Editing Curate (section)

==Anglican Communion<!--'Curatage' redirects here-->==
[[Image:Edgar Sheppard Vanity Fair 12 April 1911.JPG|150px|thumb|[[Edgar Sheppard]], then Curate at Marlow and Hornsey]]
In the [[Church of England]] today, ''curate'' refers to priests (or, in the first year, [[transitional deacon]]s) who are in their first post after ordination (usually for four years), and are completing their training (not unlike an [[apprenticeship]]). The technical term ''curate'', as found in the [[Book of Common Prayer (1662)|1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'']], meant the [[incumbent (ecclesiastical)|incumbent]] of a benefice, that is the person licensed by the diocesan bishop to the "cure of souls", who, depending on how the benefice income was raised and distributed, was a [[rector (ecclesiastical)#Anglican churches|rector]], a [[vicar (Anglicanism)|vicar]], or a [[perpetual curate]].<ref name="C&L">Cross & Livingstone. ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' (1974), articles "Curate", "Incumbent" & "Perpetual Curate"</ref> A vicar arises when a rectory was sold to lay rectors, which would often be a monastic house (such as abbey) or university college; a perpetual curacy where another priest or senior cleric has long-term control of the parish finances, granting an agreed stipend and general powers to the curate, albeit of theoretically of the same [[job security]], below.

Although the expression ''curate-in-charge'' was mainly used of an informal arrangement  whereby an [[incumbent (ecclesiastical)|incumbent]] gave most responsibility for one of the parish churches to an assistant, in law it denoted a cleric licensed by the bishop to exercise some or all of the cure of souls when the incumbent had failed to make adequate provision for them or was subject to disciplinary measures.<ref>Neep & Edinger. ''A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy'' A.R. Mowbray & Co (1928), p.25</ref> Once in possession of their benefices, rectors and vicars enjoyed a somewhat locally varied array of rights, absolutely, a home in which to live without charge, and generally a generous income from the parish especially in the era of tithes, yet could be removed after due legal process and for a restricted number of reasons.<ref>Neep & Edinger. ''A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy'' A.R. Mowbray & Co (1928), p.7 and following</ref>

Perpetual curates were placed on a similar footing in 1838 and were commonly styled "vicars", and this practice was legally recognised in 1868.<ref>Cross & Livingstone. ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' (1974), art. "Perpetual Curate"</ref> Clergy (both transitional deacons and [[priest]]s) who assist the "curate" were, and are, properly called assistant curates, but are often referred to as "the curate".

A house provided for an assistant curate is sometimes colloquially called a "'''curatage'''". Assistant curates are also licensed by the bishop, but only at the request of the "curate", who had the right of dismissal subject to certain conditions.<ref>Neep & Edinger. ''A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy'' A.R. Mowbray & Co (1928), p.24.</ref> Although it is customary for a priest to serve as a curate in one or more parishes before becoming an incumbent, it is by no means unknown for priests who have previously been beneficed or consecrated bishop to return to a curacy (as assistant curate), sometimes as a matter of choice. For example, [[Geoffrey Francis Fisher]] served as Curate of [[Trent, Dorset|Trent]] near [[Sherborne]] after retiring as [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in 1961.<ref>Carpenter, E., Archbishop Fisher, His Life and Times, London, Canterbury Press, 2012</ref>

With the 1968 Pastoral Measure and subsequent legislation, the Church of England has undergone a major process of reform which still continues today, and much of above no longer holds good. Ministers in the Church of England whose main income comes from sources other than their work as clergy may be termed "self-supporting ministers" or "curate (SSM)".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bristol.anglican.org/ministry/training/downloads/SSM%20Guidelines%20010209.pdf |title=Diocese of Bristol: Self Supporting Ministry |access-date=10 September 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717011546/http://www.bristol.anglican.org/ministry/training/downloads/SSM%20Guidelines%20010209.pdf |archive-date=17 July 2011 }}</ref>

Terms like "rector" and "curate" were carried overseas with the spread of Anglicanism, but their exact meaning depends on local conditions and regulations. In the [[Church of Ireland]] some curates are styled "bishop's curates" as they are accountable directly to the diocesan bishop, while sometimes mentored by local parish clergy, and are perceived to have more autonomy than other assistant curates. {{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

In Anglican parishes with a [[Charismatic movement|charismatic]] or [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] ([[low church]]) tradition, the roles of curates are usually seen as being an assistant leader to the overall leader, often in a larger team of pastoral leaders. Many of the larger charismatic and evangelical parishes have larger ministry teams with a number of pastoral leaders, some ordained and others who are not.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

In the [[Episcopal Church of the United States]], the curacy may be a temporary place to continue training after ordination, similar to an [[internship]],<ref>''See'', Paul Moore, Jr., ''Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City'' (1999).</ref> or it may be a permanent, subordinant position, more akin to a ''perpetual curate''.

===Training===
{{anchor|IME|CMD}}
In the Church of England, the ongoing training of assistant curates is typically overseen by officers of the bishops called Initial Ministerial Education (IME) or Continuing Ministerial Development (CMD) Advisers.