Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or (arch)diocese, i.e. a cathedral church. For a particular individual, one's mother church is the church in which one received the sacrament of baptism. The term has specific meanings within different Christian traditions. Catholics refer to the Catholic Church as "Holy Mother Church".
Mother church architecturally represented in a mosaic of a fifth-century chapel floor (tomb marker/cover of a certain Valentia with the added invocation to rest in peace: Valentia in Pace). Bardo Museum, Tunis.
Turku Cathedral, the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
On Mothering Sunday, people historically have visited the church in which they were baptized.
The Aedicule, before its restoration, encloses the tomb of Jesus, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical associations.
Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford, the city where the Wesley brothers studied and formed the Holy Club.
Wesley's Chapel was established by John Wesley in 1778 to serve as his London base. Today it incorporates a museum of Methodism in its crypt.
John Wesley preaching outside a church (19th-century engraving). Early Methodists were forbidden from preaching in parish churches.
The first Methodist chapel called "The Foundery". Lithograph by H. Humphreys, c. 1865.