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Subdeacon
Subdeacon (or sub-deacon) is a minor order or ministry for men in various branches of Christianity. The subdeacon has a specific liturgical role and is placed between the acolyte (or reader) and the deacon in the order of precedence. Subdeacons in the Eastern Orthodox Church A subdeacon or hypodeacon is the highest of the minor orders of clergy in the Eastern Orthodox Church. This order is higher than the reader and lower than the deacon. Canonical discipline Like the reader, the clerical street-dress of the subdeacon is the cassock, which is usually black but only need be so if he is a monk. This is symbolic of his suppression of his own tastes, will, and desires, and his canonical obedience to God, his bishop, and the liturgical and canonical norms of the Church. As a concession in countries where Eastern Orthodoxy is little known, many only wear the cassock when attending liturgies or when moving about the faithful on church business. In some jurisdictions in the United St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clerical Marriage
Clerical marriage is practice of allowing Christian clergy (those who have already been ordained) to marry. This practice is distinct from allowing married persons to become clergy. Clerical marriage is admitted among Protestants, including both Anglicans and Lutherans. Some Protestant clergy and their children have played an essential role in literature, philosophy, science, and education in Early Modern Europe. Many Eastern Churches (Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Eastern Catholic), while allowing married men to be ordained, do not allow clerical marriage after ordination: their parish priests are often married, but must marry before being ordained to the priesthood. Within the lands of the Eastern Christendom, priests' children often became priests and married within their social group, establishing a tightly knit hereditary caste among some Eastern Christian communities. The Catholic Church not only forbids clerical marriage. The Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Orders
Minor orders are ranks of church ministry. In the Catholic Church, the predominating Latin Church formerly distinguished between the major orders —priest (including bishop), deacon and subdeacon—and four minor orders—acolyte, exorcist, lector, and porter (in descending order). In 1972, the minor orders were renamed "ministries", with those of lector and acolyte being kept throughout the Latin Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the three minor orders in use are those of subdeacon, reader and chanter. The rites by which all four minor orders were conferred, but not the actual conferral of the order, are still employed for members of some Roman Catholic religious institutes and societies of apostolic life authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite. Some traditional Catholics continue to use minor orders, as do Old Roman Catholics and the Liberal Catholic Church. Western Catholicism From the beginning of the 3rd century, there is evidence in Western Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acolyte
An acolyte is an assistant or follower assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession. In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone performing ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In others, the term is used for one who has been inducted into a particular liturgical ministry, even when not performing those duties. Etymology The word ''acolyte'' is derived from the Greek word ἀκόλουθος (''akolouthos''), meaning an attendant, via Late Latin ''acolythus''. Eastern Christianity In the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches, the nearest equivalent of acolyte is the altar server. At one time there was a rank of minor clergy called the ''taper-bearer'' (κηροφόρος) responsible for bearing lights during processions and liturgical entrances. However, this rank has long ago been subsumed by that of the reader and the service for the tonsure of a reader begins with the setting-aside of a taper-bearer. The functions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestment
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religion, especially by Eastern Churches, Catholics (of all rites), Anglicans, and Lutherans. Many other groups also make use of liturgical garments; this was a point of controversy in the Protestant Reformation and sometimes since, in particular during the ritualist controversies in England in the 19th century. Origins of vestments In the early Christian churches, officers and leaders, like their congregations, wore the normal dress of civil life in the Greco-Roman world, although with an expectation that the clothing should be clean and pure during holy observances. From the 4th century onward, however, modifications began to be made to the form of the garments, and as secular fashions changed from the 6th century the church retained the original forms of their garments, although with separate development and with regional variations. Having separate, consecrated clothing for the cere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tunicle
The tunicle is a liturgical vestment associated with Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism. Contemporary use For a description of the tunicle, see dalmatic, the vestment with which it became identical in form, although earlier editions of the ''Caeremoniale Episcoporum'' indicated that it should have narrower sleeves. Sometimes it was also distinguished by a single horizontal band on the front and back, as opposed to the double band of the dalmatic. History In Rome, subdeacons had begun to wear the tunicle by the sixth century, but Pope Gregory I made them return to the use of the chasuble. They began to use the tunicle again in the ninth century, a time when it was also worn by acolytes, a custom that was widespread until the late Middle Ages and can still occasionally be found in some Anglican churches for acolytes and crucifers. In some places outside Rome, subdeacons continued to wear the tunicle even from the sixth to the ninth centuries. The ceremony by which the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orarion
The Orarion (Greek: ; Slavonic: орарь, ''orar'') is the distinguishing vestment of the deacon and subdeacon in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches. It is a narrow stole, usually four to five inches (127 mm) wide and of various lengths, made of brocade, often decorated with crosses (three, five or seven) embroidered or appliquéd along its length. It is usually trimmed with decorative banding around the edges and fringe at the two ends. Deacon The deacon wears the orarion over his left shoulder with the front portion draped over his left forearm. He will take this portion in his right hand when leading litanies or drawing attention to a particular liturgical action. This single orarion is the oldest form, as illustrated in traditional and older iconography. Archdeacons and protodeacons are awarded the much longer double orarion, which is worn over the left shoulder, wrapped around the chest and back, and brought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reader (liturgy)
In some Christian denominations, a reader or lector is the person responsible for reading aloud excerpts of scripture at a liturgy. In early Christian times the reader was of particular value due to the rarity of literacy. Catholic Church In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the term ''lector'' or ''reader''" means someone who in a particular liturgy is assigned to read a Biblical text other than the Gospel (reading the Gospel at Mass is reserved specifically to the deacon or, in his absence, to the priest). But it also has the more specific meaning of a person who has been "instituted" as a lector or reader, and is such even when not assigned to read in a specific liturgy. The office was formerly classed as one of the four minor orders. However, since 1 January 1973, the apostolic letter ''Ministeria quaedam'' decreed instead that: # What up to now were called minor orders are henceforth to be called ''ministries''. # Ministries may be assigned to lay Christians; h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sticharion
The sticharion (also ''stikharion'' or ''stichar''; Greek: στιχάριον; Slavonic: стихарь) is a liturgical vestment of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, roughly analogous in function to the alb of the Western Church. The sticharion is worn by all classes of ordained ministers in the Constantinopolitan Rite and comes in two forms: one worn by priests and one worn by deacons and other altar servers. The sticharion is derived from the ''chiton'', a long, sleeved garment which reached to the ground and was worn in ancient times by both men and women. Deacons and Servers In the form worn by deacons, subdeacons, altar servers, and sometimes by readers, the sticharion is a long robe with wide, loose sleeves, fastened at the neck, and often open down the sides but held shut with buttons or ties. Thus in form, it is close to the dalmatic and tunicle of Western Christianity. There is usually a cross embroidered or appliquéd to the center of the back, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dikirion And Trikirion
Dikirion ( el, δικήριον or δίκηρον) and trikirion (τρικήριον or τρίκηρον) are liturgical candlesticks, used by a bishop of the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic Churches to bless the clergy and faithful. The words mean "dual candle" and "triple candle", respectively, and may collectively be called by the Greek plural form, "δικηροτρίκηρα", ''dikērotríkēra''. The candlesticks are often quite ornate. The bishop holds the trikirion in his right hand and the dikirion in his left, and makes the Sign of the Cross with both. Both the dikirion and the trikirion have flat bases, so that they may stand upright. Above this base is a vertical shaft terminating in candleholders. The dikirion holds two candles, representing the dual nature of Jesus, and the trikirion holds three, representing the three persons of the Holy Trinity. The candleholders are mounted at an angle so that candles placed in them cross each other. Sometimes in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Free Church of England, view the diaconate as an order of ministry. Origin and development The word ''deacon'' is derived from the Greek word (), which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning "servant", "waiting-man", "minister", or "messenger". It is generally assumed that the office of deacon originated in the selection of seven men by the apostles, among them Stephen, to assist with the charitable work of the early church as recorded in Acts of the Apostles chapter 6. The title ''deaconess'' ( grc, διακόνισσα, diakónissa, label=none) is not found in the Bib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deacons
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Free Church of England, view the diaconate as an order of ministry. Origin and development The word ''deacon'' is derived from the Greek word (), which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning "servant", "waiting-man", "minister", or "messenger". It is generally assumed that the office of deacon originated in the selection of seven men by the apostles, among them Stephen, to assist with the charitable work of the early church as recorded in Acts of the Apostles chapter 6. The title ''deaconess'' ( grc, διακόνισσα, diakónissa, label=none) is not found in the Bible. Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. The canonical hours are very long and complicated, lasting about eight hours (longer during Great Lent) but are abridged outside of large monasteries. An iconostasis, a partition covered with icons, separates the area around the altar from the nave. The sign of the cross, accompanied by bowing, is made very frequently, e.g., more than a hundred times during the divine liturgy, and there is prominent veneration of icons, a general acceptance of the congregants freely moving within the church and interacting with each other, and distinctive traditions of liturgical chanting. Some traditional practices are falling out of use in modern times in sundry churches and in the diaspora, e.g., the faithful standing during services, bowing and prostrating frequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
