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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America

(Encyclopedia)National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, cooperative agency of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations. Formed in 1950, with headquarters in New York Cit...

Capuchins

(Encyclopedia)Capuchins kăpˈyo͞ochĭnz [key] [Ital.,=hooded ones], Roman Catholic religious order of friars, one of the independent orders of Franciscans, officially the Friars Minor Capuchin [Lat. abbr., O.M.Ca...

Moray, council area and former county, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Moray mûrˈē [key], council area (1993 est. pop. 86,250), 864 sq mi (2,237 sq km), and former county, NE Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, the county of Moray (or Morayshire) was div...

Stirling, council area and former county, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Stirling, council area and former county, Scotland: see Stirlingshire. ...

goatsbeard

(Encyclopedia)goatsbeard, common name for plants of the genus Tragopogon (see salsify) of the family Asteraceae (aster family) and of the genus Aruncus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), related to the spiraeas....

commercial paper

(Encyclopedia)commercial paper, type of short-term negotiable instrument, usually an unsecured promissory note, that calls for the payment of money at a specified date. Because it is not backed by collateral, comme...

sacrament

(Encyclopedia)sacrament [Lat.,=something holy], an outward sign of something sacred. In Christianity, a sacrament is commonly defined as having been instituted by Jesus and consisting of a visible sign of invisible...

War of 1812

(Encyclopedia)War of 1812, armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. It followed a period of great stress between the two nations as a result of the treatment of neutral countries by bo...

tertiary

(Encyclopedia)tertiary tûrˈshēârē [key], in the Roman Catholic Church, member of a third order. The third orders are chiefly supplements of the friars—Franciscans (the most numerous), Dominicans, and Carmeli...

ratite

(Encyclopedia)ratite rătˈīt [key], common and general term for a variety of flightless birds characterized by a flat, raftlike sternum rather than the keeled sternum, designed to support flight muscles, typical ...