Glossary

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A

• Advent — the four Sundays before Christmas; the start of the church year, and a season of expectation.
• ALM — Authorised Lay Minister; a lay person authorised by the Bishop for a particular local ministry, such as pastoral or teaching work. The authorisation is for a specific role in a specific place — which is the main difference from a Licensed Lay Minister (see LLM), whose licence is a national, more formal and portable form of lay ministry.
• Alpha — a relaxed series of evening conversations exploring the basics of Christian faith — a meal, a film and small-group discussion — run at the Minster and in churches worldwide.
• Anthem — a free-standing piece of music sung by the choir during a service.
• APCM — Annual Parochial Church Meeting; the parish’s annual general meeting in May.
• Archdeaconry — a grouping of deaneries overseen by an Archdeacon. Beverley sits within the Archdeaconry of the East Riding.

B

• Baptism — the sacrament of beginning in the Christian church, marked with water; sometimes called a christening.
• BCP — the Book of Common Prayer; the historic Anglican prayer book, finalised in 1662.
• Benefice — a group of parishes that share clergy. The Minster’s benefice includes the linked parish of All Saints’, Routh.

C

• Canticle — a sung scriptural text used as a regular part of the daily office, such as the Magnificat or Nunc Dimittis.
• Chorister — a child singer in the choir.
• Churchwarden — a lay officer, elected annually at the APCM, who shares responsibility for the life and fabric of the parish.
• Collect — a short prayer that “collects” the prayers of the people for a particular day or theme.
• Compline — the quiet last service of the day, also called Night Prayer.
• Confirmation — the moment a baptised Christian affirms the promises of baptism for themselves, with prayer and the laying-on of hands by a Bishop.
• Creed — a summary statement of Christian belief said together in worship; most often the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed.
• CW — Common Worship; the Church of England’s modern liturgical collection, authorised in 2000.
• Curate — a priest in their first formal post after ordination, working under the supervision of an experienced incumbent.

D

• Daily Office — the structured daily pattern of Morning, Midday, Evening and Night Prayer that the Anglican tradition inherited from monasticism.
• Deanery — a local group of parishes and benefices, led by an Area Dean and a Lay Dean. Beverley sits within the Beverley Deanery.
• Diocese — the regional unit of the Church of England. Ours is the Diocese of York, led by the Archbishop of York.

E

• Electoral roll — the parish’s formal membership list. Joining entitles you to vote at the APCM and stand for the PCC.
• Eucharist / Holy Communion — the central sacrament of Christian worship, in which bread and wine are shared.
• Evensong — sung evening prayer; in its choral form, largely unchanged since the first English prayer book of 1549.

F

• Free Will Offer — another name for the parish share; the contribution each parish makes to the diocese.

H

• Holy Spirit — the third person of the Holy Trinity: God present and at work in the world and in the lives of believers. Older English (including the Book of Common Prayer) often calls the same thing the Holy Ghost — the two are interchangeable.
• House group — a small group meeting in a home, weekly or fortnightly, for study, conversation and prayer.

I

• Intercessions — the prayers for the church, the world and those in need, usually led by a lay person after the sermon.
• Introit — a short opening sung piece that sets the atmosphere for worship.

L

• Lectionary — the calendar of biblical readings used in worship.
• Lent — the forty days of preparation before Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday; traditionally a season of self-examination and fasting.
• Liturgy — the formal shape of a service; from the Greek leitourgia, “the work of the people”.
• LLM — Licensed Lay Minister, also known as a Reader; a lay person licensed by the Bishop to preach and lead non-sacramental services.

M

• Magnificat — the Song of Mary, sung at Evensong.
• Mattins — an older name for Morning Prayer.
• Misericord — a hinged Quire-stall seat with a small ledge underneath that supports the singer through long services.

N

• Nave — the long western part of a church where the congregation sits.
• Nunc Dimittis — the Song of Simeon, sung at Evensong.

O

• Ordinary time — the parts of the church year not covered by Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter; from the Latin for “counted”.

P

• PCC — Parochial Church Council; the parish’s governing body.
• Peal — an extended, continuous performance of change-ringing on a tower’s bells; a full peal runs to several thousand changes over about three hours.
• Psalter — the Book of Psalms arranged for worship. At the Minster’s Evensong the psalms are sung from Miles Coverdale’s sixteenth-century translation.
• PTO — Permission to Officiate; granted by the Bishop to retired clergy who continue to assist.

Q

• Quire — the eastern part of a church where the choir sits and the daily office is said.

R

• Reader — a lay person licensed by the Bishop to preach and lead non-sacramental services. See LLM.
• Retro-quire — the part of a church behind the high altar.

S

• Sacrament — an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; in Anglican practice, especially Baptism and the Eucharist.
• Sacristan — someone who prepares the vessels, linens and practical needs of a service.
• Sanctuary — the area around the high altar; also, historically, the right of fugitives to claim safety on monastic ground.
• Setting — a named composer’s music for the fixed words of the liturgy — the Magnificat at Evensong, or the Sanctus at the Eucharist.
• Stipend — the salary paid to a parish priest by the diocese.
• Synod — a representative church council. Parishes elect members to the Deanery and Diocesan Synods; nationally, the General Synod.

T

• Taizé — a contemplative style of worship from the ecumenical community at Taizé in France: short sung chants, repeated, with silence and candlelight.
• Transept — one of the two arms of a cross-shaped church.

V

• Vestments — the robes worn by those leading worship; their colours follow the seasons of the church year.
• Via media — Latin for “the middle way”; Anglicanism’s habit of holding breadth within one church.
• Vicar — the parish priest; at Beverley, the incumbent of the Minster parish.
• Virger — a senior member of the church staff responsible for the practical care of the building, services and visitors. (“Verger” is the more usual spelling elsewhere; the Minster uses “Virger”.)
• Voluntary — the organ piece played at the end of a service, as worship spills out into ordinary life.

Spotted a term we have missed? Please let us know so we can add it.

Section 26 of 26 in the Companion