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Today I visited a Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church where a lay man was vested as a Sub Deacon and walked out of the Royal Doors carrying the Chalice at Communion time. He then proceded to distribute Communion.

How do Byzantine Ordinary Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers usually dress in the Ruthenian Metroplia?

This one was in the Sanctuary the whole Liturgy. (except for processions, etc.) He was vested as a Sub Deacon while all the other Altar Boys each wore a cassock and sticharion.

I did notice some people change Communion lines to receive from the Priest. However, most people on the lay man's Communion line side did receive from the lay man.

Are you identifying him as a layman due to him not wearing a cassock or do you have it on some other authority?

Just curious; but my understanding of the Byzantine tradition is it would be most uncommon for a full deacon to administer communion if a priest was present and also uncommon for there to be two chalices in the forst place; for instance I can think of ROCOR parishes with queues of 100s going to one chalice where there were in that case deacons around.

Ned

Ned,

Based on what I can tell from the Fathers and Church history, such a practice (denying deacons their full right to distribute) would be the aberration.

If anything, the deacon is the ordinary minister of the Holy Gifts (just as he is the ordinary minister of the Gospel reading) in the Divine Liturgy. The fact that some presbyters over time assumed diaconal roles (when deacons were present to exercise their proper ministry in the assembly) was an unwelcome development in the history of the diaconate - probably a reaction to the fall of the Golden Age of the diaconate, when the presbyters reasserted their rights over the deacons after some deacons began to assume roles proper to the presbyterate, such as consecrating at the Divine Liturgy.

Personally, I would even favor the return of the Great Entrance to the ministry of deacons. Presbyters in the procession were a later development.

God bless,

Gordo

An actual, honest-to-goodness Deacon may certainly administer Holy Communion. That is why it is the Deacon, not the priest, who, chalice in hand, summons the prospective communicants "with fear of God, faith and love, draw near".

But some deacons are apt to forget that a deacon is ordained for service, and will even go so far as attempting to con one of the presbyters into purifying the chalice, so that the Deacon can save his voice for the polychronia! (I'm not making his up, you know.) Such foolishness is probably what led to the practice of the presbyter, rather than the Deacon, distributing Holy Communion.

As for a layman distributing Holy Communion, that can be justified only in extreme circumstances (e.g. the Priest has Parkinson's Disease or something similar, and is still serving Divine Liturgy because no other priest is available).

Fr. Serge

From: THE NORMS OF PARTICULAR LAW OF THE BYZANTINE METROPOLITAN CHURCH SURI IURIS OF PITTSBURGH, U.S.A.

Canon 709 �2

�l. In cases of true necessity, deacons may distribute the Divine Eucharist.

�2. In the same cases, even minor clerics and members of the laity can be designated to distribute the Divine Eucharist.

1o. A parish may have one person designated for this purpose plus another for each 75 communicants at the Liturgy.

2o. The metropolitan Liturgical Commission is to prepare a program of training that includes theological and spiritual formation, the selection process for candidates and a practicum.

3o. Those persons may take communion to those who, by reason of illness, infirmity or age, cannot attend the Divine Liturgy regularly.

4o. If any priest or deacon is present at the Liturgy, in any capacity whatever, he is to make himself known to the principal celebrant and shall distribute the divine Eucharist, vested insofar as possible, and taking precedence over any minor cleric or lay person present.

Bless Master!

Very interesting, Father Serge. So the tradition seems to be that the deacon is very much the servant of the pilgrimage of the prosphora - from the point of receiving it from the faithful and placing it on the prothesis table (and offering the prayers of the prothesis at one point, at least according to Hugh Wybrew), to the procession of the Great Entrance, to the request to "bless" the Holy Gifts, their distribution and the purification of the chalice.

A blessed Fast!

Gordon

PS: Karen and I attended the St. Patty's Day parade...in Tokyo! It was, shall we say, an something of an exercise in cultural dissonance...but still great fun!

InCogNeat3,

How do you know the man was not a subdeacon? If he is a subdeacon he is a cleric not a layman. On the otherhand in some Orthodox Churches it is common for altar boys to wear the subdiaconal cincture, so I would not think it beyond the pale for an adult male server deputed to distribute the Holy Gifts to be vested with the subdiaconal cincture as well.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Fr. Deacon Lance,

Do we have subdeacons in our metropolia?

Only if they are ordained and in the Navy...

Gordo

What Orthodox churches have acolytes wearing the stole in the subdeacon fashion? I've never seen it.

Several of the current deacon-candidates for Parma have been ordained to the subdiaconate.

"What Orthodox churches have acolytes wearing the stole in the subdeacon fashion?"

It is common among the Greeks and Antiochians, and the Russians will bless the servers to do so when a bishop is celebrating.

But it would be a blessing would it not to see a plethora of subdeacons - not specifically on the formal path to the diaconate - in the parishes of the Metropolia?

To be sure, it is part and parcel of the Byzantine tradition.

Certainly, perhaps men interested should speak with their pastors and forward requests to their hierarchs.

FAther Deacon Lance,

A worthy suggestion. But one that has, I am told, been met with general silence on the part of some of the hierarchs.

Any church which is serious about vocations makes such opportunities well known and will promote and encourage such vocations by actually ordaining men, irrespective of their call to higher orders. Those in minor orders become something of a talent/vocations pool for higher orders, as they exercise a leadership role in the community and come to be identified with leadership through their ministry.

My own assessment of the matter is that this exemplies a residual Latinization within the Metropolia. Ever since Pope Paul VI's fateful promulgation eliminating the subdiaconate within the Latin church, some in the East followed suit (or at least did so effectively by relegating them to a "step" on the path to minor orders) rather than seeing a plethora of minor orders as a great advantage to building up the common life of the local congregation.

I certainly praise many of the Metropolia's eforts to restore the diaconate, but let's not forget about minor orders.