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What is the appropriate attire for lay cantors and lectors? Is there a vestment suitable for their particular ministry? How about extraordinary Eucharistic ministers? What is the Byzantine tradition for them? Several lay ministers asked what they should wear since they were officially commissioned by the eparchy. I don't have a clue since I normally wear civil clothes.

Thanks,
Joe

I have never seen cantors or lectors vest and I have never seen an extraordinary minister of Communion. If blessed to do so I suppose any of the above could wear a sticharion, provided they are males.

Joe,
I have seen with my very own eye tonsured readers and cantors in the OCA wearing cassocks in church. Just the simple ones, not the Rizza. If I have my terms wrong, let me know.
Since many of the Liturgics are the same I thought I would share the story.

A tonsured reader properly vests in sticharion to do the reading. A chanter may vest in anterion or rasson.

Since our tradition does NOT recognize the "extraordinary minister of Holy Communion" there is no particular vesture appointed.

Incognitus

Surely if they are lay people they dress as laity whatever their function ?

I was always unhappy as RC when folk suggested that the Readers etc should be given some form of obvious identity - scarf , cloak [ yes saw that for EMHC in Portugal] large medal on a chain or whathave you , it just did not seem right - these were lay folk assisting because of a perceived need . Whether the need was real or not is not being discussed at this time

Laity are laity, regardless of how they are participating in services, and should dress respectably. If a male has been tonsured as a chanter or reader, he should dress according to his rank, as described by our esteemed Incognitus.

In the East laity cannot be 'ministers'. Once a man has been 'set aside' he is clergy. Remember, there are two categories of clergy: Minor - taper-bearer, chanter, reader, sub-deacon; and Major - deacon, priest, bishop.

I haven't a clue as to the "commissioning" which has been mentioned. Is this another case of creating a new solution to a perceived 'problem' when a solution already existed? (see the Arkhieratikon) Instead of following tradition, which is tried and tested, have some hierarchs come up with a new system? It seems this is now spawning further complications, as can be seen from the existance of this very thread.

Oυτις ημιν φιλει ου φροντιδα | Nemo Nos Diliget Non Curamus

I was tonsured in the OCA. After that, I wore a black cassock whenever I set foot in the church. All readings except Gospel ones were automatically differed to me to read. I only wore a sticharion over the cassock if I were also assisting as a server at the altar. When not serving, as a courtesy to the priest, I would enter the sanctuary during the trisagion for his blessing, then return to the nave to read in the middle of the aisle, a ways back behind the tetrapod.

In my Byzantine Catholic parish I wear a grey cassock which is the one approved for use within our eparchy for married clerics, which would include minor orders, deacons, and seminarians. I am told that the other eparchies and the archeparchy wear black, instead. I also ask a blessing of our priest prior to each service. This practice probably varies from parish to parish. Since I am the cantor leading congregational unison singing, I do not go to the sanctuary prior to the reading, but go from the cantor's stand to behind the tetrapod during the trisagion, in order to more easily lead the singing. All our altar servers do wear sticharions, but not the cantors.

My tonsuring included taper-bearer, chanter, and lector, but not subdeacon. We had no subdeacon.

Lay people who assist me with the cantoring wear standard church dress. In Arizona, I imagine we are more casual in our attire than most places, because of the heat, but the cantors tend to be more conservatively dressed.

Dear Anhelyna,

Well, you are still EXTRAORDINARY with us!!

And those laity you describe appear to have had a "vested interest" in doing what they did . . .

Alex

Jim, is that approval written somewhere? My only experience with parishes in your Eparchy is people strictly in lay clothing other than the priest or deacon.

When I was tonsured reader and later ordained subdeacon, I did wear the stikharion to read with the blessing of the priest in both the Ruthenian and UGCC eparchies which coincided territorially (Parma and Chicago).
DD

OUCH referring to Alex's comments

Seriously though I have to ask - is there a need for laity performing a specific function such as singing or reading to be identified by special attire ?

Whether we are talking of ECs , EOs, RCs or whatever - laity are not clerics and should not be vested in any way as to make them appear to be clerics.

grrr - gremlins are getting to me

To put this into perspective:

Laity are vested as clerics in most of our services... or did we forget about young boys serving the role of subdeacons. Surely no one here would advocate that our altar servers should remain in street clothing (no matter how dignified)as they minister to the priest or deacon. I am not advocating that we blur the lines, but there needs to be a carefully considered response.

No one here has advocated such a thing or even suggests it. I should have clarified by adding other than those serving at the altar.

I appplaud any bishop willing to bless minor clergy to vest according to their rank in accordance with the Instruction from Rome and our venerable traditions.
DD

I wear a grey cassock which is the one approved for use within our eparchy for married clerics, which would include minor orders, deacons, and seminarians.

Diak asks if the above is written somewhere. I don't know. I have it on my priest's say so, and our diaconal candidate also follows this directive as do all diaconal seminarians from our eparchy as far as I know. Of course, the eparchy is not currently tonsuring Readers except on the path to diaconal ordination, I believe. My tonsuring did not occur within the Eparchy. I should add for Our Lady's Slave of Love that the only reason I wear a cassock at all is because of my having been tonsured, even though it was by the OCA.

Recently, I asked about using black instead, but was told gray was introduced by Bishop George, when the married diaconate program was first introduced in the eparchy.

The practice of not wearing the sticharion unless serving at the altar appears to be the same locally for the Orthodox as well as the Byzantine Catholics. When I read in a Greek Orthodox parish while still an OCA Reader, I also was not expected to wear a sticharion. Nothing like confusion, I guess.

Not confusion, that's just being Byzantine.

I've also seen the variability you describe in the OCA and GOA and with the Antiochians, i.e. that the Reader in some parishes vests only in the Riassa and others in the stikharion.

In our area, for example, the Antiochian parish uses readers in riassa, the OCA parish uses readers vested in stikharion, and the OCA/Bulgarian parish uses both.

In my diaconate program, Bishop Losten specifically told us to follow the Instruction and the Particular Law as the norms in this regard.

The UGCC Archeparchial Statutes are quite clear about this issue:
DD