Pastor vs. Parson — What's the Difference?

A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" {singular}, or "Ps" {plural}), is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, pastors are always ordained.

A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches.

A Christian minister or priest having spiritual charge over a congregation or other group.

A beneficed member of the clergy; a rector or a vicar.

A layperson having spiritual charge over a person or group.

An Anglican cleric with full legal control of a parish under ecclesiastical law; a rector.

(Archaic) A shepherd.

A member of the clergy, especially a Protestant minister.

To serve or act as pastor of.

An Anglican cleric having full legal control of a parish under ecclesiastical law; a rector.

A shepherd; someone who tends to a flock of animals.

A Protestant minister.

Someone with spiritual authority over a group of people

A Roman Catholic priest of an independent parish church.

(Protestantism) A minister or priest in a church.

A person who represents a parish in its ecclesiastical and corporate capacities; hence, the rector or incumbent of a parochial church, who has full possession of all the rights thereof, with the cure of souls.

The main priest serving a parish.

Any clergyman having ecclesiastical preferment; one who is in orders, or is licensed to preach; a preacher.

A bird, the rosy starling.

A person authorized to conduct religious worship

To serve a congregation as pastor

A shepherd; one who has the care of flocks and herds.

A guardian; a keeper; specifically (Eccl.), a minister having the charge of a church and parish.

A species of starling (Pastor roseus), native of the plains of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Its head is crested and glossy greenish black, and its back is rosy. It feeds largely upon locusts.

A person authorized to conduct religious worship

Only the rose-colored starlings; in some classifications considered a separate genus