What is the difference between churches cathedrals minsters and abbeies?

Answer 1

A church, in Christianity, acts as the religious center of a parish (they are therefore more properly called parish churches), the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches. There are parish churches of all sizes, ages, and architectural styles, with internal fittings equally diverse.

A cathedral is the principal church of a bishop's diocese, containing the episcopal throne and in which a residential bishop has his official seat. Cathedrals are often large and magnificent. It is also normally a requirement for a town to be designated as a city for it to have a cathedral.

A minster is monastic church (the place where a community of monks meet to pray); since many English cathedrals were originally associated with monasteries, the term applies to them by extension.

An abbey is a monastic house surrounded by a wall, especially among Benedictines and Cistercians. The buildings within the wall include a church with an adjacent cloister or arcade surrounding a courtyard off which there are a dormitory, refectory, and guest house.