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This article examines the institutional roles of the church as viewed by the pastor, by the administrators of the denomination, by interdenominational executives, interfaith councils, and similar groups. It is interesting that the majority of definitions of the relationship of the church to the community have come in threes. Parish philosophers tend to come in terms of: the church as center of the community; the church as segment of the community; and the church as circumference. When on engages in self-examination about the way in which the parish structure is viewed as it relates itself to the total community, it is quite interesting to see that each has a viewpoint about the relationship of the church to its community. The prominent location of Catholic and Anglican edifices atop the hills of the world suggest that these denominations are well aware of the importance of making the church the center of the community. This was certainly true in early New England when the community was legally, as well as geographically, gathered around the parish church.