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Glite Dictionary
⛪ A church room 👥 A church committee
vestry

vestry

1 9.5
A group chosen by church members to help run the church's money and buildings
  • noun
  • /ˈvɛstri/
  • Jargon
translation icon : vestría
  • During the annual meeting, the congregation elected new members to the Vestry.
  • vestry election
  • vestry dismissal
  • vestry dissolution

Examples

  • On the ground floor are the offices for the Vestry Clerk, Rate Collectors, etc.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church claimed part of the cemetery.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Non-Anglicans had repeatedly been elected to the vestry, in the most recent vote gaining a majority.

    Academic text (1996)

  • In an unusual move, the House rejected that advice and ordered the Saint John's vestry dissolved.

    Academic text (1996)

  • I wonder how many of our vestry members have ever prayerfully read The Rule of Benedict?

    Blog text (20)

  • The Frederick Vestry's petition won approval on the recommendation of the Committee for Religion.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Nicholas and probably other lay leaders now turned back to the gentry-controlled vestries to oversee the established church.

    Academic text (1996)

  • In October 1771, the vestry brought suit in Virginia's General Court, seeking Lunan's removal.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Transgressors would incur a fifty-pound fine for each offense and would be removed from their vestry seats.

    Academic text (1996)

  • A pragmatic decision allowed non-Anglicans to sit in frontier vestries when there were too few qualified Anglicans.

    Academic text (1996)

Surface Forms

vestry singular
vestries plural

Morphology

vestry = vestment (opaque) = vest + ry

Although historically formed from the clothing-related base plus '-ry', the extension to a governing committee is a metonymic shift that is not predictable from the components.

Etymology

Vestry also means the committee that runs some churches because the people who managed the church used to meet in the vestry, the same room with the vestments. That's why a vestry can mean the group of people who take care of the church's everyday affairs.