Minister (Christianity) facts for kids

A Methodist minister wearing a cassock, vested with a surplice and stole, with preaching bands attached to his clerical collar

In Christianity, a minister is a person authorized by a church, or other religious organization, to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community.

The term is taken from Latin minister ("servant", "attendant").

Images for kids

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  A Lutheran minister wearing a Geneva gown and bands. In many churches, ministers wear distinctive clothing, called vestments, when presiding over services of worship.

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  An Anglican minister delivers a homily, dressed in choir habit with Canterbury cap

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  Francis of Assisi with the ecclesiastical tonsure. Francis was an ordained deacon.

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  Gilbert White, Anglican priest and pioneering naturalist and ornithologist.

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  Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, the first bishop to be martyred at the time of the Russian Revolution

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  Scene of baptism. Stained glass from the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, last quarter of the 12th century.

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  A bishop administering Confirmation. Rogier van der Weyden, The Seven Sacraments (detail), c. 1445.

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  Wedding of Maria Feodorovna and Alexander III of Russia. Painting by Mihály Zichy, 1867.

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  Extreme Unction. Rogier van der Weyden, The Seven Sacraments (detail), c. 1445.

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  Consecration of William Evan Sanders as Episcopal Bishop Coadjutor of Tennessee, 1962.

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  A penitent confessing his sins in the former Latin rite of the Bernhardines in Lviv, Ukraine.

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  Funeral of Manfred von Richthofen, Bertangles Cemetery, France, 22 April 1918.

See also

In Spanish: Ministro (cristianismo) para niños