4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "First of all, I want to express my thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. The suggestions were all thoughtful and well-reasoned and I took each one into consideration. Curate - the term offered by sirius and marcushm - is what I like the most. It is succinct and is most likely to be a direct equivalent. I very much like this line of logic: predigtamt = rectorship, curate = rector's assistant (and therefore one who aspires to be rector) predigtamtskandidat = curate BUT...there is a slight catch. Contrary to marcushm's source, wordreference.com (based on Collins) says that curate is a Catholic office, and that vicar is the Protestant equivalent. Since I am fairly sure that I am dealing with a Protestant birth, I am a little tempted to use vicar, but to me that term does not connote the idea of aspirant or next-in-line to the office of Predigtamt. Curate? Vicar? I think I'll stick with curate and be done with it, but if anyone can confirm or refute wordreference's definition, I'd be interested to hear from you. Again, many thanks to all who brainstormed with me! I love this site. "