Question first
appeared on April 27, 2003
Is
there any significance to the fact that most Protestant Churches, if named
after saints, have an Aapostrophe(=
) - s@
after them? Example:
St. Mark=s,
St. John=s,
etc. Orthodox Churches are
singular, i.e., St. George. Explain
the difference if it can be explained.
There
appears to be no consistency in this practice.
In the English language the use of the Aapostrophe-s@
is to denote (1) ownership, i.e., Mark=s
car, or (2) the abbreviation for the word Ais,@
i.e., Mark=s
going to the movies.
When
a church is named after a saint, it is appropriate to have no apostrophe-s in
the name. Neither use, as noted
above, makes sense: St. Mark=s
Church means neither St. Mark owns the church, nor St. Mark is
Church.
In
searching the Achurches@
section of the Yellow Pages, all local Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches
named after saints have no apostrophe-s. Likewise,
the local Lutheran Churches. However, the listed Episcopal and United
Methodist Churches have a confusing mixture.
Why? Maybe because some
congregations know the English language and others don=t.
İVery
Rev. Fr. Olof Scott, Sunday Bulletin, April 27, 2003
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