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A religious brother (abbreviated Br. or Bro. as a title) is a lay male member of a religious institute or religious order who commits himself to following Christ in consecrated life, usually by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Equivalent to a religious sister, a religious brother typically lives in a religious community and works in a ministry appropriate to his capabilities.
A brother might practice any secular occupation. Some religious institutes are composed only of brothers; others are made up of brothers and clerics (priests or ministers, and seminarians).
In some Christian groups, members refer to each other as "brother" or "sister".[1] For example, Shakers use the title for all adult male members.[2]
- ^ Lawless, Elaine J. (1988). God's Peculiar People. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1628-0.
Pentecostals, like some other Christians, call each other Brother and Sister, but for Pentecostals this tradition has special meaning. Because they do feel they are literally a family, these terms are not mere titles but are imbued with a greater intensity of meaning: "The Pentecostal church as a whole is a very, is kind of a familial feel. We call each other brothers and sisters and we are brothers and sisters. There is definitely a feeling of kinship among each other."
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