Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism

Sectarianism

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...

. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions

Types of educational institutions

- Primary Education :* Elementary School, Primary School, "Grade School", School* Middle School* Comprehensive School- Secondary Education :* Secondary School, School* High School* Upper School* Independent School * Academy...

 or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination

Religious denomination

A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...

 though the organization may be overtly influenced by the Church they are related to.

Academic sphere

Examples of private universities that identify themselves as nonsectarian include Berea College

Berea College

Berea College is a liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky , founded in 1855. Current full-time enrollment is 1,514 students...

, Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

, Columbia College in Missouri, Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, Denison University

Denison University

Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...

, Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university founded as a junior college in 1942. It now has several campuses located in New Jersey, Canada, and the United Kingdom.-Description:...

, Franklin & Marshall College

Franklin & Marshall College

Franklin & Marshall College is a four-year private co-educational residential national liberal arts college in the Northwest Corridor neighborhood of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States....

, George Washington University

George Washington University

The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

, Hawaii Pacific University

Hawaii Pacific University

Hawaii Pacific University, also known as HPU, is a private, Nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Honolulu, Hawaii and Kaneohe, Hawaii. HPU founded in 1965 as Hawaii Pacific College by Paul C.T. Loo, Eureka Forbes, Elizabeth W...

, Hofstra University

Hofstra University

Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...

, Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

, Kwansei Gakuin University

Kwansei Gakuin University

, colloquially abbreviated to , is a non-denominational Christian private and coeducational university located in Nishinomiya, Sanda, Osaka City, and Tokyo, Japan....

, National University

National University (California)

National University , founded in 1971, is a comprehensive, nonsectarian, independent, accredited, non-profit private university headquartered in La Jolla, California, United States, with academic degree programs offered at campuses located throughout the state, one in Henderson, Nevada, and...

, New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...

, Quinnipiac University

Quinnipiac University

Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park...

 in Connecticut, Reed College

Reed College

Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...

 in Oregon, Whitman College

Whitman College

Whitman College is a private, co-educational, non-sectarian, residential undergraduate liberal arts college located in Walla Walla, Washington. Initially founded as a seminary by a territorial legislative charter in 1859, the school became a four year degree granting institution in 1883...

 in Washington, Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

, University of Richmond

University of Richmond

The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...

, Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

, the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

, Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

, and Woodbury University

Woodbury University

Woodbury University, founded as "Woodbury Business College", is a private, non-profit, coeducational, nonsectarian university located in Burbank, California.-History:...

 in California.

Private primary and secondary schools also self-identified as nonsectarian include Allendale Columbia School

Allendale Columbia School

Allendale Columbia School is an independent, nonsectarian, college preparatory school for students in nursery through twelfth grade. The Columbia School for girls, established in 1890 by Caroline Milliman and Alida Lattimore, and the Allendale School for boys, established in 1926 by a group of...

 in Rochester, New York, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School

Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School

Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School is the oldest non-sectarian private school in the United States, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan , in New York City, New York...

 in New York and Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania

Fort Washington, Pennsylvania

Fort Washington is an unincorporated census-designated place and suburb of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,446 at the 2010 census.-Prior to the Revolutionary War:...

 (the oldest nonsectarian school in the U.S.), Friends School Mullica Hill

Friends School Mullica Hill

Friends School Mullica Hill is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational day school located in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township, New Jersey, United States, serving 273 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade....

 in New Jersey, Pine Crest School

Pine Crest School

Pine Crest School is a private college preparatory school with campuses in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was founded in Fort Lauderdale in 1934 by Mae McMillan who began as a tutor to children of families spending the winter in South Florida, USA. In 1995, Dr. Lourdes Cowgill became...

 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, The Pembroke Hill School

The Pembroke Hill School

The Pembroke Hill School is a nonsectarian, coeducational, private preparatory school for about 1,200 students in preschool through 12th grade, separated into four sections: preschool-2nd grade , 3rd-5th grade , 6th-8th grade , and 9th-12th grade...

, as well as Notre Christi Academy of the Philippines.

Pi Lambda Phi

Pi Lambda Phi

Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity Inc. is a college social fraternity with 35 active chapters and four colonies in the United States and Canada....

 ( or Pi Lam) is a college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 social fraternity

Fraternities and sororities

Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...

 founded by Frederick Manfred Werner, Louis Samter Levy, and Henry Mark Fisher at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1895. It was founded as the first non-sectarian

Sectarianism

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...

 fraternity, "a fraternity in which all men were brothers, no matter what their religion; a fraternity in which ability, open-mindedness, farsightedness, and a progressive, forward-looking attitude would be recognized as the basic attributes." It currently boasts 35 chapters and four colonies in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and one chapter in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The fraternity founded the Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity Educational Foundation

The first nonsectarian sorority was Phi Sigma Sigma

Phi Sigma Sigma

Phi Sigma Sigma , colloquially known as "Phi Sig," was the first collegiate nonsectarian fraternity, welcoming women of all faiths and backgrounds...

. Phi Sigma Sigma (ΦΣΣ), colloquially known as "Phi Sig," was the first collegiate nonsectarian fraternity, welcoming women of all faiths and backgrounds. Founded by 10 women on November 26, 1913 at Hunter College

Hunter College

Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...

 in New York, Phi Sigma Sigma is now an international sorority with 60,000 initiated members, 115 collegiate chapters and more than 100 alumnae chapters, clubs and associations across the United States and Canada.

Non-academic institutions

Organizations that are explicitly nonsectarian include the Apex Clubs of Australia

Apex Clubs of Australia

The Association of Apex Clubs of Australia is the collective name given to the 330 individual Apex Clubs throughout Australia. An Apex club is a community service club, neither sectarian nor party political, that provides young civic minded people the opportunity to volunteer within the community...

, those participating in the Ethical Culture Movement

Ethical Culture

The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler...

, International Society for Krishna Consciousness

International Society for Krishna Consciousness

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...

, the National Jewish Medical and Research Center

National Jewish Medical and Research Center

National Jewish Health is a research institute located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis, and is today considered one of the world's best medical research and treatment centers...

, and the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia. In Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, nonsectarian refers to groups identifying themselves as neither Nationalist/Republican

Irish Republicanism

Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

 or Unionist/Loyalist

Unionism in Ireland

Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...

, such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....

.

Other

Some cemeteries are known for being nonsectarian. In the United States, these are typically Christian cemeteries that do not adhere to one branch of the faith. Internment services can therefore be conducted in accordance with any one of various faith traditions, or none at all.