www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Female acolytes?

I have been attending a UGCC parish for two years but have very limited experience with other Eastern Catholic churches and parishes. Ours is a very orthodox, traditional parish, with the Liturgy almost entirely in English.

A friend told me female acolytes are permitted in some Eastern churches. This would not be permitted in my parish, and I have never heard of it much less seen it. Can anyone enlighten me on the subject?

If this works as in the Latin Church, it is up to each bishop to decide if this is allowed within his jurisdiction and, of course, up to the pastor if he actually calls any girls/women into that service.

My 13 year old daughter has been an Altar Server for 4-5 years now. Bu then again, we are Latin Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, probably not apples to apples with a traditional Ukrainian parish, even in the same area.

Shalom,
Memo

Several nitpicks
1) Acolyte is a specific term for (latin) instituted or (byzantine) ordained men. It is one of the minor orders.
2) Altar Server is the appropriate term for laypersons doing the acolyte's liturgical role

3) I can't speak to the Ukrainians, but in the Ruthenian church, Ruthenian Particular Law prohibits women from any ministries in the Altar. Including altar servers

I've seen photos of women receiving minor orders in one of the Syrian rite churches, but I'm not certain which one.

Dear Aramis,

You may speak to the Ukrainians as often as you please and as long as you please. But that does not necessarily obligate the Ukrainians to listen to you!

Fr. Serge

Rev. Fr. Serge:
is that an unfamiliar turn of phrase for you?

Heck, if Ukrainian Particular Law were somewhere I could find it, I'd gleefully dive right in...

In the latin church we are not all that nitpicky.

Altar Servers performing the duties of the Acolytes are often called "Acolytes".

My 11 year-old son, who is also an Altar Server was comissioned a couple of years ago as an Altar Server and he received a cross with the word "Acolyte" on it.

Yesterday, he was commissioned as a Lector and I commented (tongue-in-cheek) that he was one step ahead of me, because even though I have been instituted as a Reader, I have yet to be instituted as an Acolyte (which, God willing, should happen this Fall/Winter).

The latin church still reserves the official institution to the ministries of Reader and Acolyte to men. In L.A. women can be certified as Lectors by the Archdiocese, but it is not quite the same thing.

Interestingly enough, in Spanish we do not have two words for Lectors and Readers, they're both "Lector/Lectora/Lectores/Lectoras", so you can imagine the confusion. Oh, well... Since these instituted ministries are no longer considered even minor Orders, I do not see the logic of banning women from receiving them.

I think this would be a nice first step towards the restoration of the Female Diaconate, which I believe is not only good, but actually desperately needed by our church for a good number of reasons.

Shalom,
Memo

Memo I think you have that a little backwards lector is the instituted office and reader is open to all.

My oldest daughter was both an altar server and reader in the parish in which she was baptized (we returned home after a long exile in the east), but she joined me in turning east. In fact, she is formally a member of the Pittsburgh metropolia, while I still need to regularize this . . .

hawk

Memo: Even the (normally lax) USCCB is picky about not calling servers "Acolytes" or even "acolytes."

I have two objections to the Latin Church's use of female altar servers, one theological, the other spiritual. The theological objection is to having women serve at the altar in any capacity, which was unknown even when deaconesses were common and ordained according to Cheirotonia. As a server is an ersatz acolyte, a female server is standing in the place of an ordained (cheirothesia) minister in a ministry not open to women (deaconesses were never ordained either readers or acolytes).

My practical objection is girl altar boys drive out boy altar boys. Those who study such things will tell you that once they reach a certain age, boys are desperate to find things they can do that are exclusively male. In the adult world, whenever a traditionally male profession begins to admit women, and the percentage of women rises above 15-20%, men flee that profession: it loses both status and its uniquely male mystique. Thus, at one time, primary school teachers were mostly men, and there was no need to say "male nurse". In the Protestant denominations that allow women in the pulpit, most seminaries are now dominated by women, and there is a dearth of male seminarians.

It's no different with altar boys: when it's something that boys only can do, and treated as an honor, then they will put up with the inconvenience, not to mention wearing a dress (I'm speaking of Latin vestments--I myself love my sticharion and think it quite manly). So people complain about boys not wanting to serve at the altar--but they should not wonder why.

As Leon Podles would say, the Church is quite feminine en

I beg to differ, please take a look at the English translation for Ministeria Quaedam:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6MINORS.HTM


Be as it may, in many Spanish-speaking regions, the acolyte is simply the head altar server. The word is tied to a function, not necessarily to the ritual institution.

Shalom,
Memo

Hi,


Well, the Latin church as departed from the idea of readers or acolytes as being "ordained" at all. Readers and acolytes are lay people entrusted with a spcific liturgical ministry.

These instituted ministries are not yet open to women, but the functions themselves are.

And quite frankly, if there is no ordination involved whatsoever, I do not see the theological reason for not admitting women to the instituted ministries. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, why are we insisting it is not a duck?



I have seen this argument over and over. To put it bluntly, our experience in the two parishes I am involved with appears to contradict this.

Both St. Jude and St. Paschal have a very healthy numer of Altar Servers, all of them are from 4th to 8th Grade age ranges, boys and girls are more or less evenly distributed and it is not uncommon to hear a candidate express his interest in joining the ministry because it is also a means to socialize with members of the opposite gender.

Perhaps not the most spiritual of motives, but in my opinion, a very healthy one (after all, my wife and I fell in love with each other doing youth ministry in our parish).

I am not saying that everybody should have female altar servers. That is for each parish and each jurisdiction to figure out. What I would like is that the parishes and jurisdictions who choose not to have them would refrain from condemning the one who choose to try out this idea and see where it goes.

If this was against what the Church teaches, I would be the first one to object. But the Church has spoken about it, the Church says it is OK to explore this idea, so let's wait at least a couple generations until we can examine the fruits and discern its value.

Shalom,
Memo

I can only speak of the parishes which I attend regularly. At one, there are some two dozen altar servers, out of about three dozen boys between the ages of 10 and 17. I have not included the number of boys who come back from college and serve at the holidays and over the summer. Let's say the total participation rate is between 66-75%.

At the other parish, where I have not been observing as long, it seems to me that they have easily more than a dozen boys who serve regularly, as well as a number of adults, from a regular Sunday attendance of about 175 total, of which maybe 35 are boys of the requisite age. Again, put the participation rate at 66-75%.

It has always puzzled me as to why the Latin Church felt the need to let girls serve at all. Were they having problems filling the ranks from the available boys? If so, perhaps investigating the reasons would have been better than engaging in false egalitarianism.

As it is, allowing women to serve at the altar is an innovation, and undoubtedly a cause of some scandal among the Orthodox and Greek Catholics. For that reason alone, the practice should be discontinued.

Memo: a quick search of Vatcan.va shows the term acolyte used only for the instituted order of acolyte, not as a synonym for altar server.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19931013en.html explains the history...

http://www.vatican.va/various/sm_maggiore/en/capitolo/capitolo.htm lists those acolytes as if clerics

instruction to bishops: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...20040222_apostolorum-successores_en.html

In english, the terms "acolyte" and "altar server" are not commensurate.

The two roman instituted orders are still, functionally, equivalent to the minor clerical orders of the east, and by promoting the uninstituted, you in fact demean the holy role the church has elevated them to.

Altar servers are, in point of fact, not functioning as acolytes, but an acolyte's specific ministry includes those tasks assigned to an altar server and then some.

I guess I misused the term "acolyte."

My question is whether anyone knows whether female ALTAR SERVERS are permitted in any of the Eastern Catholic or Orthodox churches. I believe altar service can be a pathway to the priesthood and that female servers are a recent innovation, mainly with the Latin rite.