Pastorate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The period or role in which a person serves as a pastor of a church
2. The time during which someone fulfills duties as a church leader
3. An interval spent leading a religious congregation as a pastor

Etymology: "Pastorate" is a plain compound built from "pastor" and the suffix "-ate", which forms nouns denoting a rank, office, or the body of people holding it. The suffix has a long pedigree: it descends from Latin "-ātus", which itself traces back through Proto-Italic to an older Indo-European ending, and it appears in English words such as "episcopate" (the office or body of bishops) and "magistrate" (one holding a magisterial office). The base word "pastor" comes from Latin "pastor", meaning "herdsman" or "shepherd", derived from "pascere", "to feed" or "to pasture". Its move from livestock to church is an old metaphor: a leader who guides and feeds a flock. Attaching "-ate" to that religious sense gives a term for the office itself, and then for the period during which someone holds it.

Synonyms: ministry, clergy, pastorship, spiritual leadership, ecclesiastical office