[Magdalen] Two to go

[Joseph Cirou]

In the Roman Church the order of subdeacon was suppressed in the 60's. Also
the custom of ordained clergy taking a role beneath the one to which they
were ordained has been discouraged in the Novus Ordo (Bishops, however, do
not always have to pontificate liturgically, priests, deacons and laypeople
are discouraged from otherwise pontificating.) However, there had been sort
of tradition of non ordained seminarians, at least, functioning as a
subdeacon. One of my classmates in the 50's and 60's was frequently called
upon to be the subdeacon. In many places the subdeacon became merely a
vested crucifer. In the Eastern Churches, altar servers are sometimes
vested in the subdeacon's orarion. I believe certain other Eastern Churches
that did not have an ordained diaconate had certain laymen vest as deacons,
but I am not sure. I remember the vested non ordained subdeacons. The
subdiaconate was not suppressed among the Eastern Catholics. We have 2
married deacons at St. John's. Both functioned as ordained subdeacons for
at least a year. After their ordination to the subdiaconate, their names
appeared on the masthead of the church bulletin.



On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 6:49 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> We have a female subdeacon and have had female priests preach. We are on
> our way to catching up with 1977 or so.
> On Apr 4, 2015 5:41 PM, "ME Michaud" <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Our subdeacons were always laypeople. My sense was that the
> > subdeacons worked to make sure the laity were always represented
> > in the altar party.
> >
> > Once a female seminarian suggested to the priest of the parish to
> > which she was assigned that she fulfill the deacon's role, setting
> > the elements on the table. I think she was still bouncing when she
> > passed over Plymouth and the Cape Cod Canal.
> > -M
> >
>