Search Results for: parish

Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion. Officially called the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Episcopal Church is acceptable in all references. Two bodies govern the church nationally — the permanent Executive Council and the General Convention, which meets every three years. One bishop holds the title of presiding bishop. The General Convention determines national policies, and all acts must pass its House of Bishops and House of Deputies. Under the council are provinces, dioceses or missionary districts, local parishes and local missions. A province is composed of several dioceses and has a synod made up of a house of bishops and a house of deputies. Within a diocese, a bishop is the principal official and is helped by the Diocesan Convention, which is made up of all clergy in the diocese and lay representatives from each parish. A vestry, composed of the rector and lay members elected by the congregation, governs the parish or local church.

Among Protestant churches, the Episcopal Church has titles that are particularly challenging. Capitalize titles before a name but lowercase otherwise. Note that some positions have more than one title or honorific. Because some U.S. congregations have broken ties with the Episcopal Church and affiliated with Anglican bishops, be sure to make clear in stories about such disputes whether a bishop is Anglican or Episcopal.

The presiding bishop is the chief pastor and primate who leads the national Episcopal Church. She is addressed as the Most Rev.

All other bishops use the title the Rt. Rev. before their name. Priests and deacons use the title the Rev. Priests who head a chapter, or governing body of a cathedral, are called deans and are addressed as the Very Rev. Archdeacons are addressed with the honorific the Venerable, as in the Venerable Jill Smith. Women and men in religious communities are called brother or sister and may be ordained.

Filed in Anglican/Episcopalian, Religious titles

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

The largest Eastern Orthodox church in the United States, it is composed of an archdiocesan district made up of New York and eight metropolises — New Jersey, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Denver. It is governed by the archbishop, and a synod of bishops that oversees the ministry of the metropolises. There are 540 parishes and 800 priests. It is directly under the authority of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople in Turkey, and is not administratively related to the Church of Greece. See Eastern Orthodox.

Filed in Orthodoxy

Holy Thursday

The day before Good Friday, when Jesus had his Last Supper with his disciples, washed their feet and instituted Holy Communion. In the Catholic Church, Lent ends whenever the Holy Thursday service begins in any given parish. Also called Maundy Thursday.

Filed in Anglican/Episcopalian, Catholicism, Christianity, Orthodoxy, Protestantism

Opus Dei

A Roman Catholic organization founded in 1928 in Madrid by Josemaría Escrívá de Balaguer, who was proclaimed a saint in 2002, to help Catholic lay people experience God in their daily work. It is not a religious order, although it has priests as members; ninety-eight percent of its members are lay people. In 1982, Pope John Paul II made it a personal prelature, meaning that it functions a bit like a global diocese, with members of Opus Dei under the authority of a bishop who governs the group. It is formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. It has been the subject of criticism by former members who found it too authoritarian and by conspiracy theorists who accused it of involvement in right-wing politics in Spain and Latin America. Opus Dei has gained further notoriety in recent years due to its depiction in the popular and controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. Opus Dei is one of what are known as ecclesial movements, that is, grass-roots organizations, usually among lay people, that transcend parishes and dioceses by attracting members drawn to the movement’s particular focus. These movements have become popular in recent decades. They have often started in Europe but spread internationally. Other well-known ecclesial movements include Communion and Liberation, the Neocatechumenal Way and the Community of Sant’Egidio.

Filed in Catholicism

Orthodox Church in America

The second-largest body of Orthodox churches in the United States. It traces its origins to the arrival in Kodiak, Alaska, of eight Orthodox missionaries from Russia in 1794. In the early 1960s, the OCA was known as the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America, or The Metropolia. People who joined this group in the 1930s were Eastern Catholics who turned to Orthodoxy after the Vatican forbade them to have married priests in the United States. Today, in addition to the parishes of the former Metropolia, the OCA includes the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate, the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese and the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese. In the past two decades the OCA has established more than 220 new parishes, almost all non-ethnic in origin and worshipping only in English. In 1970, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church designated the OCA an autocephalous church, meaning it enjoys autonomy and has the right to elect its own primate, or presiding hierarch. It has its headquarters in Syosset, N.Y. See Eastern Orthodox.

Filed in Orthodoxy

parish

Originally this referred to a geographic territory whose residents were all to go to the one church within that territory. That is still essentially how it functions within Roman Catholicism. In the 1960s theEpiscopal Church allowed its members to attend any parish they chose, eliminating the geographic use of the term. Today, a growing minority of Catholics also attend the parish of their choice, and there is no sanction involved. In some heavily Catholic parts of the nation, particularly Louisiana and Philadelphia, counties or neighborhoods are still known as parishes. Capitalize as part of the formal name. Lowercase when standing alone.

Filed in Catholicism, Christianity, Government and politics

parishioner

A member of a parish. It is best used only in reference to Catholic, Episcopal and Orthodox Christians. It should not be used for non-Christians or members of nonhierarchical Protestant denominations.

Filed in Anglican/Episcopalian, Catholicism, Christianity, Orthodoxy

priest

The term used for ordained clergy of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Episcopal faith. Priest also is used by Wiccans and for some clergy in Buddhism and Hinduism. It is not a formal title and is not capitalized. Avoid the term minister when referring to Catholic priests. Also, while every priest has pastoral duties toward the baptized, the term pastor refers to the priest (and in rare cases, laymen or laywomen) charged by the bishop with overseeing a parish. A pastor may have one or more assistant pastors.

Most Catholic priests in the United States are diocesan clergy, ordained by and for a particular diocese. They make promises of celibacy and obedience, but although they are expected to adhere to a modest lifestyle, they do not take vows of poverty and can own a home, for example, or a car.

The term religious priests refers to priests who belong to a religious order, such as the Jesuits, and hold possessions in common.

Filed in Anglican/Episcopalian, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Orthodoxy

rector

In the Anglican and Episcopal churches, the priest in charge of a parish who is responsible for conducting worship and leading spiritual affairs. If there is more than one priest at a parish, the rector is the senior priest, elected by the vestry and approved by the bishop. If the rector lives in parish-owned housing, it is called the rectory.

Filed in Anglican/Episcopalian

religious orders

Religious orders are communities that live by a particular “rule” that guides their daily communal prayer and work lives. Members profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. These rules are usually set forth by the founder of the order. For example, the Benedictines live by the Rule of St. Benedict, composed by the sixth-century monk who is considered the founder of Western monasticism. Franciscans, another well-known order, live according to the precepts and principles — especially service to the poor — set out by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic, are known for their vigorous preaching. Many orders have communities of men and communities of women. Men’s religious orders often have priests, who are ordained, and brothers, who have taken vows but are considered lay people. The Jesuits, the largest Catholic order today, is all-male, with priests and brothers. There are many manifestations of vowed religious life in Catholicism, and each order often has different communities that live according to reforms instituted through the centuries. Some religious communities are contemplative or cloistered, meaning their days are spent apart from the world and largely in prayer.

Religious life is believed to have originated with desert monks and hermits whose ascetic practices were brought to Europe in the early centuries of Christianity. In the United States, many religious orders operate schools and universities, in addition to running some parishes. (Most parishes are overseen by diocesan priests.) Orders are under the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop, but they have a great deal of autonomy.

Members of religious orders have initials after their names that indicate the official title of their order. For example, the best-known group of Franciscans is known as the Order of Friars Minor, and its members have O.F.M. after their names. Similarly, the formal name for the Jesuits is the Society of Jesus, denoted by S.J. Accepted style does not include the initials, but rather names the person’s order as part of the identifier. For example, “C.S.J.” stands for “Congregation of St. Joseph,” but in referring to a member of that order one would write: Sister Helen Prejean, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, works for the abolition of the death penalty.

Filed in Catholicism, Christianity

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