Ordinator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who arranges or organizes events, items, or systems ; a church official who formally invests individuals with clergy roles through a religious ceremony
2. Someone responsible for putting things in order or coordinating activities ; an ecclesiastical figure who conducts ordination ceremonies to appoint ministers
3. An individual who sets plans in order or manages arrangements ; a religious authority who performs the rite of ordaining members into clerical positions

Etymology: "Ordinator" comes from Latin "ōrdinātor", a noun meaning one who arranges or sets in order, formed from the verb "ōrdināre" ("to arrange, set in order") and the agentive suffix "-tor" marking the person who performs an action. The Latin root "ōrdo" ("row, rank, order") sits at the heart of the word, so the core idea is simply someone who brings rows and ranks into their proper places. The ecclesiastical sense is the one that narrows the word most sharply. In the church, "ordinare" carried the specific meaning of conferring holy orders, the formal act by which a candidate was placed into a clerical rank. An ordinator is therefore the bishop or other official who performs that ceremony, admitting men into ministry. The broader meaning of a coordinator or organizer is the older and more general sense of the Latin, and it is the one most readers will meet outside church settings.

Synonyms: organizer, arranger, coordinator