Ministerium

A ministerium is an association of clergy from various religious groups who come together to accomplish a specific purpose, often to build collegiality and to meet or address socioeconomic needs in the community. The represented churches, synagogues, and other congregations are often connected geographically, such as in a small town or group of small towns.

Sometimes the purpose can be to promote specific denominational objectives, rather than ecumenical. Such institutions are the Pennsylvania Ministerium, or Evangelical Covenant Church Ministerium. In some states the ministers, confined by denominational and territorial lines, formed a collegial body called the ministerium or spiritual ministerium (German: Geistliches Ministerium) in charge of supervising doctrine and teaching, clerical discipline and representing the clergy to the church administration.