www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Lay Epistle Readers

A recent notice in our parish bulletin asks for volunteers to train as epistle readers.

What is the tradition of the Eastern Churches with regards to requirements for readers? Have we typically used men and woman who are faithful and willing?

Dear Friend,

Yes, indeed.

I am married to one . . .

Alex

Dear ES,

It would be good to ask your parish priest and see what opportunities are available in this respect.

A number of places are bringing back the full ordination of Readers and Cantors for service in Church.

Alex

I, a stupid engineer, will venture to say that the venerable Alex is wrong. I one time asked the Reader/Psalti at my Orthodox (AOA) parish whether he was ordained, and he said that he was not ordained. He said he was tonsured and that the sub-orders are "tonsured" rather than "ordained".

The office of Reader/Psalti is a sub-order which is reserved to men. Men are tonsured by the bishop to that office. My experience has been when there is not someone who is a tonsured reader, the church will use a man or woman to fill in in a non-tonsured role.

When I attended a BC parish, I got to chant the epistle. When I doxed, my new parish had a Reader. The BC parish/mission I was a part of did not celebrate vespers or matins so reading the epistle was very simple. However, if you start celebrating vespers and matins the service becomes very complicated--almost impossible if you haven't done a lot of studying and homework.

Dear Moronikos,

First of all, engineers aren't stupid. It takes an awful lot of intelligence and hard work to become one and I'm the son of one -"engineerovich" if you like .

I use "ordination" loosely when I shouldn't. I once read that Chrismation was a kind of "lay ordination . . .

So when a Reader is tonsured, he has his hair trimmed - which is what a tonsure is?

Alex

Is it true that in some Byzantine parishes, people from the congregation are sometimes called to read the Epistle, like in Roman parishes? Does that happen frequently?

What do you think about women reading the Epistle?

Alex,

XB!

Yes in the Byzantine Ritual at the setting apart of a Reader the hair of the head is cut - that is what a tonsure is.

Tony

Do you think that the lay women who read the Epistle will mind being tonsured ?

Dear Tibibut,

Some women have hair so short the bishop would have a time of it to tonsure them.

In response to Snoopy's question about women readers (he really doesn't like women in church does he? ), my grandmother, a presbytera, would sometimes serve the Divine Liturgy in Church and read the Epistle.

But she was Greek Catholic, like me, and so also didn't know right from wrong . . .

Alex

As the minor orders are preparation for major orders, women are not allowed to be tonsured readers. However, I have no problem with women reading in church. Vespers and Matins have a multitude of psalms to chant. Old testament readings at Vigil Services and prayers like "Vouchsafe O Lord.." are also good for this. It is nice also to have children chant things like the Trisagion at vespers (things that they should know off by heart).
However, Epistle readings and the reading of the Six Psalms are usually done by men because they require the blessing of the priest which means going into the Sanctuary to receiving a blessing. Sorry ladies.

This gets me thinkin',

How come nobody announces the prokimen anymore?

Deacon: Wisdom, let us attend!

Reader: The Prokimen in the 4th tone,
Arise O Lord, help us, and redeem us for thy name's sake.

People: (sing) Arise O Lord, help us, and redeem us for thy name's sake.

Reader: (chants the verse on one note)

People: (sing) Arise O Lord, help us, and redeem us for thy name's sake.

Reader: (Chant on one note) Arise O lord, help us,

People: (sing) And redeem us for thy name's sake.

At our parish, nobody is tonsured, yet it is considered that a man or boy who can neither hold pitch nor read fluently is preferable to any woman who can. (Let's not even consider a girl.)

This makes no particular sense to me. While **I** know that Christ didn't come to "expedite" our sins (Scripture says "expiate") there may well be folks in the pews who don't - and they believe what they hear.

It's interesting that the sex of the reader seems to be more important than what is being read.


Sharon

As long as I am going on this,

I was at a orthodox music conference recently and they stressed the fact the we should make a point of knowing all of the prokimen and alleluia tones before trying to learn any sort of fancy music. These as well as the Tropar/Kondak and samoglasnii tones are the foundation of the services.
It bothers me that at these great services we have this operatic singing of litanies and cherubicons and anaphoras etc. yet when it comes to the time for the Tropar, you will have two or three guys from the choir sing the tropars very badly. These hymns are the ones everybody in the church should know and sing.
I have also had it with operatic Nicene Creeds and Our Fathers. These also should be kept to a simple melody so that all the people in the church can sing. In some orthodox churches the deacon will turn aroud and direct the people in the singing of these.

ilya

Again, I have no problem with women reading in the church. Three of my sisters were my fathers cantors spanning over 15 years and they read the epistle all the time. Those were the days when the women's side of the church was much stronger than the men's side in singing ability. I absolutely agree that the most important thing about the epistle is that it is read well and in and understandable way.

Ilya

That's a bit presumptious. There are several Greek Catholic parishes that I have been present at that have the full prokimen dialogue. And there are several readers out there who always do it wherever they serve.

My beef is not with the chanting of the Prokimen but more when the priest blesses the reader at the end of the Epistle that there is no response in many churches. "Peace be to you who reads" should have a response by the reader "and with your spirit". That's something like someone talking directly to you and you ignoring them.

I was reading in one parish, and when the priest intoned the blessing for the reader, I of course chanted the response, the krylos was caught completely off guard and didn't start the Alleluia right away.

I took advantage of this lapsus calami by chanting "Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia in the 1st tone" and they picked right up on it.

I agree that it is much more important to learn the particular music for portions of the Okotoechos that can be done with the entire congregation than to worry about Bortynansky, Lvov, Archangelsky, etc. settings of choral music.

The Ruthenians are working on this both officially and unofficially. Officially, the Metropolitan Cantor Institute is working to be sure that the **cantors** are solid on the 8 resurrection tones and the 8 samohlasen tones.

"Unofficially," many parishes subscribe to John Vernoski's bulletin insert service, so they can put fully noted troparia, kontakia, etc. appropriate to the day into people's hands. This has singlehandedly improved the quality of congregational singing at many, MANY parishes. If you give people resources, they'll sing better.

Sharon