A sacrament is one of the special things that the Church does.

The Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer (1662) describes a sacrament as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us".

You can think of a sacrament as a piece of theatre, a symbolic action, something that we do outwardly, that is often larger than life, which reflects something that happens to us inwardly and is a sign of God's grace towards us.

Two sacraments were given to the Church by Jesus himself.

These are:

• Holy Communion
•  Holy Baptism

These two sacraments are sometimes called the 'Dominical Sacraments' because they were given by Jesus, our Lord (Latin for 'lord' is 'dominus').

Five other (lesser) sacraments grew up within the Church. These are sometimes called 'the sacraments of the Church'.

These are:

• Confirmation
•  Ordination
•  The reconciliation of a penitent (confession and absolution)
• Unction (or 'the blessing of the sick with oil' and sometimes called 'the last rites' when used just before somebody dies)
• Holy Matrimony (marriage)

Each sacrament has a minister.

In the case of confirmation and ordination, the minister is a bishop.

For most of the other sacraments, the minister is usually a priest.

In holy matrimony, the ministers of the sacrament are the two people marrying each other.

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© J D Yule 2003