Religious order
A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community that has a members who lead a contemplative lifestyle devoted to prayer and service. Religious orders often trace their lineage from their founders and have a text describing their lifestyle called a rule of life. Such orders exist in a number of the world's religions and their denominations.
Buddhism
In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow a certain school of teaching—such as Thailand's Dhammayuttika order, a monastic order founded by King Mongkut. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an Buddhism; and in modern times, the Order of Hsu Yun.Christianity
Catholic tradition
A religious order in the Catholic Church is a kind of religious institute, a society whose members make solemn vows that are accepted by a superior in the name of the Church, who wear a religious habit and who live a life of brothers or sisters in common. Religious orders are to be distinguished from religious congregations, which are religious institutes whose members profess simple vows, and from secular institutes, including societies of apostolic life and lay ecclesial movements. Unless they are also deacons or priests in Holy Orders members of religious orders are not clergy but laity. However, particular orders and institutes are classified as either specifically clerical or lay depending on their charism.Among the traditional forms of solemnly vowed religious order, there are four key categories:
- canons regular ;
- clerics regular ;
- mendicants ; and
- monastics.
Image:Francisco de Zurbarán - Fray Pedro Machado - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|160px|Francisco de Zurbarán's painting of a Mercedarian Friar, Fra Pedro Machado Later in the 13th century the mendicant orders like the Carmelites, the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Preachers, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and the Order of Saint Augustine formed. These Mendicant orders did not hold property for their Religious Communities, instead begging for alms and going where they were needed. Their leadership structure included each member, as opposed to each Abbey or House, as subject to their direct superior. In the 16th century the orders of clerics regular began to emerge, including such institutes as the Society of Jesus, the Theatines, the Barnabites, the Somascans. Most of these groups began to turn away from the common public celebration of the divine office.
In accordance with the concept of independent communities in the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Benedictines, Cistercians, and Trappists have autonomous abbeys. Their members profess "stability" to the abbeys where they make their religious vows; hence their abbots or abbesses may not move them to other abbeys. An "independent house" may occasionally make a new foundation which remains a "dependent house" until it is granted independence by Rome and itself becomes an abbey. Each house's autonomy does not prevent it being affiliated into a congregation—whether national or based on some other joint characteristic—and these, in turn, form the supra-national Benedictine Confederation.
Non-monastic religious institutes typically have a motherhouse, generalate, or general curia with jurisdiction over any number of dependent religious communities, whose members may be moved by their superior general to its other communities as the institute's needs require.
Well-known Roman Catholic religious institute include Augustinians, Basilians, Benedictines, Bethlehemites, Bridgettines, Camaldolese, Carmelites, Carthusians, Cistercians, Conceptionists, Crosiers, Dominicans, Franciscans, Hieronymites, Jesuits, Minims, Piarists, Salesians, Olivetans, Theatines, Trappists and the Visitandines.
Several religious orders evolved during the Crusades to incorporate a military mission becoming "religious military orders", such as the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Knights of the Order of the Temple and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
Orthodox tradition
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, there is only one type of monasticism. The profession of monastics is known as tonsure and is considered by monks to be a Sacred Mystery. The Rite of Tonsure is printed in the Euchologion, the same book as the other Sacred Mysteries and services performed according to need.Lutheran tradition
After the foundation of the Lutheran Churches, some monasteries in Lutheran lands and convents adopted the Lutheran Christian faith.Other examples of Lutheran religious orders include the Order of Lutheran Franciscans in the United States. Also, a Lutheran religious order following the Rule of Saint Benedict, The Congregation of the Servants of Christ, was established at St. Augustine's House in Oxford, Michigan, in 1958 when some other men joined Father Arthur Kreinheder in observing the monastic life and offices of prayer. This order has strong ties to Benedictine Lutheran religious orders in Sweden and in Germany.
Anglican tradition
Religious orders in England were dissolved by King Henry VIII upon the separation of the English church from Roman primacy. For three hundred years, there were no formal religious orders in Anglicanism, although some informal communities - such as the Little Gidding community - occasionally sprang into being. With the advent of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England and worldwide Anglicanism in the middle of the 19th century, several orders appeared. In 1841, the first order for women was established. The first order for men was founded 25 years later.Anglican religious voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, to holding their possessions in common or in trust; to a celibate life in community; and obedience to their Rule and Constitution.
There are presently thirteen active religious orders for men, fifty-three for women, and eight mixed gender.
Methodist tradition
The Methodist Church of Great Britain, and its ancestors, have established a number of orders of Deaconesses, who are now ordained as clergy and are Ministers in equal standing alongside their presbyteral colleagues. The Methodist Diaconal Order currently admits both men and women to the Order and all are now known as Deacons. Since the functions of a deacon are primarily pastoral, the MDO may therefore be regarded as an order of Regular clerics.The Order of the Flame is a religious order under the auspices of the World Methodist Council devoted to the charism of evangelism.
The Order of Saint Luke is a religious order in the United Methodist Church dedicated to sacramental and liturgical scholarship, education, and practice.
Anabaptist tradition
Some Protestant religious orders follow Anabaptist theology. These would include the Hutterites and Bruderhof, who live in full community of goods and living as a peace church.Jehovah's Witnesses
Among their corporations, the Religious Order of Jehovah's Witnesses cares for matters specific to Jehovah's Witnesses special full-time servants. In a particular branch, traveling overseers, special pioneers, and branch staff are considered members of the Order of Special Full-time Servants and the Bethel Family. Globally, their order is the Worldwide Order of Special Full-Time Servants of Jehovah's Witnesses. Male and female members of such religious orders typically make a formal vow of poverty and are granted certain status and exemptions by many governments. While Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider members of their religious orders to be a clergy separate from other Witnesses, who are also ordained ministers, they do recognize that a government may consider them such for administrative purposes.Jehovah's Witnesses do not have a separate clergy class, but consider an adherent's qualified baptism to constitute his ordination as a minister. Governments have generally recognized that Jehovah's Witnesses' full-time appointees qualify as ministers regardless of sex or appointment as an elder or deacon ; the religion itself asserts what is sometimes termed "ecclesiastical privilege" only for its appointed elders.