Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2025).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Melkites | Byzantine-rite Catholics of the Middle East using Greek or Arabic. |
| members | Affiliated (which usually means enrolled with names recorded) church members. |
| Mennonites | A Protestant tradition dating to 16th-century Anabaptists (qv) and the Left-Wing or Radical Reformation. |
| Messianic Jews | Jewish believers in Christ as Messiah who opt not to join mainline churches but form Independent churches retaining some Hebrew terminology and Jewish traditions and customs. |
| Methodists | A tradition formed out of the Church of England in 1795. Many Methodist denominations are called ‘Wesleyan’, ‘Holiness’, or ‘United’, although most belong to the World Methodist Council. |
| metropolitan | For Catholics, an archbishop with authority over bishops of a church province; for Eastern Orthodox, a bishop ranking just below patriarch. |
| mission | The dimension of Christian witness concerned with outreach to the world. |
| mission sui juris | In Catholic missionary usage, a small territory or station independent of any other jurisdiction or diocese. |
| missionary | A worker sent to propagate Christianity, usually of a different culture or nation. |
| missionary societies | Local, denominational, national or international religious organisations dedicated to starting and supporting missionary work. |
| Moravians | A Protestant tradition, also known as Unity of the Brethren or Continental Pietists. |
| mother tongue | Main language of a person’s home or childhood; the first language spoken in an individual’s home in early or earliest childhood. |
| Movements | A cover term for groups within Christianity that overlap the major traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Independent) and are therefore counted separately. The largest are the Evangelical and the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. |
| Muslims | Followers of Islam, in two primary branches: (a) Sunni; and (b) Shia. Other, significantly smaller, branches include Kharijite, Sanusi, Mahdiya, Ahmadiya, Druzes and Sabbateans. |
| nation | (1) A politically-organised nationality with independent, self-governing existence as a sovereign country or nation-state; (2) a synonym for country (qv). (3) A people or people group (qv). |
| native language | Mother tongue (qv). |
| New Religionists | Adherents of Hindu or Buddhist groups or offshoots, or new syncretistic religions combining Christianity with Eastern religions. |
| New Religions | 20th-century Asiatic movements; Eastern or indigenous non-Christian syncretistic religions, e.g., Japanese neo-Buddhist and neo-Shinto New Religious movements and Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian syncretistic religions. |
| Non-Christians | Generic term describing all persons in the world who are not Christians. |
| nondenominational | Unrelated to any denomination or denominations, nor accountable to any. |
| nonreligionists | Agnostics (qv) and atheists (qv). |
| Non-traditional (house, cell) | Christians meeting for worship in a private homes or other non-church buildings for regular Sunday worship. |
| oblate | One devoted to monastic life or special religious service or work, sometimes a layperson at a monastery. |
| Old Believers | Followers of 1666 schisms from the Russian Orthodox Church, retaining the liturgical use of Old Slavonic. Also called Old Ritualists. |
| Old Catholics | Followers of schisms ex Church of Rome retaining Old Catholic apostolic succession of bishops; especially schisms of 1702, 1724, 1870, 1897. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.