is an informal name for the [[Church of Scotland]], the country's national church and this term is frequently used in the media,<ref>((Cite news |date=2023-05-19 |title=Hundreds of churches will have to close, says Kirk |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-65645891 |access-date=2024-01-30 |language=en-GB))</ref> in everyday speech and in the church's own literature.<ref>((Cite web |last=Scotland |first=The Church of |date=2010-02-22 |title=Our structure |url=https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/our-structure |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=The Church of Scotland |language=en))</ref> ''The Kirk of Scotland'' was in official use as the name of the Church of Scotland until the 17th century. [[Kirk Session]] is still the standard term in church law for the court of elders in the local congregation, both in the Church of Scotland and in any of the other Scottish Presbyterian denominations.

==Free Kirk==
Even more commonly, ''The Free Kirk'' is heard as an informal name for the [[Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)|Free Church of Scotland]], the remnant of an evangelical presbyterian church formed in 1843 when its founders withdrew from the Church of Scotland. See:

* [[Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)]]
* [[Free Church of Scotland (since 1900)]]

A pair of rhyming jibes remain from the time of the heated split of the Disruption in 1843 when about a third of the Auld Kirk of Scotland left to form the Free Kirk. The Free Kirkers who had sometimes given up homes as well as church buildings and started financially from scratch were taunted with the rhyme: “''The Free Kirk, the wee Kirk, the Kirk without the steeple''.” This rhyme linking the Free Kirk with the derogatory diminutive "wee" was offensive and a reply was devised in: ''The Auld Kirk, the cauld Kirk. The Kirk wi’out the people''.<ref>((Cite book |last=Jones |first=Andrew Michael |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv2dd47c9.7 |title=The Revival of Evangelicalism: Mission and Piety in the Victorian Church of Scotland |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2022 |publication-date=2022 |language=English |chapter=Recovery and Mission at Home and Abroad))</ref>

==High Kirk==<!-- This section is linked from [[City status in the United Kingdom]] -->
[[File:St. Giles' Church, Edinburgh.JPG|thumb|The High Kirk of Edinburgh]]
''High Kirk'' is the term sometimes used to describe a congregation of the Church of Scotland which uses a building which was a [[cathedral]] prior to the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. As the Church of Scotland is not governed by [[Bishops in the Church of Scotland|bishops]], it has no cathedrals in the episcopal sense of the word. In more recent times, the traditional names have been revived, so that in many cases both forms can be heard: [[St. Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow|Glasgow Cathedral]], as well as the ''High Kirk of Glasgow'', and [[St. Giles' Cathedral]], as well as the ''High Kirk of Edinburgh''.
The term High Kirk should, however, be used with some caution. Several towns have a congregation known as the High Kirk which were never pre-Reformation cathedrals. Examples include:
*[[Dundee]], where the High Kirk is not the historic [[Dundee Parish Church (St Mary's)|Dundee Parish Church]] known as St Mary's, but St David's;<ref>((cite web|url=http://stdavidshighkirkdundee.webs.com/|title=St. David's High Kirk Dundee|website=St. David's High Kirk Dundee|access-date=4 August 2014|archive-date=9 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809220725/http://stdavidshighkirkdundee.webs.com/|url-status=dead))</ref>
*[[Paisley, Renfrewshire|Paisley]] where there were former congregations and parishes surrounding three churches: the High Kirk (now formally Oakshaw Trinity Church, but still retaining the High Kirk name), the Middle Kirk and the [[Laigh Kirk, Paisley|Laigh Kirk]], the Middle Kirk no longer existing as a religious institution and none of the three names referred to [[Paisley Abbey|Paisley's historic Abbey]];<ref>((cite web |url=http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/Navigation-els-PaisleyArtsCentre-ArtsandEntertainmentHomePage#church |title= Renfrewshire Community Website - Paisley Arts Centre|website=www.renfrewshire.gov.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302055325/http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/Navigation-els-PaisleyArtsCentre-ArtsandEntertainmentHomePage |archive-date=2009-03-02))</ref>
*Stevenston High Kirk in [[Ayrshire]].

There is no connection between the term 'High Kirk' and the term '[[High Church]]', which is a type of [[Churchmanship]] within the [[Anglican Communion]].

==Kirk Session==
((Main|Kirk Session))

[[File:Lorimer, Ordination.jpg|thumb|right|The Ordination of Elders in a Scottish Kirk, by [[John Henry Lorimer]], 1891. [[National Gallery of Scotland]]]]
The first court of [[Presbyterian polity]] where the Elders of a particular congregation gather as a [[Session (Presbyterianism)|Session]] or meeting to govern the spiritual and temporal affairs of the church.

==Kirking ceremonies==
The verb ''to kirk'', meaning 'to present in church', was probably first used for the annual church services of some Scottish town councils, known as the [[Kirking of the Council]]. Since the re-establishment of the [[Scottish Parliament]] in 1999, the [[Kirking of the Parliament]] has become a fixed ceremony at the beginning of a session.<ref>((cite web| url = http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/newsandgallery/news/hrh_attends_the_kirking_of_the_scottish_parliament_969931870.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070513115314/http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/newsandgallery/news/hrh_attends_the_kirking_of_the_scottish_parliament_969931870.html| archive-date = 2007-05-13| title = The Prince of Wales - HRH attends the Kirking of the Scottish Parliament))</ref>
Historically a newly married couple would attend public worship as husband and wife for the first time at their kirking.
In Nova Scotia, [[Kirking of the Tartan]] ceremonies have become an integral part of most Scottish Festivals and Highland Games.<ref>((cite web|url=http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Heritage/FSCNS/Scots_NS/Thr_Yrs/Kirking_Tartan.html|title=Kirking of the Tartan|website=www.chebucto.ns.ca))</ref>

==Place names==
((Main|Kirk as a placename element))
''Kirk'' is found mainly as an element in many placenames of [[Scotland]], [[England]] and countries of large [[British expatriate]] communities.<ref>David Dorward, ''Scotland's Place-names'', 1995, p.82f. ((ISBN|1-873644-50-7))</ref>

Scottish examples include [[Falkirk]], [[Kirkwall]] and numerous [[Kirkhill (disambiguation)|Kirkhill]]s and [[Kirkton (disambiguation)|Kirkton]]s. Examples in England are [[Ormskirk]] and [[Kirkby]] in Lancashire, and [[Kirkstall]], [[Kirklees]] and [[Kirklevington]] in Yorkshire. [[Newkirk, Oklahoma]] state of the United States, is another example.

The element only found in place names of Anglo-Saxon origin but also in Anglo-Gaelic Southern Scottish names such as [[Kirkcudbright]], a place around a [[Cudbright]] church. Here, the Gaelic element ''cil-'' (coming from a monk's cell) might have been expected to go with the Gaelic form of [[Cuthbert]]. The reason appears to be that ''kirk'' was borrowed into local [[Galwegian Gaelic|Galwegian]], it does not seem to have been a part of spoken Gaelic in the Highlands or Ireland.

When the element appears in placenames of the former British empire, a distinction can be made between those where the element is productive ( named after a church) or transferred – from a place in Britain. [[Kirkland, Washington|Kirkland]], a city in the United States, is an exception, being named after the surname of an English settler, [[Peter Kirk (businessman)|Peter Kirk]].

The element ''kirk'' is also used in [[anglicisation]]s of continental European place names, originally formed from one of the continental Germanic cognates. [[Dunkirk]] ([[French Flanders]]) is a rendering of Dutch West-Flemish dialect of ''Duunkerke'' or standard Dutch form of ''Duinkerke''.

==Personal names==
''Kirk'' is also in use as both a surname and a male forename.  For lists of these, see [[Kirk (surname)]] and [[Kirk (given name)]], and also [[Kirkby (disambiguation)]]. Parallels in other languages are far rarer than with placenames, but English ''[[Church (surname)|Church]]'' and German ''Kirch'' can also be a surname.

==See also==
* [[Kirk Party]]

==References==
((Reflist))
((Authors of the Scots Confession))
((Portal bar|Calvinism|Scotland))

[[Category:Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:Presbyterianism in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scottish words and phrases]]

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