ELDER

Elder

An elder in Christianity is a person valued for his wisdom who accordingly holds a particular position of responsibility in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions an elder is a clergy person who usually serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of Word, Sacrament and Order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions, an elder may be a lay person charged with serving as an administrator in a local church, or be ordained to such an office. Particularly in reference to age and experience, elders exist throughout world cultures, and the Christian sense of elder is partially related to this.

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elder

Noun

  1. An older person or an older member, usually a leader, of some community.
    We were presented to the village elder.
  2. One who is older than another.
    Respect your elders.
  3. One who lived at an earlier period; a predecessor.
  4. An officer of a church, sometimes having teaching responsibilities.
  5. A clergyman authorized to administer all the sacraments.
    a travelling elder
  6. One ordained to the lowest office in the .
    After being a member of the Church for a while, Bill was ordained to the office of elder.
    Jack had been an elder for only a few days when he received a new calling.
  7. Male missionary, title for a male missionary; title for a .
    The elders are coming over for dinner tonight.
    One of the long-time leaders in the Church is Elder Packer.
  8. A pagan or Heathen priest or priestess.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A small tree, Sambucus nigra, having white flowers in a cluster, and edible purple berries
  2. Any of the other species of the genus Sambucus: small trees, shrubs or herbaceous perennials with red, purple, or white/yellow berries (some of which are poisonous).

Adjective

  1. Comparative of old: older, greater than another in age or seniority.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: elder
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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