Clergymen
The following terms have traditional meanings for the Anglican Church, and possibly beyond:
- A churchman is in principle a member of a church congregation, in practice someone in holy orders.
- A clergyman can be assumed to be in holy orders. The clergy is a term applied widely across many religions, while clergyman has connotations at least of Protestantism: while a priest might be Catholic or Orthodox Christian. A minister might belong to any Protestant church (not Catholic).
- A pastor is the senior local minister (or priest), for example in a parish.
- A preacher, from the Anglican point of view, is a colloquialism used for a clergyman rather than a formal title — or it may be someone who preaches.
- A cleric: the same as clergyman, and the same root etymologically speaking, but the very old meaning as clerk might simply be someone literate.
- Vicars, rectors and curates are different types of parish priests.
- A chaplain is seconded to some institution, or a family; there is no implication about denomination.
- A divine (noun) meant someone learned in theology, which was traditionally called divinity, really the Latinate equivalent.
Vergers and sextons are auxiliaries.
Some of these terms are obsolescent; (divine is probably not current).
