A ministerium is an association of

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

from various

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

groups who come together to accomplish a specific purpose, often to build collegiality and to meet or address

socioeconomic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their l ...

needs in the community. The represented churches,

synagogues A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...

, 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 The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), the Ministerium was founded at a Church Conference of Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748. Th ...

, o
Evangelical Covenant Church Ministerium
In some states the

ministers Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...

, confined by denominational and territorial lines, formed a collegial body called the ''ministerium'' or ''spiritual ministerium'' (german: link=no, Geistliches Ministerium) in charge of supervising doctrine and teaching, clerical discipline and representing the clergy to the church administration.

See also