Subdeacon
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Subdeacon is a title used in various branches of Christianity. It is sometimes spelled with a hyphen: sub-deacon.
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Eastern Orthodoxy
A subdeacon is the highest of the minor orders of clergy in the Eastern Orthodox Church. This order is higher than the anagnostis and lower than the deacon. The subdeacon's essential role is to assist the bishop during a hierarchical Divine Liturgy (a Divine Liturgy at which a bishop is present and presiding) by vesting him, holding his service book, carrying his staff, presenting him with the dikiri and trikiri, etc. There is a special service for the ordination of a subdeacon, although in contemporary practice an acolyte or a reader may receive the bishop's blessing to vest and act as a subdeacon, either for a particular occasion or permanently. The main reason for this practice lies in the fact that the canons (e.g. Apostolic canon 26 etc.) prohibit subdeacons to marry after their ordination (just like deacons and priests). This latter stipulation has sometimes led to the reservation of the formal ordination service to candidates for the priesthood, although this is not universal.
The subdeacon is vested in a sticharion with an orarion tied around his waist, up over his shoulders (forming a cross in back), and with the ends hanging down in front, tucked under the section around the waist. [1] Like readers, subdeacons are permitted to wear a cassock, although many only do so when attending services.
When there is no bishop present, a subdeacon will take the role of acolyte, assisting the priest during religious services in the sanctuary, the area around the altar in a church.
Subdeacons have a similar role and function in the Oriental Churches (Armenian, Coptic, etc.)
Latin-Rite Roman Catholicism
Until abolished by Pope Paul VI's apostolic letter Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972, the subdiaconate was one of the major orders of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.
The other major orders — those of deacon, priest, and bishop — are considered of divine institution and part of the sacrament of Holy Orders, whereas the subdiaconate and the minor orders were considered of ecclesiastical institution, created by the Church. Thus, a subdeacon did not receive the laying on of hands at his ordination. Instead, the bishop handed to him an empty chalice and paten, his vestments, cruets of wine and water, and the Book of the Epistles. But, as the recipient of a major order, a subdeacon could not contract marriage, and any breach by him of the obligation to observe celibacy was classified as a sacrilege (cf. canon 132 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law). Canon 135 of the same Code of Canon Law obliged him to say all the canonical hours of the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours or Breviary).
The role of a subdeacon at Solemn High Mass included carrying the processional cross, singing the Epistle, carrying the Book of Gospels in the Gospel procession and holding it while the deacon sang the Gospel, and assisting the priest or deacon in setting the altar. The subdeacon's specific vestment was the tunicle, in practice indistinguishable in form from the deacon's dalmatic. He wore a maniple, until this was abolished by Pope John XXIII. He also wore a humeral veil while holding the paten during a large part of Solemn High Mass, from the offertory to the Our Father; and, if the chalice and paten with host were not already on the altar, he also used the humeral veil when bringing these to the altar at the offertory.
The apostolic letter Ministeria quaedam, which abolished the Latin-Rite subdiaconate, also decreed that what had previously been called minor orders should be known as "ministries". It retained for the Latin Church as a whole the ministries of lector and acolyte, and allowed bishops' conferences to use for acolytes the term "subdeacon", if they considered it opportune to do so. This permission has been availed of by the Latin Church in Greece, in harmony with Eastern Orthodox Church usage.
Institutes such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, as well as the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, have been allowed to retain the subdiaconate, as well as the pre-1970 form of all liturgical rites.
Thus, within the Latin-Rite Catholic Church, the term "subdeacon" now applies to the recipient of either a major order abolished, except for these institutes, in 1972, or to the holder of a ministry that is more commonly denominated as that of acolyte.
Anglicanism
While the office of subdeacon was abolished in the Anglican Church at the time of the Reformation, certain churches and communities in the Anglican Communion assign a layperson to act as subdeacon in the celebration of the liturgy of the mass or Holy Eucharist; however, this is considered a liturgical function one fills, not an order to which one is ordained. In practice, an Anglican subdeacon performs similar roles to those performed in the Roman Catholic Church.