History Main / ChurchOfSaintGenericus

* ''Literature/TheBestChristmasPageantEver'' revolves around the activities of a Christian church in the 1970's, and takes the combination-of-elements approach. The fact that the building is called a church indicates it is not the worship place of Jehovah's Witnesses (who worship in Kingdom Halls, and don't celebrate Christmas anyway) or Quakers (who worship in meeting halls); the church has a Reverend, placing it firmly with the Protestant persuasion, but not the Salvation Army (whose leaders are called generals). The church celebrated Christmas, which means it isn't Adventist and probably isn't Independent Fundamentalist Baptist. The made-for-TV movie adaptation shows an almost entirely white congregation which means the church is probably not Pentecostal. Gladys Herman drinks what Alice at first believes is communion wine but what Beth correctly says is grape juice, and not many Protestant groups drank grape juice at communion exclusively, adults and children, that long after Prohibition except Baptists and the Christian & Missionary Alliance. At the same time, the congregants seem to have a higher opinion of the Virgin Mary than any Protestant group except Lutherans.

* In ''Comicbook/SupermanTheWeddingAlbum'', Clark and Lois get married at the Metropolis Chapel of United Faiths.

* Cicely's community church in Series/NorthernExposure falls into this. Chris presides, after a mail-order ordination in "The First Church of Truth and Beauty".... and what his theology is, or whether he even has one, is anyone's guess.
* A church Rick Grimes enters in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' appears on the outside to be a Baptist-style church (the marquee says "Southern Baptist Church of Holy Light")... but there is a very large Roman Catholic crucifix hanging on the back wall. Either this was a St. Genericus church or the writers [[ChristianityIsCatholic didn't know better]] (or both).

* In the Series/HighwayToHeaven universe, it's obviously that God, angels, and the afterlife are all real. However, it's less clear what religion is supposed to be true or mostly true. While [[AwayInAManger vague nods might be given to Christianity]], or you might see Jonathan appearing "undercover" as a Catholic priest, or you might have Protestant ministers as protagonists in some episodes, Christian doctrine is never whole-heartedly and unambiguously endorsed. In fact, it's occasionally challenged, albeit indirectly. In one episode, "The Silent Bell," a Protestant minister is talking to some children in his flock and he mentions John 14:6,in which Christ claims that He is the only way to the Father. The children are not impressed and question why Jesus didn't come in the modern age so that he could get on TV and tell everyone this. The premise of the episode is that it would be wrong for them to preach Christianity at a multi-ethnic school. However, elsewhere Jonathan quotes a (Old Testament) Bible verse about God creating man in His own image as if it is authoritative. One could say that the show is broadly Judeo-Christian in outlook, and while Jesus seems to be obliquely referenced in at least one episode, things are kept pretty general. Since Michael Landon himself was Jewish, it's understandable that while he wouldn't want to offend Christians, he also wouldn't want to use his show as a mouthpiece to announce Christian dogma.

** Averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Luca}}''. Both have openly religious Catholic characters.

** This trope is used in the wedding scene in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''.

* The "generic church" thing has gone so far in Europe that quite a few churches that were shut down in recent years due to lack of a congregation have been "profanized" and now serve as community gathering places, warehouses or whatever. Some cannot even be recognized as former churches any more. The German Lutherans for instance don't build any steeples in the rare cases they still build new churches.

To avoid Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs, cases where the denomination of a church [[LawOfConservationOfDetail wouldn't be expected to play much of a part in the plot]] '''[[color:red:shouldn't be included as examples.]]''' For example, a lot of films have newlyweds driving away from an unidentified church -- here, the church is used mainly as a signifier that this couple is just married, and its denomination isn't at all important to the plot.

* The murder mystery anthology ''Board to Death''. All three of the heroes are openly Christian, but attend specifically non-denominational churches.
* The climax of book 5 of ''Literature/AlexRider'' takes place in a Church of Forgotten Saints (but technically it's an oratory).
* Lampshaded in-story in Creator/GKChesterton's "The Vampire of the Village". Since "the English know nothing about the Church of England", it takes the Catholic priest Literature/FatherBrown to spot that the [[TheVicar village parson's]] purported doctrinal beliefs are an implausible mish-mash of High Church and Low Church opinions, for example, having an ornate crucifix in his office (High Church) while verbally describing himself as a Puritan (Low Church), indicating that he is really a [[BadHabits criminal impostor]].
* In the Maggody mystery series, the actual denomination of Brother Verber's Voice of the Almighty Lord Assembly Hall is never stated. The narrative shows Brother Verber being suspicious of Catholics, Methodists, Unitarians, Lutherans and Episcopalians at various times, and there's a Baptist church down the highway that competes with him for followers, but the Assembly Hall's exact affiliation is never specified (of course, Verber's "theological training" was via a Las Vegas correspondence course that he seems barely to have passed, so it's possible ''he'' doesn't know either).