form of ecclesiastical censure by which the offender is excluded from the communion of believers, the rites or sacraments of a church, and the rights of church membership, but not necessarily from membership in the church as such; Roman Catholicism distinguishes between two kinds of excommunication, that which renders a person toleratus, tolerated, and that which renders him vitandus, one who is to be avoided; Lutheran tradition defines excommunication as the denial of the communion to public and obstinate sinners; some churches do not use the term excommunication, preferring to speak of church discipline