Free US Law Dictionary

Reinstatement

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of communion. In some churches excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group. Censures and sanctions sometimes follow excommunication; these include banishment, shunning, and shaming, depending on the group's religion, the offense that caused excommunication, or religious community. This article addresses excommunication and spiritual condemnation often associated with excommunication, but not the religious censures and sanctions that follow excommunication.