Sources by tradition
Where the site describes what a tradition does at an occasion, the description is drawn from that tradition’s own documented practice. Working primarily from primary sources protects the site from drifting into a single tradition’s framing of another.
Catholic
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the Order of Celebrating Matrimony, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), the Order of Christian Funerals, and the relevant volumes of the Code of Canon Law. Diocesan and parish materials where they refine the universal practice.
Evangelical and non-denominational
Published handbooks of the major Evangelical denominations (Southern Baptist Convention, the Evangelical Free Church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, among others) plus published orders of service from individual non-denominational congregations of significant size and influence. Where Evangelical practice varies widely from one congregation to another, the page says so.
Mainline Protestant
Denominational service books: the United Methodist Book of Worship, the Lutheran Service Book (LCMS), Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA), the Book of Common Worship (PCUSA), the Book of Common Order (PCA), the Book of Common Prayer (TEC and ACNA), and equivalent volumes from the United Church of Christ, the American Baptist Churches USA, and the Disciples of Christ.
Orthodox
Service books published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Orthodox Church in America, the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Where jurisdictional practice differs (notably on calendar questions and certain pastoral matters), the page says so.
Scripture and translation
The site cites scripture by book, chapter, and verse. Passage text is given in the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain and faithful to the Greek and Hebrew source texts. Where the King James Version (KJV) is more appropriate to the context (a traditional reading at a funeral, for example), it is used and named.
Where a passage is contested across translations (the wives-and-husbands passage in Ephesians 5; the contested status of Isaiah 7:14; the disputed meaning of certain words in 1 Corinthians 6:9), the page names the dispute and does not pick a side.
Reference works
Standard reference works consulted across multiple pages include the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, the Oxford Handbook of Liturgy, the Cambridge History of Christianity (multiple volumes), and the Society of Biblical Literature’s commentary series. For specifically Orthodox material, the handbooks of Met. Kallistos Ware and the published catechetical materials of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America are leaned on heavily.
How disagreement between sources is handled
Christian traditions disagree with one another, scholars disagree with one another, and even within a single tradition there is internal disagreement on points of practice or doctrine. The site does not resolve these disagreements. Where two credible sources differ on a point that matters to the reader, the page names both positions, names the disagreement, and stops. Readers seeking deeper engagement are pointed to where the dispute is documented in scholarship.
Corrections to sourced material
Where the site has misread or misrepresented a source, the correction is made promptly once verified. The expected window is a few days from a credible report to a published correction. Major corrections are noted in the page’s last-updated stamp.