As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keepsthem invery good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it [the church] besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it, he stands up, and looks about him; and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servant to them.

-Addison,Joseph
 In The Spectator, no.112, 9  Jul.

Ubi Petrus, ibi ergo ecclesia. Where Peter is, there, accordingly, is the Church.

-St Ambrose
Explanatio psalmi 40.

He was ofthefaith chiefly inthesensethatthe churchhe currently did not attend was Catholic.

-Amis, Sir Kingsley
  One Fat Englishman, ch.8.

The nearer the Church, the further from God.

-Andrewes, Lancelot
  Of the Nativity, sermon15.

To have one's credit cards cancelled is nowakin to being excommunicated by the medieval church.

-Anonymous
  In Reader's Digest, Sep.

You will soon hate me as much as you love me now, for you assume an authority in the affairs of the church to which I shall never assent.

-Becket,Thomas a'  , Saint
c.1160  Remark to Henry II. Quoted in J R Green  A Short History of the English People (1915), vol.1, ch.2, section 8.

In Atlanta, the first question is'What's your business?' In Macon, it is 'Where do you go to church?' In Augusta they want your grandmother's maiden name.But in Savannah, the first question is'What would you like to drink?'

-Berendt,John
  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Broad of Church and broad of Mind, Broad before and broad behind, A keen ecclesiologist, A rather dirty Wykehamist.

-Betjeman, SirJohn
Mount Zion,'The Wykehamist'.

Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew16:18^19.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Ephesians 3:20^1.

Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm.

-Blake,William
  Songs of Experience,'The Little Vagabond'.

As for the British churchman, he goes to church as he goes to the bathroom, with the minimum of fuss and with no explanation if he can help it.

-Blythe, Ronald George
  The Age of Illusion, ch.12.

The Church knows nothing of a sacredness of war. The Church which prays'Our Father'asks God only for peace.

-Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
  Draft of a new Catechism with F Hildebrandt, in Gesammelte Schriften, vol.3 (1947, translated by E Robinson and J Bowden in No Rusty Sword,1965).

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell;The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost;The holy Catholick Church;The Communion of Saints;The Forgiveness of sins;The Resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen.

-Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer,  Apostle's Creed.

And I believe in one Catholick and Apostolick Church.

-Book of Common Prayer
Holy Communion, Nicene Creed.

Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth.

-Book of Common Prayer
Holy Communion, Introduction to Prayer for the Church militant.

Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea? 156

-Brooke, Rupert Chawner
  'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'.

In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks,'tis but my comment; where there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my religionfrom Rome or Geneva, butthe dictates of my own reason.

-Browne, SirThomas
^5  Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section 5.

The existence of St Sophia is atmospheric; that of St Peter's, overpowering, imminently substantial.One is a church to God; the other a salon for his agents.One is consecrated to reality, the other to illusion. St Sophia, in fact, is large, and St Peter's is vilely, tragically small.

-Byron, Robert
  The Byzantine Achievement.

The true Church of England, at this moment, lies in the Editors of the newspapers.

-Carlyle,Thomas
  Signs of the Times.