City (pop., 1999 est.: 324,200), South Island, New Zealand. Founded in 1850 as a model Church of England settlement, it was the last and most successful colonizing project inspired by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his New Zealand Co. It is the country's second largest city and an important industrial centre; its port is Lyttelton. Called the "Garden City of the Plains" for its numerous parks and gardens, it is home to the University of Canterbury, Christ's College, and Lincoln University
Any of various conservative Protestant churches found mainly in the U.S. Each congregation is autonomous in government, with elders, deacons, and a minister or ministers; there is no national administrative organization. These churches originated in the early 19th century with the Disciples of Christ movement, which relied on the Bible as the only standard of Christian faith and worship. Controversies split the movement, and the Churches of Christ designated those congregations that opposed organized mission societies and the use of instrumental music in worship. After their separation from the Disciples, the Churches of Christ continued to grow. Worship services consist of prayer, preaching, unaccompanied singing, and the Lord's Supper
officially Church of Christ, Scientist Religious denomination founded in the U.S. in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy. Like other Christian churches, Christian Science subscribes to an omnipotent God and the authority (but not inerrancy) of the Bible and takes the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as essential to human redemption. It departs from traditional Christianity in considering Jesus divine but not a deity and in regarding creation as wholly spiritual. Sin denies God's sovereignty by claiming that life derives from matter. Spiritual cure of disease is a necessary element of redemption from the flesh and one of the church's most controversial practices. Most members refuse medical help for disease, and members engaged in the full-time healing ministry are called Christian Science practitioners. Elected readers lead Sunday services based on readings from the Bible and Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. At the end of the 20th century, the church had about 2,500 congregations in 70 countries; its headquarters is at the Mother Church in Boston. See also New Thought