congregation

IPA: kɑŋgrʌgˈeɪʃʌn

The act of congregating or collecting together.
A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsory form).
A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the Catholic Church.
A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
Any large gathering of people.
A flock of various birds, such as plovers or eagles.
(UK, Oxford University) The main body of university staff, comprising academics, administrative staff, heads of colleges, etc.

Examples of "congregation" in Sentences

A sojourning congregation is no longer ecclesiastical.
As Rehnquist wrote in the majority decision, Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor.
There are those who are not the best role models out there, but a congregation is the heart of why and where I attend church.
Its quite obvious that someone within the congregation is there - probably every Sunday, waiting for that one sermon to happen.
Other scenes, such as when a church congregation is urged to pray over a cardboard George W. Bush cutout, are almost too bizarre to believe.
Closed communion to the local congregation is particularly Baptist, I think, and that strikes me as a different theological beast entirely (though I'm not especially educated on the matter)
The concept of the Church's catholicity was a good two centuries old by Nicea ... interestingly, (and I think someone like Möhler offers a cock-eyed interpretation of Ignatius on this), Ignatius sets up an analogy whereby the congregation is found with the bishop just as "wherever Jesus Christ is, there also is the katholike ekklesia."