Is anyone able to explain the different church denominations for me?

[Newsenmum]

Locally we seem to have lots of churches! Within walking distance is Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, and another which I have no idea (is there a way to find out?) also my
son was asking me the difference between high and low church? I am honestly stumped. Yes I could google but I thought mumsnetters might have a better and more interesting way of explaining it to me ☺️ (and my son!)

Ahh just looked on maps and the other one is Anglican. Is that different?

Not really. I have vague ideas but I can't really explain it all, not the theology.

The biggest difference is between Roman Catholic and the others you’ve listed which are all Protestant - so don’t have anything much to do with the Pope and the Vatican.

Anglican is Church of England. But within that different areas (parishes) have very different styles of service.

High Church means a very traditional, formal service, lots of liturgy (bits that are read/repeated from a prayer book), lots of robes, lots of traditional song maybe with organ and choir, and probably some incense. People might talk about a Priest or a father rather than a vicar, and talk about Mass rather than communion.
I think RC is high church, and some Anglican churches are too, but some are also ‘low’.

Baptist churches I think are low church. No robes, probably no dog collar on the minister (priest), music probably from a music group with a guitar and keyboard. Service is likely to be relaxed, have a longer sermon, no liturgy and people will want to chat with visitors before/after the service.

Baptists big defining difference is that they don’t believe in infant baptisms/christening. They think the decision to be baptised should be a personal one and so happens for teenagers/adults, and they dunk the whole person in a specially built pool (giant bath) that usually hides under the stage at the front of church when not used.

Methodists I’m not as familiar with but they’re probably somewhere in between Anglican and Baptist!

Clear as mud?

That’s actually really helpful and the Baptist sounds just like the Baptist church near me!

Roman Catholic is in communion with Rome. They have the Pope and a strict hierarchy. They have the Bible but also apostolic tradition which is hard to explain, its like stuff handed down from apostole to priests. Plus they have the sacraments..

Anglican is like a catholic/protestations hybrid as they still believe in apostolic tradition but the churches that are part of the Anglican communion have the arch Bishop of Canterbury as the head and have their own hierarchy. They have some sacraments but some a viewed differently.

Methodist and Baptists are protestant and less hierarchy in leadership and more bible, less apostolic tradition and are less into the sacraments.

Sorry, really crap explanation.

And what is Methodist like compared to Baptist?

I am not 100% sure.
I think baptist baptise adults but methodists baptise babies.
Methodist have open communion and Baptists closed.

You tend to find modern, simple interiors and low key music.

I'm not sure either are big on alcohol or gambling.

My son said once "why does it matter, it's all the same God" which i thought was a good insight.

Catholics aren't allowed gluten free communion wafers. So that's inclusive!

Baptist churches I think are low church. No robes, probably no dog collar on the minister (priest), music probably from a music group with a guitar and keyboard. Service is likely to be relaxed, have a longer sermon, no liturgy and people will want to chat with visitors before/after the service. To muddy the water further this also describes the Anglican church I attend ...
There's such a variety of churches OP you can only get a general idea from denomination. For example the Anglican church I used to attend was more high church / formal than the Catholic church I sometimes go to due to my job.

This is great.
Methodist is like an offshoot of Anglican, founded by C of E vicar John Wesley (his brother Charles wrote a lot of rousing hymns) - initially he was trying to reform the C of E but it grew into a separate denomination. Methodist were early pioneers of the abstinence movement (way before the AA / 12 step programmes) so don't have alcohol at church social gatherings, or raffles (considered gambling) - although I've no idea if the raffle thing is every Methodist Church or if it is still a thing, I remember it from a few decades back.

Why not? 🤣

Historically Methodists are teetotal. But one of my best friends is a Methodist minister and enjoys a glass of wine on an evening out

Roman Catholics don't ordain women. Anglicans do (you'll find a small number don't accept them, but is it in Anglican theology), Methodists, Baptists do.

Leadership , views on sexuality, the Bible all vary hugely.

The biggest difference between Catholicism and Protestantism (includes Church of England whether high or low church, Baptists, Methodists etc) is transubstantiation. Catholics believe the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. They also believe in papal supremacy and saints as intercessors with God. Protestants believe in consubstantiation, where at communion the bread and wine simply represent the body and blood of Christ. They don't have saints as intermediaries and they don't follow the pope.

Because Catholicism has a legal system that has been developped over centuries, so everything has a strict definition and boundaries. More theologically, because if you believe that holy communion is truly and substantially the Body of Christ (which Catholics do), then you're going to be very careful to want to get it right.

So what's called the 'proper matter' for the Eucharist, in the Catholic Church, is bread made only from wheat flour and water, nothing else added, and wine made only from fermented grapes, nothing else added.

You can have low-gluten hosts, and people are welcome to take the chalice (wine) without the host if they can't have any gluten at all.

Actually, the Catholic church my family attend, DO have special gluten free wafers for those that need them, they're kept separate from the normal ones.
Thy never re-introduced communion wine after covid tho, except for the priest himself.

I am an atheist so not the most obvious person to answer this, but I was brought up in the Church of Scotland, which is Presybterian. As I understand it, the Christian Church got going in the first few centuries after Christ and got a huge boost when the Roman Emperor of the day converted to Christianity and the entire Empire then followed suit (or something like that - memory pretty hazy on these points ...). When the Roman Empire fell apart, the western half became what we now call Roman Catholic and the eastern half followed a different path and established various Orthodox churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox etc). I'm unable to say without going off and looking it up what the difference is. I think it had to do with a long ago argument about some core beliefs, but I don't know which ones.

Anyway, the Catholic church grew very influential across Western Europe and also very rich and corrupt. Along came Martin Luther, who kicked off a move to reform the church. Much bloodshed and persecution followed, on both sides, but eventually things settled down with Southern Europe largely remaining Catholic and Northern Europe largely becoming Protestant. The word Protestant presumably comes from protesting about the Catholic church. To begin with, Protestant churches were very similar to Catholic in having bishops and mass and so forth, but eventually there was another split and many Protestants formed Nonconformist denominations such as the Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians. A big feature here is that they don't have bishops and their ordained ministers are called ministers, not priests, vicars or rectors. They are the spiritual leaders of a congregation and lay members called Elders assist them with the running of the church and with providing support and advice to members. Episcopalian Protestants, including the Anglicans, do have bishops.

No doubt there are many errors and oversimplifications in the above!

Strange. When my mum was teaching children towards first communion in a Catholic school, and later when attached to a different Catholic church, it was pretty easy to source gluten free wafers and the priests had no problem with it.

Anglican is the Church of England, it is the established church and every parish has a church (although many share vicars)

Methodists and Baptists are historically non-conformists or "chapel" they were founded as alternatives to the C of E but that was 100's of years ago and they are pretty mainstream. There are plenty in cities and towns but villages may or may not have a Baptist or Methodist chapel, they do not have the 100% coverage/parish arrangement of the C of E.

There are also newer evangelical/charismatic churches that may belong to a national network such as Vineyard or be one-offs. These are reasonably mainstream, tend to be quite happy clappy and friendly but they do vary in their beliefs on matters such as the role of women so it's worth a little look at their website (they will always have a website!).

Some churches do not have a permanent building to worship in but have a "pop-up" arrangement where they hire a venue such as a school or community hall on Sunday.

If you are lucky one of your churches will have a review on Mystery Worshipper

To add to all that —-
there are also independent churches, which are “one-offs” (not connected to any denomination) & Protestant in their theology.

And there are also a growing number of house churches springing up in western countries- and they are the oldest & most widely practiced form of church worldwide. They particularly thrive in places where Christians are persecuted. There’s a massive rise of house churches in Iran for example. They tend to be autonomous and decentralised, and small, meeting in homes, without any professional clergy.

In my area of the country there is a strong history of non-conformism. I live in a very small town with endless chapels and churches for various flavours of the Protestant faith. In fact an area of the town is named because there were so many of them. Having been brought up Catholic, the distinctions remain largely a mystery to me but these days, I understand, some of them have congregations in a single figures but keep plodding on.

Not far from me we have of the UK's bastions of Mormonism with an enormous church. It does make me wonder what wonder how it happened that Mormon missionionaries arrived on these shores in long gone times and a whole pile of local people (with the myriad of variations of Christianity that already existed in the area to choose from) thought 'yep, this is the religion for me'.

When the Roman Empire fell apart, the western half became what we now call Roman Catholic and the eastern half followed a different path and established various Orthodox churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox etc). I'm unable to say without going off and looking it up what the difference is.

Not very much, on a deep theological level. Catholic and Orthodox are pretty much united on all core doctrines. There are some differences in world view (the role of rationality/reason in faith), but nothing that couldn't be overcome. Overall, the divide is very largely for historical-cultural reasons. There is still some bad feeling on both sides (particularly on the Orthodox side). The rapprochement is more obvious at a high level and amongst academics than with ordinary priests & believers.

You've also got fundamental differences in the nature of God - Trinitarian (God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and non-Trinitarian (God is God, Jesus isn't God, the Holy Spirit isn't God) - which then means Baptism/Christening/Dedication is either in the name of 1/3 or just God.

Whether Holy Communion can be taken by unbaptised people (Open or Closed).

Whether Communion can be taken by infants, children or only adults.

Whether Saints have the ability to intercede or not, whether they're actually saints in the first place. Whether they existed, are metaphors or are minions of The Devil.

Whether there has to be a leader who is the only way for a person to access salvation/knowledge, the nature of that leader.

Whether there are particular books in the Bible or not.

How those books should be interpreted.

What should be done at death or other life stages.

How to behave in terms of food that is eaten, observing a day of rest, what language is used in worship or outside, what prayers are said and the words they contain, how to dress, how to act, roles of women, men and children, what to have in the home, what medical treatment, what family planning, sexual behaviour...

And differences in Eschatology - what happens at Death - whether Christ is going to return for a thousand years to rule Earth, whether he isn't, whether there's a really shit period just before or if He's only going to come when everybody's a believer. (Millenarianism, Amillenarianism, Historic Premillenarianism & Dispensationalism) - whether a literal Antichrist is going to show up, whether the souls are in Limbo or Purgatory...

Whether there should be music, whether people can be possessed by the Holy Spirit on a wet Sunday morning in a disused pub, whether churches should be lovingly constructed and made beautiful (or if the disused pub is fine because the Church is The People, not the building), whether people can guarantee their afterlife just by being a member (or are instantly doomed for not being of that particular flavour) or if they have to do anything...

Whether the Bishop of Rome is a top bloke, an allied equal to their top bishop (but perhaps somewhat mistaken) or Satan himself, whether everybody was made in the image of God or just Men (or just white men), if women can be religious leaders or simple breeders.

In short, anything that you might have learned at school or seen on TV about Christianity, there will be hundreds of other Churches that completely reject it in favour of the complete opposite - and will have been the cause of violence, murders and great suffering on the part of others, sometimes outside that particular church/denomination/sect and within.

You could spend ten lifetimes studying (not aware of any that believe in reincarnation, but there's definitely a possibility somebody does) and still only have scratched the surface.

Most of the main denominations you'll find in the UK are Trinitarian, though.

Interesting that some RC churches allow gluten free host. The official stance is that it has to contain some gluten.

I can't speak for all denominations, but CofE (anglican) has as many flavours of Christian as they do Churches. Some are Hugh church. Some are low. Some are traditional, some are happy clappy. Some are somewhere in between.