I notice, on the Eparchy of Stamford's page, that Kyr Basil has elevated several priests to the dignity of Canon.
This title did not come up in our prior discussions and I don't remember encountering it previously among any of the Byzantine Churches.
Is it one that is commonly conferred among the Ukes? Does anyone know what insignia accompany its grant?
I'm presuming that the priest is styled V. Rev. Canon _______ - correct? And, where does it fall in the hierarchy of honorifics - above, below, equivalent to Archpriest?
Many years,
Neil
This an old thread but to answer your question: It's my observation title of Canon is usually used by the Church of England and her offspring and for the most part is Western, but we have adopted it as an honorary title for our glorious Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in America.
"Canon", as many may know, is given to those priests who are on the cathedral's canon. In ancient times the bishop's canon was a list of priests in his service. By the second half of the first millennium this had evolved so that only those priests who served in cathedrals were canons (which was a large number of priests since this was when we actually had more priests than we knew what to do with). It got to the point where these canons got pretty corrupt so I believe the Pope or an ecumenical council, I forgot which, made the canons of Europe take religious vows. Those who did not for whatever reason became known as "secular canons", those who did take vows moved out of their cathedrals overtime into their own monasteries (hence canon regulars such as the Augustinian Canons - whose most famous/infamous member was Martin Luther). Secular canons evolved to point to where today a priest is named "canon" as an honorary title. It's also my observation that they are equal in status with archpriests as far as the UGCC is concerned.
Some religous canons remained in their cathedrals; many of the disbanded monasteries during the English deformation were actually congregations of Canon Regulars of the dioceses cathedrals. This is why the title is mostly found today in the Anglican Church. Even today some, such as the Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord, are associated with the historic cathedrals of their dioceses.
http://vladmission.org/vocations/cjd.htm
