Diaconate in Christ

Time 2020-11-13 07:02:34

Web Name: Diaconate in Christ

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By: Protodeacon David Kennedy(Protodeacons Nazari Yaruniv and David Kennedy at St Elias in Brampton chanting the vesting prayers.)I will now address some of the qualities and characteristics we all need to bring to the liturgical celebrations but this is especially true of deacons and subdeacons if they are to fulfill there liturgical roles to the glory of God and enable the assembly as a whole to be sanctified.PREPARE: things and items; books; and yourself. Know both the rubrics and the texts so well that if it is a regular service such a Divine Liturgy, Vespers, Matins, a baptism, a funeral, you don’t need to refer to the text for the rubrics but only at the times that a litany etc. needs to be chanted. (The photo above is during the vesting prayers for the bishop. Note that these protodeacons are not using texts.)Know all the ritual actions – what you are to do, where you are to stand, what you are to chant or sing, how you will chant or sing, when you are to act and chant, and why you are doing what you are doing.This is achieved by regular and diligent study of the texts and rubrics as well as learning the history and theology of the various services. All ministers need to work hard at this and it takes an effort.Do not neglect inner preparation – make the words of the texts your own. What you say and do let it come from your heart. ANTICIPATION: You need to know what is coming next. It is a bit like chess: you need to think at least 3-4 moves ahead. If everything is prepared, you can anticipate without anxiety. The housekeeper in the movie Gosford Park says, “I know what they (the people she serves) need before they know it themselves.” Deacons and subdeacons should never have to be prompted into action. DISCRETION REVERENCE: All of your words, your actions, and even when standing still should be discrete and revenant. Do not draw attention to yourself for liturgy is about the glorification of God and by the glorification of God we are sanctified. Learn to chant and speak, walk, cense, and stand in a manner that edifies the assembly: but let it be in such a way that they forget you and rather focus their attention on the worship of the Holy Trinity. ATTENTIVENESS: Be alert with all of your senses. The liturgy is not a time for daydreaming or for interior contemplation. Since liturgy is not a individualistic but a corporate reality that leads to a personal and communal theois/divinization in Christ through grace and askesis, and a communion with all in the Trinity, I need to listen, understand and empathize with the liturgical action itself. And this action is nothing less that an entry into Christ’s Paschal Mystery and an anticipation of the Kingdom. By: Protodeacon David Kennedy(St Elias Parish,5th Sunday of Lent, 2019)Through the liturgical services the deacon acts as the τελεταρχης (teletarches) as the one who conducts the natural flow of the rite and maintains order during the service. This is exemplified by such imperatives as “Bless, master”; “Command, master”; Pierce, master”; “Lift up, master”; “It is time for the Lord to act, master”; “Remember me, master”; “Pray for me, master”. Notice how these commands to the presider couple the deacon in a relationship to the bishop or presbyter. I stress again that the deacon does not act on his own but neither does the presider act independently from either the deacon or the assembly. Christian liturgy reveals a corporate community life; a life that is directed to the communion in and with the Holy Trinity. We can also see the deacon acting as τελεταρχης when he address the whole assembly with commands such as, “Let us be attentive”; “Wisdom” which is the equivalent to “Let us be attentive”; “Stand aright”; Let us bow our heads to the Lord Again and again on bended knees . . . .The deacon also shares in the reader’s role when he proclaims the gospel. St Germanus of Constantinople refers to the deacon proclaiming the gospel on the ambo of Hagia Sophia as a typos of the angel greeting the Myrrh-Bearing Women with the good news of the resurrection. Here the deacon acts as herald and messenger carrying the gospel book from the sanctuary/bema that represents the future eschaton into the nave that represents the present eschaton, in other words the deacon brings the good news from heaven to earth exemplified in the symbolic manifestation of place in the liturgical assembly.To further the typos of the angel, I quote from the essay, “The Role of the Deacon in the Byzantine Liturgical Assembly” by Alexander Kniazeff, Roles in the Liturgical Assembly (New York: Pueblo Publishing, 1981), 172.“The Byzantine deacon mediates between altar and nave. He goes back and forth between celebrant and people. These comings and goings of the deacons in Byzantine celebrations have often led to these ministers being compared to the angels who in Jacob’s vision (Gen 28) ascend and descend the ladder that stands on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens, or those other angels who are depicted on the side doors of the iconostasis called “diaconal” doors because the deacon uses them to enter and leave the sanctuary as the parts of the service require.”This angelic topos is a characteristic way of interpreting the diaconal liturgical role. The angels serve God in diverse manners, through vocal praise and glorification, as well as being his messengers: they are the links between the heavenly realm and the earthly creation. So also the deacons link the bema (the future eschaton manifested in the sacramental actions of the priest) with the nave (the realized eschaton manifested in the assembly of the baptized). The deacon carries the gospel book into the nave from the holy table (the throne of God) at the Little Entrance. The deacon again carries the gospel book into the nave to proclaim in the midst of the earthly assembly the gospel pericope proper to that liturgy. At the Great Entrance, the deacon carries the unconsecrated bread into the nave from the prothesis table (originally outside of the bema in a separate chamber, viz. the skeuophylakion) as he chants, “May the Lord God remember in His kingdom all you orthodox Christians, always, now and for ever and ever.” He will later carry the consecrated body and blood of the Lord from the holy table into the nave as he proclaims, “Approach with fear of God and with faith.”In all of these movements between bema and nave, the deacon acts as a messenger and servant in a manner similar to the angels. In services without the deacon, it is much more difficult to see by means of the ritual action the link between future and realized eschatologies. While the priest makes the Little and Great Entrances, the comings and goings between bema (sanctuary/altar area) and nave are not as many and distinctive without a deacon serving. The reason for this distinctiveness is that the deacon chants the litanies from the ambo in the nave, while a priest at Divine Liturgy without a deacon takes them from before the holy table. When a deacon serves, there is considerably more movement between the bema and the nave. As he moves, the deacon’s orarion (stole) flutters behind him in the image of an angel’s wing. By: Protodeacon David Kennedy(From St Nektarios Orthodox Church, Lenoir City, TN)It should mention here that even when there is no deacon present at liturgical services, most of his functions do not disappear but rather are assumed either by the presider, possibly by subdeacons, or in some cases by the laity. This clearly demonstrates that the diaconal functions are not optional but are essential. Imagine the liturgy without the diaconal exhortations to prayer. Its whole ethos or spirit would change.These exhortations to prayer in the Byzantine tradition take the form of synaptes or what is commonly referred to as ektenias or litanies.Let us spend a few minutes looking at the Great Synapte or Litany of Peace. Today it is found immediately after the opening blessing by the presider. Originally, it was found just before the Transfer of the Gifts/Great Entrance following the Synapte for the Catechumens. It was the original Prayer of the Faithful and its remnants can be still seen today in the Vulgate usage where the first four petitions still are used.In the litanies, usually, the deacon addresses the whole assembly with a plural imperative, “Let us pray to the Lord” or “Let us ask the Lord.” Here the assembly makes the diaconal petition its own and responds not to the deacon but to God, either with the acclamatory petition, “Lord, have mercy,” or its own petitionary request, “Grant this, O Lord.” The third voice in any litany is that of the presider, bishop or presbyter. He usually recites in a soft voice during the petitions an oration “addressed to God”on behalf of the entire assembly, so that what he is praying is a corporate and presidential prayer (1st person plural). The final section of the prayer, known as an ekphonesis, is a doxology chanted aloud. And the whole assembly makes this prayer its own, by giving its seal of assent in a sung Amen. In a litany, the deacon addresses the assembly, and the presider and assembly address God. The exception to this is the “Insistent or Augmented Litany” which follows the homily at Divine Liturgy and is also chanted at various other services. In the second and third petitions God is addressed directly by the deacon rather than the deacon addressing the assembly. However, these petitions do not in any fashion follow the literary structure of presidential prayers. Rather they resemble an expanded form of the “Lord, have mercy”. This is true also of the literary structure of the petitions at the Lity and at matins, in the diaconal litany that begins, “O God save your people and bless your inheritance . . . .” When there is no deacon present, the priest chants the petitions. This makes it difficult for him to also read his own oration, unless he does it aloud at the end of the petitions, which may result in a disruption of the musical rhythm, unless the priest chants the entire oration. In practice the priest who serves without a deacon recites the Great Synapte aloud and when the assembly sings the 1st Antiphon, he recites the prayer of the Great Synapte silently. This disrupts the harmony of the synapte and demonstrates a lack of unity and cohesion in the prayer. At Byzantine services when no priest is present, even if a deacon is present, the litanies are not taken but are replaced with the acclamatory petition, “Lord, have mercy.” It might be chanted 40, 12 or 3 times depending on the litany that is omitted.The deacon does not serve independently of the bishop or priest. And this reveals that the diaconate is not an order unto itself but is always in relationship to the presider. The deacon acts not on his own but at the behest of someone else.The deacon acts in the litanies as an “angel of prayer” leading and directing the assembly. By: Protodeacon David Kennedy(Hierodeacons, i.e. monastic deacons with censers and zions. Zions may have originally been used as a container for the Eucharist or for the storage of incense.)What I will address now, is primarily the role of the diaconal order in the liturgy. Note that most of these principles apply to the other orders as well.Aidan Kavanagh states, “Liturgical ministers should never be seen to do in the liturgy what they are not regularly seen to do outside the liturgy.” Elements of Rite, 12. In other words, none of us should simply be liturgical functionaries.If one wants to know what the order of the diaconate does, read the liturgical texts and the rubrics. But remember that liturgy is not what is in a text alone but rather (and I repeat myself here) liturgy is a complex and corporate reality in which the Church is formed and made manifest to the world so that it can fulfill its mission in the world. It is a reality that has the potential to deify the human person and bring that person into communion with the Trinity. Liturgy can be understood only when it is in motion. And what comes into motion is the whole of liturgy: text, ritual, chant, space, light/darkness, sound, smell, touch, taste, place, iconography, etc. and of course the Holy Trinity and human persons. Liturgy is visible and invisible, divine and human, immanent and transcendent. Text and rubrics provide an essential but a rather narrow picture of our liturgical life in Christ: a life that is always animated and energized by the Holy Spirit.For example in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy the rubrics at the beginning of the anaphora instruct the deacon to take the ripidion or a small veil and wave it over the diskos and the chalice as the bishop or presbyter recites the anaphora; something that is not done in most of our Churches. On a practical, functional level, this action is to keep away insects from the bread and wine, however it is much more than that. It reveals what the diaconate is about liturgically. Here, the deacon acts as the agent of the presider, ministering to him at the holy table, and acting as a typos of the angels who minister at the Supper of the Lamb, which was revealed to the Prophet Isaiah when he saw the six winged seraphim who continually call out “ ‘hagios, ‘hagios, ‘hagios is the Lord God of Sabaoth . . .” And this vision is completed in the Book of Revelation.Throughout the liturgy, the deacon is the ordinary minister of the incensations. Incense is the symbol of our prayer arising to God. The deacon exhorts the assembly over and over again to pray. As the leader of the assembly’s prayer but not the presider of its prayer, it is only fitting that the deacon censes. Those early Christian texts known as church orders such as the Didascalia Apostolorum give to the deacons the responsibility of keeping order in the assembly. Consider how the deacon circumambulates the inner periphery of the church building with the censer or with a large candle leads the presider in this action. Here the incense acts as a demonifuge and provides an olfactory and visual boundary for the assembly. Odor is created throughout the assembly by this action as well as the incense being used as an honorific to cense the painted icons of saints on the walls as wall as the living icons of Christ in the baptized assembly. Protodeacon David KennedyDiaconate in Christ focuses on the diaconate and the minor orders in the Eastern Christian Churches.

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Diaconate in Christ focuses on the diaconate and the minor orders in the Eastern Christian Churches.

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