1.   Although the church altars here are sparsely filled, the pews are crowded.

2.   Among evangelicals, conversion stories often involve an immediate emotional experience, the believer driven to his knees or to the church altar by a conviction that defies reason.

3.   In Greek Orthodox liturgy, the iconostasis is the elaborate, gated barrier between a church altar and worshipers.

4.   It was probably painted not for a church altar, as the Nelson-Atkins was, but for private devotion.

5.   The four-foot candelabra could pass for Baroque and would be suitable for any church altar in Rome.

6.   The magazine article describes Barros standing nude in front of the church altar, being approached by a priest with a whip.

7.   The use of relics has been so central to the Roman Catholic faith that even today church altars customarily contain holy relics.

8.   Tina Pace was skeptical and afraid as she watched Christians line up at the church altar for prayer and then fall down dramatically.

9.   Veritable trees of yellow roses flanked the church altar where the Rev. Dr. Wayne Day, senior minister at First Methodist, led an hourlong service.

10.   An ensemble of brightly adorned and feathered musicians replete with conch shells, drums and flutes, danced and chanted around a church altar.