Holy orders

Holy orders is the Christian sacrament or rite that ordains people to ministry as deacons, priests, or bishops. Its form and theology vary among Christian traditions.

Ordination: A formal rite that appoints or admits a person to a religious or other office. Holy orders is the specifically Christian form of ordination to clerical ministry.
Deacon: A Christian minister whose duties commonly include service, preaching, and assisting in worship. The diaconate is the first of the three traditional degrees of holy orders.
Sacrament: A sacred rite understood in Christianity as conveying divine grace or expressing a holy reality. Catholic and Orthodox churches count holy orders among the sacraments.
Acts of the Apostles: A New Testament narrative of the early Christian community and the spread of its mission. It describes the appointment of the Seven, a passage later associated with the diaconate.
Laying on of hands: A ritual gesture in which hands are placed on a person, often during prayer or blessing. In many churches, ordaining ministers includes this gesture as a sign of blessing and authorization.
Priest: A Christian minister authorized in many churches to lead worship and administer sacraments. Priesthood is a central degree of holy orders in churches that distinguish priests from bishops.
Sacramental theology: The study of how Christian sacraments signify and communicate divine grace. Its differing accounts help explain why traditions classify and interpret holy orders differently.
Pastoral Epistles: Three New Testament letters addressing church leadership, teaching, and community order. Their qualifications for overseers and deacons became sources for later accounts of ordained office.
Apostolic succession: The transmission of ecclesiastical authority through an unbroken succession of bishops traced to the apostles. Some traditions understand episcopal ordination as continuing this inherited line of authority.
Bishop: A senior Christian minister who oversees a diocese and, in many traditions, ordains clergy. Bishops ordinarily confer holy orders in churches with episcopal governance.

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Hierarchy of the Catholic ChurchRelated: Ordination establishes the sacramental ministries represented in the hierarchy.