What do you call someone who gives out a sacrament?

Answer 1

Someone who gives out a sacrament is properly called the "minister" of that sacrament. Here are the ministers permitted for each of the sacraments:

Baptism - properly a priest or a deacon but in an emergency, absolutely anyone

Confession - priest or bishop

Holy Eucharist - priest or bishop consecrates the sacrament, deacons, priests and bishops can administer it, although in modern parishes there exist Eucharistic ministers who have been given this office as well.

Confirmation - bishop, in an emergency, a priest if empowered by a bishop to do so

Marriage - the couple. Priest or bishop must normally be present as a witness

Holy Orders - bishop

Extreme Unction - priest or bishop

Answer 2

Priests administer what are known as holy wafers and very weak wine at Communion as a means of symbolically re-enacting the Last Supper, where Jesus gave his Disciples bread and wine to eat and drink, instructing them to see the bread and the wine as his body and his blood which he was sacrificing for them and for all of humanity. The priest begins Communion by breaking a single large wafer on the alter-plate and eating part of it himself as well as drinking some of the wine from the Communion Vessel, and then shares the rest with the attendant Archdeacons and senior church members present before going on to invite Confirmed members of the congregation to go up to the alter-rail and receive a sip of the wine and a small wafer themselves.

Communion wafers are usually made of corn, but nowadays gluten-free ones are available for those with an intolerance to it. The wine itself has a very low alcohol content of something like 0.5%.

Some theologians and academics have pointed out that there are parallels with the symbolic eating and drinking of Christ's body and blood, with cannibal practices amongst old primitive tribes, who believed that they were imbibing the soul of the person that they were eating.

Answer 3

In the Catholic Church, a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon is the Ordinary minister of Holy Communion. A duly instituted acolyte (one of the minor Orders which proceed Deacon) is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion OR a duly instituted lay person who is appointed by the Bishop for a particular Church for a limited period of time (usually for a number of years). In the event of necessity and no duly appointed Extraordinary Ministers present, the priest may deputize a person or people for a one time only at that Mass.

Answer 4

If a lay person, he or she is called an Extraordinary Minister of Communion, or Eucharistic Minister