CITES BY TOPIC:  worship

Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, pp. 1606-1607

Worship.  Any form of religious service showing reverence for Divine Being, or exhortation to obedience to or following the mandates of such Being.  Religious exercises participated in by a number of persons assembled for that purpose, the disturbance of which is a statutory offense in many states.

English law.  A title of honor or dignity used in addresses to certain magistrates and other persons of rank or office.

Public worship.  This term may mean the worship of God, conducted and observed under public authority; or it may mean worship in an open or public place, without privacy or concealment; or it may mean the performance of religious exercises, under a provision for an equal right in the whole public to participate in its benefits; or it may be used in contradistinction to worship in the family or the closet.  In this country, what is called "public worship" is commonly conducted by voluntary societies, constituted according to their own notions of ecclesiastical authority and ritual propriety, opening their places of worship, and admitting to their religious serves such persons, and upon such terms, and subject to such regulations, as they may choose to designate and establish.  A church absolutely belonging to the public, and in which all persons without restriction have equal rights, such as the public enjoy in highways or public landings, is certainly a very rare institution.

[Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, pp. 1606-1607]