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A preacher is a person who delivers or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a moral or social worldview or philosophy.
The sermon or homily has been an important part of Christian services since Early Christianity, and remains prominent in both Catholic Church and Protestantism. sometimes figure in these traditions of worship, for example the Methodist local preachers, but in general preaching has usually been a function of the clergy. The Catholic Church sees among its ministers "an unending succession of preachers" who maintain the preaching of the original apostles "until the end of time".Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, paragraph 8, published on 18 November 1965, accessed on 24 August 2025 The Dominican Order is officially known as the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum in Latin language); of this order were trained to publicly preach in vernacular languages, and the order was created by Saint Dominic to preach to the of southern France in the early thirteenth century. The Franciscans are another important preaching order; Travelling preachers, usually friars, were an important feature of late medieval Catholicism.
In most denominations, modern preaching is kept below about 40 minutes, and Pope Francis recommended a maximum of 8 minutes,Graham, J., Do churchgoers need shorter sermons — or longer ones?, Deseret News, published on 13 June 2024, accessed on 30 August 2025 but, historically, preachers of all denominations could at times speak for well over an hour, sometimes for two or three hours, and use techniques of rhetoric and theatre that are today somewhat out of fashion in mainline churches.
In many churches in the United States, the title preacher is synonymous with pastor or minister, and the church's minister is often referred to simply as "our/the preacher" or by name such as "Preacher Smith".
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