(1) In a deconsecrated Mayfair church lit with Parisian-style globe lamps, Ronnie Scott's orchestra played jazz standards as waiters in traditional black linen aprons circulated with champagne.
(2) Eight months after their first meeting in a deconsecrated church in north London, the founders of the Sunday Assembly have their answer: on Sunday they will announce the formation of satellite congregations in more than 20 cities across Britain and the world, the first wave of an expansion that they believe could see 40 atheist churches springing up by the year and as many as 1,000 worldwide within a decade.
(3) It's played not through hi-fi speakers or by a practising musician, but a group of children from Faith primary school, sitting on little chairs in the great Victorian space of what was the church of St Mary of the Angels in West Everton – deconsecrated and nowadays known as the Friary.
(4) Inside the nave of the deconsecrated church, volunteers have been bunching chairs closer together, adding extra benches and children's seats in every scrap of space.
Desecrate
Definition:
(v. t.) To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate.
Example Sentences:
(1) Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, in February described gay lifestyles as perverted and a desecration of human dignity.
(2) And Islamist extremists desecrated shrines built by Sufi Muslims and the graves of British soldiers.
(3) "We will do everything that we can to remove funding for the Brooklyn museum until the director comes to his senses and realises that if you are a government-subsidised enterprise, then you can't do things that desecrate the most personal and deeply held views of people in society.
(4) On Wednesday, Sboui appeared before an investigating judge in Kairouan who is considering the charges; they include public indecency, desecrating a cemetery and belonging to a band of malefactors seeking to damage public property.
(5) But what can be done to halt this desecration is less obvious.
(6) There were shouts of "shame" from the Tory benches when John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said that Britain should apologise because it had been willing to provide military support to "desecrate" the holiest site in the Sikh faith.
(7) Unconscious aggression is unleashed against the Jews, who thus become scapegoats against whom three constantly recurring accusations are levelled: the killing of Christ; the desecration of the Host; and the ritual murder of children.
(8) In a letter to a corporation official, Cottam wrote: "Desecration: graffiti have been scratched and painted on to the great west doors of the cathedral, the chapter house door and most notably a sacrilegious message painted on to the restored pillars of the west portico.
(9) But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.
(10) And cemeteries are desecrated so not even the dead can escape.
(11) He once created a metallic artwork decorated with the phrase "I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses" and displayed it on his website.
(12) As he was conveniently dead, that box was then moved, for fear of desecration.
(13) At least 400 people were killed in the army's infamous Operation Blue Star, which enraged Sikhs who accused the troops of desecrating the shrine.
(14) His claims of "desecration" and graffiti on the cathedral, along with details of "human defecation", drug use and general disruption caused by the camp have infuriated protesters, who have interpreted his comments as support for the corporation's eviction attempt.
(15) Isis was “intent upon only desecration and destruction” and was murdering innocent people and oppressing and raping women and girls across northern Iraq, Shorten said.
(16) These parameters call for “freedom of access to the holy sites consistent with the established status quo”, without recognizing that for 50 years Israeli governments have shredded that status quo, desecrating Muslim cemeteries like Mamilla and Bab al-Rahmeh, demolishing ancient Ummayad buildings discovered south of the Haram, and much else, in the race to dig down to the only strata that matter to nationalist Israeli archaeologists.
(17) Certainly these are not words of contrition and the Sun on Sunday so swiftly returning to the fecund bone-yard of gossip, poison and lies indicates that they've learned nothing from the outrage they provoked with their desecration of the dead children of ordinary people.
(18) Two members of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) were reportedly entrusted with the burial in an unknown location - chosen to avoid the risk of the grave becoming a shrine for supporters or, more likely, being desecrated by vengeful opponents.
(19) Two senior US officers were shot dead inside Kabul's heavily fortified interior ministry on Saturday and at least six others died in street protests as another day of violence convulsed Afghanistan following the desecration of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers.
(20) Gross desecration of Catholic or Protestant religious symbols is no longer a sin in America.