The Very Reverend

The Very Reverend is a style given to certain religious figures.

Roman Catholic

In the Roman Catholic Church, by custom, priests who hold positions of particular note: e.g. vicars general, episcopal vicars, judicial vicars, ecclesiastical judges, vicars forane (deans or archpriests), provincials of religious orders, rectors or presidents of cathedrals, seminaries or colleges/universities, priors of monasteries, canons, for instance. Monsignors of the grade of Papal chamberlain were formerly styled as The Very Reverend Monsignor, while domestic prelates and protonotaries apostolic were styled The Right Reverend Monsignor. Now, apart from legitimate custom or acquired right, most monsignors are simply styled The Reverend Monsignor. The title is also accorded in the Dominican Order to holders of the title of Master of Sacred Theology.

Orthodox

In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the style is used for archpriests and unmarried parish priests, while married priests are typically styled The Reverend.

The Reverend

The Reverend is a style of address most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a title, form of address or title of respect. The style is also sometimes used by leaders in non-Christian religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.

The term is an anglicisation of the Latin reverendus, the style originally used in Latin documents in medieval Europe. It is the gerundive of the verb revereri (to respect; to revere) which may be taken as a gerundive or a passive periphrastic, therefore meaning [one who is] to be revered/must be respected. The Reverend is therefore equivalent to The Honourable or The Venerable.

It is paired with a modifier or noun for some offices in some religious traditions: e.g., Anglican archbishops and most Roman Catholic bishops are usually styled The Most Reverend (reverendissimus); other Anglican bishops and some Roman Catholic bishops are styled The Right Reverend; some Reformed churches have used The Reverend Mister as a style for their clergy.