the word church has pagan connotations. it comes from circee(sp) an ancient goddess of trances and medicines. funny but true
Gk. kyriakon (adj.) "of the Lord" was used of houses of Christian worship since c.300, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ekklesia or basilike. An example of the direct Greek-to-Germanic progress of many Christian words, via the Goths; it was probably used by West Germanic people in their pre-Christian period. Also picked up by Slavic, via Germanic (cf. O.Slav. criky, Rus. cerkov). Romance and Celtic languages use variants of L. ecclesia. French église (11c.) is from L. ecclesia.