Site Glossary

A female member of a religious order typically living a vowed life of poverty, chastity, and obedience in community.

Period of training of novices in a monastery or religious community.

The place where the congregation gathers to worship. Often referred to as the sanctuary, although that term properly is reserved for the area around the altar.

A seminary of The Episcopal Church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, located in Nashotah, Wisconsin, offering intensive sacramental, spiritual, and monastic-like formation for ministry.

A 20th-century attorney, civil rights activist, feminist, and scholar who became the first African-American female priest.

A place where members of religious orders live in community, usually under the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

An altar book that provides all the textual materials needed for celebration of the Eucharist.

A 19th-century English theologian and proponent of Christian socialism. Feast day: April 1.

A fifth-century British bishop and missionary to Ireland. Feast day: March 17, which also is widely celebrated secularly as St. Patrick’s Day.

Shallow dish or small plate for the bread at the Eucharist.

A document created in preparation for a search for new clergy leadership, providing information about the history, mission, worship, congregational life, programs, outreach, finances, and goals of the congregation.

The mother and father of the Virgin Mary according to the Apocrypha, and named Anne and Joachim based on legend. Feast Day: July 26