What Do Holy Orders Mean?

Holy orders are a part of Christianity and it refers to the bishop, priest, and deacon of the church. The words Holy and Order have some definite significance. The word "Holy" refers to the church and its sanctity. Whereas, the word "Orders" refers to the hierarchy of power in the church. That means the Bishop, the Priest and the Deacon.  This hierarchy is required for the working of the Church Ministry. This ordination, that is setting apart of individuals for religious purposes, is considered sacred. It is known as the sacramentum ordinis. The protestant Christians however do not believe in this sacramentum ordinis. Some do not even believe that the church ministries are even holy. The holy orders are followed mostly by Roman Catholics, eastern orthodox, etc.

Holy Orders is one of seven Sacraments within the Catholic Church. This sacrament as all the Sacraments was instituted by Jesus, during His ministry on earth. After approximately nine years of study and preparation a man is ordained as a priest of the Church.

The Church believes the night before Jesus died when He was at Supper with the Apostles, in the Upper Room, Jesus ordained the Apostles as the first priests. It is at this time the Church believes Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

At the Last Supper Jesus took bread, blessed it and said, This is My Body and then said to the
Apostles, "Do this in memory of Me."  Jesus took the cup of wine, blessed it and said, This is My Blood, "Do this in memory of Me." The Church believes and teaches with these words Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Holy orders is a term that is applied orders in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, and Independent Catholic churches comprises of three orders: bishop, priest, and deacon. These Churches look upon ordination as a sacrament. Other Protestant denominations have wide-ranging conceptions of the church offices, but none of them accept ordination a sacrament.

The word "holy" purely means "set apart for a purpose." The word ordo, which in Latin is order, is chosen as a recognized civil body or firm with a chain of command, and ordinatio meant legal incorporation into an ordo. In circumstance, consequently, a Holy Order is just a collection with a chain of command that is set spaced out for ministry in the Church.