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Daniel chants the Troparia in honor of the Three Holy Bishops.

On Saturday, Jan 12th, Metropolitan Basil Schott ordained me to the orders of Candle-Bearer, Lector and Cantor. These are three of the minor orders which form a portion of the road to the diaconal and priestly orders. These minor orders were once very important in the life of the Church. The Order of lector and cantor were extremely important, especially in an age when very few people knew how to read. Finding qualified people to read the Sacred Scriptures and chant the liturgical texts would not have been a task that the Church took lightly. Today, in a world where most people are literate, finding a reader is not very difficult. (But finding qualified cantors still remains a challenge. We should be very thankful for the many talented cantors who exercise this indispensable vocation in the Church!)  Is the ordination to the order of lector (reader) then outdated and unnecessary?

This question was on my mind in the days leading up to my ordination. I believe that the Church has something important to teach us by surrounding this elevation to the lectorate with such solemnity. The lector is appointed to read the Word of God in the Church. I think that there is something really important here: the Word of God is to be proclaimed in the Church. In the Byzantine Church, we do not read the Scriptures privately during the Divine Liturgy, but rather, they are proclaimed in the midst of those assembled for worship. The proper place for the Word of God is in the midst of the assembly.

While we may study the Scriptures at home or in classes, Scripture becomes truly powerful in the Divine Liturgy. It is in the Liturgy that the People of God are gathered for worship. They recognize Christ in their midst – especially his presence in the proclamation of the Scriptures. (This is vividly brought home in the imagery of the two entrances. In the Great Entrance, the bread and wine which will become the Body and Blood of Christ is brought in procession to the Holy Table.

Daniel, his family (left to right): Aunt Linda, sister, Katie, Mother, Beverly and grandparents, Mitzi and Kenneth Bickerstaff with Metropolitan Basil.

Likewise, in the Little Entrance, the Gospel book is carried with great reverence to the Holy Table. During this procession, we sing the Hymn of the Incarnation – praising the “Only Begotten Son and Word of God” who “deigned for our salvation to become incarnate.”) The Gospel Book, which is richly decorated and shown such reverence, reminds us that we receive Christ – the Divine Word of God – when we hear the Gospel proclaimed to us in the liturgy. The Epistle reading bears a similar significance. Some “old timers” call the Epistle Book the ‘Apostle.’  This is not a case of old Eastern Europeans butchering English, but rather a very keen insight into the nature of the Epistle reading. The Apostle (Luke in the case of readings from Acts, Paul, Peter, James, etc… in the case of the various scriptural epistles which are read) stands in our midst and teaches not just the first century Church, but the Church gathered together here in this year of 2008. And the scriptures have not lost any of their potency! The Church continues to read them because She hears the voice of the Spirit speaking through the sacred writers.

After hearing the Scriptures proclaimed, we move on to see the Scriptures fulfilled within the very same liturgy. Christ comes to stand among us in the Divine Eucharist and the Holy Spirit binds us all together in the one Body of Christ through our participation in Communion. But as the liturgy ends, the Scriptures should still ring in our ears – for they teach us how to live in the Body of Christ and what this new life in Christ means.

The ordination to the order of lector is not meant to bestow privileges on the person who receives the Order. The lector becomes a servant of the Word. By his reading and by his life, he should seek to be a living witness to the very audible presence of Christ living in our midst. Indeed, this ancient ritual is not antiquated. Our Church desperately needs to be reawakened to the presence of Christ in the Scriptures. It is through the Scriptures, and their interpretation in the heart of the Church, that we come to recognize the voice of Christ, so that we do not follow another. How can we who are his sheep know his voice, if we do not hear Him speaking to us?