Editing Afterlife (section)

====Purgatory====
{{main|Purgatory}}
The notion of [[purgatory]] is associated mainly with the [[Catholic Church]]. In the Catholic Church, all those who die in God's grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified are indeed assured of their eternal salvation. Still, after death, they undergo purification to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven or the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The tradition of the church, by reference to specific texts of scripture, speaks of a "cleansing fire", but it is not always called purgatory.

[[Anglican]]s of the [[Anglo-Catholic]] tradition generally also hold to the belief. [[John Wesley]], the founder of [[Methodism]], believed in an [[Intermediate state (Christianity)|intermediate state]] between death and the [[resurrection of the dead]] and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there", but Methodism does not officially affirm this belief and denies the possibility of [[Prayer for the dead|helping by prayer]] any who may be in that state.<ref>Ted Campbell, Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials (Abingdon 1999), quoted in [http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101 Feature article by ''United Methodist Reporter'' Managing Editor Robin Russell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722154244/http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=5101 |date=22 July 2011 }} and in [http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&content_id=%7B94F6F768-0EA6-4C1B-B6B6-0C88EC04E8A2%7D&notoc=1 FAQ Belief: What happens immediately after a person dies?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613074435/http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&content_id=%7B94F6F768-0EA6-4C1B-B6B6-0C88EC04E8A2%7D&notoc=1 |date=13 June 2016 }}</ref>