Vestry
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
A vestry is a storage room in or attached to a church. A vestry is also an administrative committee of a church.
Architectural vestry
A vestry is a room within or attached to a church which is used to store vestments and other items used in worship. It is usually of sufficient size to allow those using vestments to change into them, and thus in England and elsewhere was often used for meetings dealing with the administration of the local parish.
Administrative vestry
In England, from the 16th century until the 19th century, vestry was also the standard term for what would today usually be called a parish council. Vestries were commonly responsible not only for the ecclesiastical affairs of the parish but such items of lay business as the local administration of the Poor Law. In the United States Episcopal Church the vestry is still the constituency of elected lay members that elects the rector of the church and conducts its secular business. In some parts of the international Anglican church, the parish council is a committee elected only from members of the vestry.
References
- Collins, Kenneth W. 'Polity Glossary', Ken Collins' Web Site (http://www.kencollins.com/glossary/polity.htm) Retrieved May 19 2005
- Diocese of Huron, Constitution and Canons of the Diocese of Huron (London, Ontario: Diocese of Huron, 2003)
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