Vestry in the context of St. George's Parish Vestry House


Vestry in the context of St. George's Parish Vestry House

⭐ Core Definition: Vestry

A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fifth of the budget of the British government. They were stripped of their secular functions in 1894 (1900 in London) and were abolished in 1921.

The term vestry remains in use outside of England and Wales to refer to the elected governing body and legal representative of a parish church, for example in the American and Scottish Episcopal Churches.

↓ Menu
HINT:

In this Dossier

Vestry in the context of Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry.

A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with a population in excess of 100,000. This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France. However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities, and in most cases have a relatively minor role in local government.

View the full Wikipedia page for Civil parish
↑ Return to Menu

Vestry in the context of Christ Church, Barbados

The parish of Christ Church is one of eleven in Barbados. It has a land area of 57 km (22 sq mi) and is found at the southern end of the island. Christ Church has survived by name as one of the original six parishes created in 1629 by Governor Sir William Tufton.

The parish contains the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport as well as the last remaining mangrove swamp in the country, the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. Under Barbados's historic vestry, the main parish church was originally seated near Dover. After it and the courtyard were destroyed by flood in 1669, the main parish church moved to Oistins area, becoming the main town and former capital of the parish. The South Point Lighthouse is located in South Point, Christ Church, between Atlantic Shores and Green Garden, also in Christ Church.

View the full Wikipedia page for Christ Church, Barbados
↑ Return to Menu

Vestry in the context of Anglican cleric

The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptised members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.

Each of the provinces of the Anglican Communion has a high degree of independence from the other provinces, and each of them have slightly different structures for ministry, mission and governance. However, personal leadership is always vested in a member of the clergy (a bishop at provincial and diocesan levels), and a priest (often termed a rector or vicar at the parish level) and consensus derived by synodical government. At different levels of the church's structure, laity, clergy (priests and deacons) and bishops meet together with prayer to deliberate over church governance. These gatherings are variously called conferences, synods, conventions, convocations, councils, chapters and vestries.

View the full Wikipedia page for Anglican cleric
↑ Return to Menu

Vestry in the context of Camberwell Green

Camberwell Green is a hectare (2.5 acres) of common land in Camberwell, south London laid out as a formal park. Its south-west corner is the junction of Camberwell Road/Denmark Hill and Camberwell New Road/Camberwell Church Street. Its other edges share one point of motor vehicle access. Behind a library at the north-east of the Green is the former Camberwell Magistrate's Court, and at the north-west is a home for the elderly. To the south-west, and overlooking the Green, is a parade of shops including banks and restaurants. The Green is recorded in surveys and accounts of the manor of Camberwell and vestry of Southwark as common land, meaning owned by the lord of the manor but subject to grazing and other rights of local residents. It was bought by Camberwell Parish Vestry in the late 19th century to protect it from development. Camberwell Green is also the name of the London Borough of Southwark electoral ward around the Green.

Measured from building to building, the open space including roads and pavements, and private frontages (size of the square) is 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres), and due to curves its parameters are not fixed; these average about 190 metres by 90 metres.

View the full Wikipedia page for Camberwell Green
↑ Return to Menu

Vestry in the context of Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone

The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parish of St Marylebone, Middlesex, which was incorporated into the Metropolitan Board of Works area in 1855, retaining a parish vestry, and then became part of the County of London in 1889.

Its area was that part of the current City of Westminster which is north of Oxford Street, and east of Maida Vale and Edgware Road. It included the areas Marylebone, Regent's Park, St John's Wood, and Lisson Grove, along with the western part of the district of Fitzrovia.

View the full Wikipedia page for Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone
↑ Return to Menu