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The sub-deacon acted as crucifer in processions, read the epistle, moved the missal from one side of the altar to the other at certain times, served the water and wine to be mixed in the chalice, and held the paten, wrapped in the humeral veil, during the canon.

The Acolyte/Sub-deacon has a role already in the Latin Church.

There are hadly any 'Readers' in Australia as women read in church and can't be instituted as 'Readers' and if there is an Instituted Reader present then they are supposed to read at Mass. A bit of a mess really.

Pavel:

Christ is born!! Glorify Him!!

Two pastors ago, we stopped doing the Rite of Institution for lectors in our parish because the bishop said that men could be instituted and women could not. I was instituted before the instruction came down, but it caused a lot of ill feeling among the feminists int he parish.

In Christ,
BOB

I find no support for this assertation. The Motu Proprio states:

"Two ministries, adapted to present-day needs, are to be preserved in the whole Latin Church, namely, those of reader and acolyte. The functions heretofore assigned to the subdeacon are entrusted to the reader and the acolyte; consequently, the major order of subdiaconate no longer exists in the Latin Church. There is, however, no reason why the acolyte cannot be called a subdeacon in some places, at the discretion of the conference of bishops."

Before Vatican II those in minor orders didn't normally exercise their orders. The Subdeacon when present did the serving and read the Epistle. I think the Holy Father, in making the allowance to call acolytes subdeacons, specifically had places with Eastern Catholic majorities in mind.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Father Deacon Lance,

Why would the subdeaconate be a major order?

Until 1972 Sub-Deacon was a major order for the RC's.

Not so long ago the Latin Church had exorcists, and porters, too. In effect, we still have subdeacons for the Traditional Rite.

Alexis

Thats the "extraordinary rite" these days.

Yes 1972 was when the 'minor orders' were suppressed. Thats over 40 years ago.

Hi,



I stated that this might have been the case in some places and therefore, there was the option to use Acolyte or Subdeacon to name the same ministry.

Sorry for the confusion.

Shalom,
Memo

I suspect there has been a lot of informal use to the term "acolyte" and this may be the source od the problem here.

"In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern 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 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 an acolyte or taper-bearer are therefore carried out by readers, subdeacons, or by non-tonsured men or boys who are sometimes called "acolytes" informally. Also, the term "altar-boys" is often used to refer to young altar servers. Subdeacons wear their normal vestments consisting of the sticharion and crossed orarion; readers and servers traditionally wear the sticharion alone.

In recent times, however, in many of the North American Greek Orthodox Churches, for the sake of uniformity, readers have been permitted to wear the orarion (The Bishop presents the reader, who is to serve on the altar, with the orarion). Readers do not cross the orarion while wearing it, the uncrossed orarion being intended to slightly distinguish a reader from a subdeacon.

In the Russian tradition, readers wear only the sticharion, and do not wear the orarion unless they have been specially blessed to by their bishop. (This might be done if a reader must occasionally serve in the role of a subdeacon, or for some other reason the bishop believes is fitting.) If a server has not been tonsured, he must remove the sticharion before he can receive Holy Communion.

In the early church, a taper-bearer was not permitted to enter the sanctuary, only a subdeacon or above was allowed to go in. Nowadays, however, servers are permitted to go in, but they are not permitted either to touch the Holy Table or the Table of Oblation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acolyte

Hi Pavel,

What you describe about the Eastern Churches is very similar to what happened in the Latin Catholic Church.

Nowadays we have very few instituted Acolytes. Most of the people performing those functions are actually lay people (usually young boys and girls) who have not been officially appointed to that ministry. Some parishes have a commissioning ceremony for their altar servers, but this should not be confused with an officialy appointment by the bishop.

And yes, even though Local Ordinaries are at liberty to allow girls to serve at the altar and be commissioned to do so, only males are allowed to be appointed to the instituted office of the Acolyte.

But I digress. It is not uncommon to call Altar Servers "Acolytes", although in some places people use "Acolyte" to designate the lead server for a particular Liturgy.


Shalom,
Memo