First off, I would like to thank everyone who replied to my last post concerning participation in both RC & BC parishes.

Tonight I was elevated to the "Candidate" phase in my Secular Franciscan Fraternity. After the ceremony, I was "strongly encouraged" to offer my services to my BC parish. All of the members of my fraternity serve as Eucharistic Ministers for RC parishes. I think I already know the answer to this question, but I assume that BC churches don't allow the laity to serve as Eucharistic Ministers?

I will be meeting with my BC Spiritual Director next week. I am fortunate that he is also the parish priest! Does anyone have some advice for me when I speak with him about service to the parish? I am a retired educator and don't know how to make peroghi's

Any thoughts on what he may suggest or I may suggest to help serve my BC parish?

Pax,
Bob
http://www.ourladyspromise.org

Catechist, Server, Lector, Cantor.

The first three are possibilities; however, I don't think Cantor would work! I'm sure the church wants to retain its parishioners, my singing/chanting would drive them away

Maintenance, cleaning, yardwork, accounting, newsletter or bulletin production, website creation and maintenance, work in bookshop, give rides to elderly, ironing, Prosphora baker, candle maker . . . the possibilities are almost endless. There's always something that needs to be done around a Church. Don't know if you necessarily wanted something visible like a Eucharistic Minister; sometimes the hidden tasks can be the most rewarding.

The Metropolia makes provision in its Particular Law for something akin to a Eucharistic Minister (I forget whether they use the term), but I believe that there are only a couple of places in which it's utilized (Deacon Lance, correct me please, if I am misremembering). It's, at best, a controversial thought in the East and Pittsburgh has been criticized for its inclusion in the Particular Law.

Many years,

Neil

Can anyone provide me with the duties of a subdeacon and what his/her functions are in the Byzantine Catholic rite?

http://www.stsophiaukrainian.cc/resources/identifyingthesubdeacon/

Also, being a Prosphora baker is an AWESOME job...
But you'll need a seal.

Well, from the EO point of view, I have always understood a sub-deacon in one of two ways - either a step on the path to priesthood for a seminarian or a 'glorified' altar server who assists the priests and in many parishes is the 'boss' so to speak of the altar boys.

That's precisely why we need to take the 'minor orders' seriously once more and have a culture in which they are appreciated and recognised.

The Council of Trullo forbids non-ordained/untonsured persons from entering the altar, yet in some Orthodox parishes I know the 'altar boys' are sometimes largely ornamental, with far more crowding into the altar than are liturgically needed. And... they all dress up as subdeacons.

Am I correct in remembering that St John Maximovitch had all untonsured altar servers remove their sticharia before receiving communion as they were not in holy orders and he thought it improper for them to approach the chalice vested as 'clerics'... or am I going gaga and mis-remembering things?

Bless Fr. Mark,

When I served in the altar at a ROCOR parish we untonsured servers removed our sticharia before receiving communion.

The Lord bless!

Perhaps my memory is working for once!

This is a helpful reply! And I agree, hidden tasks can be very rewarding.

I must make the observation, peripherally, that Eucharistic Ministers are ordained clergy in major orders, and that outside of necessity it is not for laypeople to distribute Holy Communion. The Latin practice of involving laypeople is clearly misguided, an innovation in the law, and even the law itself has restrictions which are often ignored. Nothing in Franciscan tradition suggests laypeople should take this upon themselves, and according to tradition St. Francis, likely being a deacon and not a priest, probably never touched the Sacred Gifts with his own hands. Why should his non-ordained followers?

Both East and West had this right, and the West has sadly diverged, but will return, God willing.

John, thanks for the link... very useful.

I'm beginning to think my Franciscan group has no understanding of the Byzantine Catholic Rite! I've begun getting some subtle hints that I need to remain in the West! We have a meeting tomorrow night and I guess that I'm getting a lecture

Pax,
Bob
http://www.ourladyspromise.org

Please let us know how this goes.