The Reverend

"Reverend" and "Rev." redirect here. For other uses, see Reverend (disambiguation) and Rev. (disambiguation).

Profile of John Wesley, a major religious leader of the 18th century. He is styled The Revᵈ., an abbreviation of "The Reverend".

The Reverend is an honorific style given before the names of certain Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style, but is sometimes referred to as a title, form of address, or title of respect.[1] The style is also sometimes used by leaders in other religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.[2]

The term is an anglicisation of the Latin reverendus, the style originally used in Latin documents in medieval Europe. It is the gerundive or future passive participle of the verb revereri ("to respect; to revere"), meaning "[one who is] to be revered/must be respected". The Reverend is therefore equivalent to The Honourable or The Venerable. It is paired with a modifier or noun for some offices in some religious traditions: Lutheran archbishops, Anglican archbishops, and most Catholic bishops are usually styled The Most Reverend[3] (reverendissimus); other Lutheran bishops, Anglican bishops, and Catholic bishops are styled The Right Reverend.[4]

With Christian clergy, the forms His Reverence and Her Reverence are also sometimes used, along with their parallel in direct address, Your Reverence.[5] The abbreviation HR is sometimes used.[5]

  1. ^ "Reverend". LDoceOnline English Dictionary (definition) (online ed.). Longman. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Reverend Earl Ikeda" Archived 29 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review website.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference C was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ The Lutheran Witness, Volumes 9-11. C.A. Frank. 1890. p. 67.
  5. ^ a b "His/Your Reverence". Oxford English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2017. 1.2His/Your Reverence A title or form of address to a member of the clergy, especially a priest in Ireland. 'I regret, Your Reverence, that I cannot come to meet you.'