My father, a retired minister, is on a campaign to correct what he perceives to be a misuse of the word congregation.

It is very common for people to refer to a "local congregation" (as in the folk that come together to worship in a particular house of worship).

My father's contention is that this is redundant, that a congregation is, by definition, local, and that one should, therefore, never use the words "local" and "congregation" together in that way.

An example that came up recently was in the job description for an opening at the district level of our denomination (a position serving several congregations in a geographic area).

The job description called for the successful candidate to "participate in the life of the local congregations". My father had the committee strike the word "local" from that sentence.

My contention is that while internally, a congregation is local (in the sense that those people currently congregating together are clearly "local" to each other, a congregation as a unit, or a body, has no implication of locality. There are congregations in Nebraska, congregations in Montana, congregations in Hawaii, or even England. If I want someone to serve congregations, (as in the description above), I want them to serve the local congregations, not the ones in other districts.

I think that the phrase "local congregations" was correct in this case.

Can anyone offer any clarification on the use of "congregation" or "local congregation"?

Thanks,
Andy Cook
Omaha, NE, USA