What is Excommunication?
'''Excommunication''' is a [[Religion|religious]] act used to take off or [[:wikt:suspend|suspend]] membership in a religious community. The word literally means ''out of [[full communion|communion]]'', or ''no longer in communion''. In some churches, excommunication includes the belief that the person who was exocommunicated is going to [[Hell]]. Sometimes punishment ''follow'' excommunication; these include being banned, [[shunning]], and [[shaming]], depending on the group's religion or religious community. == Related pages == * [[Takfiri]] ==References== *''Encyclopedia of American Religions'', by [[J. Gordon Melton]] {{ISBN|0-8103-6904-4}} * Ludlow, Daniel H. ed, ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'', Macmillan Publishing, 1992. == Other websites == * [http://www.defide.com De Fide], a non-profit association, uses Canon Law to defend the Roman Catholic Church from Heresy by filing lawsuits in Ecclesiastical Court, seeking the excommunication of impenitent offenders. * [http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/E948.html ''Excommunication, the Ban, Church Discipline and Avoidance'' (from Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online)] * [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm Catholic Encyclopaedia on excommunication] * [http://www.spirithome.com/excommunication.html The two sides of excommunication] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215064946/http://www.spirithome.com/excommunication.html |date=2008-02-15 }} * [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/28/story_2819_1.html Episcopal Church of America excommunication] {{religion-stub}} [[Category:Christian terminology]]