A pastor is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, pastors are always ordained. In Methodism, pastors may be either licensed or ordained.
Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael, 1515. In telling Peter to feed his sheep, Christ appointed him as a pastor.
A Lutheran priest of the Church of Sweden prepares for the celebration of Mass in Strängnäs Cathedral.
A Catholic priest in Rome
Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Jr.
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination vary by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is undergoing the process of ordination is sometimes called an ordinand. The liturgy used at an ordination is commonly found in a book known as an Ordinal which provides the ordo for celebrations.
Ordination of a Catholic deacon, 1520 AD: the bishop bestows vestments.
Ordination of a Catholic priest (pre-1968 form of the Roman Rite).
Ordination of an Orthodox. The deacon being ordained is kneeling with the bishop's omophorion over his head as the bishop blesses him immediately before the Cheirotonia.
Eastern Orthodox subdeacon being ordained to the diaconate. The bishop has placed his omophorion and right hand on the candidate's head and is reading the Prayer of Cheirotonia.
