Apostle (Greek apostolos,"one sent forth"), messenger, especially one of the 12 disciples whom Jesus Christ sent forth to preach the gospel and to act in his name. Jesus may have selected 12 apostles because of the 12 tribes in Israel, thus signifying that the Christian community is God's Israel (see Gal. 6:16), which inherits the privileges of ancient Israel. The Twelve were Peter, Andrew, James the Great, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the Less, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. Matthias was chosen in place of Judas (see Acts 1:26). In the early church the title apostle was extended to others who spread the Christian message, such as Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. Prophet (healer) Two types of religious movements were behind the independent churches: prophetic and messianic. Christian prophetic movements are organized around an individual who is believed to reveal a message from God-in great contrast to Africa's traditional religious systems, which are more typically generated and sustained by the community. Prophets are seen as charged by God with the task of purifying the people and struggling against witchcraft. Public confessions, exorcisms (ridding people of evil spirits), and purifying baptisms are typically dominant features of the movements led by prophets. Like indigenous African religions, these movements are preoccupied with healing. One such prophet-healer, William Wade Harris, founded an important independent church movement in West Africa in 1913 and 1914. While imprisoned for participation in a 1909 coup attempt in his native Liberia, Harris claimed that the angel Gabriel visited him. After his release he led a vigorous campaign in neighboring Côte d'Ivoire against what he perceived to be the worship of idols. The church Harris founded became one of the first of the African Independent Churches to receive state support. Churches that claim Harris as their founder are still active in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Belgian Congo), Simon Kimbangu, a religious instructor at a British mission, inaugurated a healing revival in 1921. Claiming that the voice of Christ called him as a prophet, Kimbangu drew thousands of converts. The Belgian colonial authorities who then governed the Congo viewed Kimbangu's revival ministry as a threat and arrested him. His imprisonment and the subsequent Belgian attempts to suppress his movement only stirred the fervor of his followers. After the prophet's death in 1951 the Kimbanguist church survived under the leadership of his son. When the Congo gained independence in 1960, the church became one of four religious bodies recognized by the government. With more than 4 million adherents, the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth Through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu was admitted to the World Council of Churches in 1969. A number of new religious groups in Africa have been organized around a leader regarded as a messiah, or savior. Messianic churches are sustained by a message of hope for spiritual and political liberation. Such messianic vision promises a golden age of self-sufficiency. Isaiah Shembe, a self-proclaimed Zulu prophet, founded such a messianic church in South Africa in the early 1900s. In 1932 Johane Masowe, another self-declared prophet, preached among the Shona in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), imploring followers to resist cooperation with colonial authorities and institutions, including the church. Perceived as a political threat, he moved his Apostolic Church to South Africa but in 1960 the church was expelled from that country as well. Pastors (Clergy), term applied to the body of ministers of the Christian church in contradistinction to the laity. It is also used for the body of ministers of faiths other than Christianity, such as Judaism. The clergy in the Christian churches had their origin in the apostles and in the "seventy" appointed by Jesus Christ to carry his teachings "into every town and place" (Luke 10:1). The work of these men was that now described as missionary work; they were evangelists and teachers. The more-settled church of the late 1st century described in the Book of Acts required adaptations to life in a community. Descriptions of life in the 2nd-century church mention the existence of bishop-presbyters (elders) and deacons. Authority was conveyed from one person to another by the "laying on of hands," now known as ordination, or the sacrament of Holy Orders. A hierarchy, or graded ranking, of bishops and lesser clergy became characteristic as the church expanded. Local conditions required the addition of more ranks, such as the archbishop and the archdeacon, and in the Eastern church the patriarch, exercising supervision over parish clergy. In monastic communities, the head of the community, sometimes called an abbot, supervised the monks or brothers, each of whom took vows that regulated his personal life. Those who live in a community of this sort today or are members of nonconventional religious orders are called "religious" and "regular" clergy. The Reformation in the 16th century marked a split between the clerical organizations of the Roman Catholic church and those of the denominations that resulted from a return to earlier principles, typified by the present-day Congregationalists. Between these two forms of organization are various Protestant forms, for example, the Presbyterian. The Church of England and other Anglican churches and the Orthodox church have elaborate hierarchies, unlike those of the Methodists, Baptists, and other denominations. Among Protestants, the cleric may be referred to more usually as a minister or pastor. Dress distinctive of clerical functions differs from one religious body to another. Evangelist, term used in the New Testament (see Acts 21:8; Ephresians 4:11; and 2 Timothy 4:5) to designate any of the workers in the apostolic church who traveled to distant places to announce the gospel and to prepare the way for more extensive missionary work on the part of the apostles. In postapostolic times the term evangelist was applied to a writer of a Gospel, that is, to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Traditionally, the four evangelists are symbolized by emblematic figures derived from the prophetic vision of Ezekiel and from Revelation, especially Revelation 4:6-10. For many years controversy existed over which symbol should be attributed to which evangelist. It was finally agreed that Matthew, who started his narrative with the genealogy of Christ, should be represented by the head of a man; Mark, who began with the mission of John the Baptist in the wilderness, by a lion, the inhabitant of the desert; Luke, who commenced with the story of the priest Zacharias, by a sacrificial ox; and John, whose Gospel soars to the heights of theological speculation, by an eagle. Since the Reformation, especially in Methodism, the term evangelist has been applied to any itinerant preacher who attempts to bring about conversion among masses of people. Teachers (Rabbis) Rabbi (Hebrew, "my master"), honorary title of the Jewish masters of the Law. The title was first applied after the disputes between the schools of the Jewish rabbi and scribe Shammai and the Jewish rabbi and teacher Hillel. It was in use at the time of Jesus Christ, who was himself addressed as such. The title is still maintained, though not strictly, as the official designation of Jewish ministers. The rabbi was at once student, interpreter, and teacher of the Torah, and to prepare men for this varied role great yeshivas, or academies, were founded in ancient times in Palestine, at Jamnia (now Yavne) and Tiberias (both now Israel); and in Babylonia, at Sura, Nehardea, and Pumbedita. Such rabbinical academies existed in all the countries of the Diaspora into modern times. Today, in the United States, most rabbis are more preachers and pastors than legal authorities. Although academies of the old style continue to exist, institutions of a new kind, rabbinical seminaries, have grown up beside them. The largest institutions of rabbinical training in the U.S. are Yeshiva University (Orthodox), in New York City; Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative), also in New York; and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform), in Cincinnati, Ohio. Traditionally, only men could become rabbis. In recent decades, however, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist seminaries have begun to ordain significant numbers of women.
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