In the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Church or certain civil government entities such as the state of Louisiana, an administrative part of a diocese that has its own church
per "A Hornbook of VA History", "When the first English settlers came to Virginia in 1607 they followed the familiar patterns of the Church of England and established parishes that served as local units of ecclesiastical and community organization ---In Colonial Virginia the General Assembly established parishes and fixed their boundaries, often at the same time that it created or altered counties A decade after independence, on 16 Jan 1786, the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, ending state-enforced support for the formally established church and its parishes "
the group of people of a certain area who are organized into a local church; sometimes the word also refers to the geographic region around a church In the South many of the present-day counties were once referred to as parishes [as is still the case in Louisiana]; mostly a reference to the local congregation
The group of people of a certain area who are organized into a local, self-supporting church Sometimes the word is used to refer to the geographic region around a church In the South, many of the present-day counties were once organized as parishes [as is still the case in Louisiana] See Mission
Worshiping community of Christians who gather weekly at Christ's altar to experience God's redemptive love by celebrating the eucharist, and who then carry on this redemptive work in the world
In some churches, the geographical territory of a local church In general, the constituency of a local church; that is, all the people who are members or who informally consider it to be their church In many churches, congregation is used for this term
A community of the faithful in the diocese which has its own church building, under the authority of a Pastor who is responsible for providing ministerial service Most parishes are defined geographically, but they can be formed along national or ethnic lines
A specific community of the Christian faithful within a diocese, which has its own church building, under the authority of a pastor who is responsible for providing them with ministerial service Most parishes are formed on a geographic basis, but they may be formed along national or ethnic lines
an area from which the congregation of a church (sometimes churches) is drawn and under the care of a member of the clergy For historical reasons, these are called chaplaincies in the Diocese in Europe
A community of the faithful served by a pastor charged with responsibility for providing them with full pastoral service Most parishes are territorial, embracing all of the faithful in a certain area of a diocese: some are personal or national, for certain classes of people, without strict regard for their places of residence
An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live