According to the charter of the Orthodox Church, there are three degrees of the priesthood.For higher and secondary degree are bishops and priests.Deacon - it's lowest level.Her representatives at the grace of God, and honored with the ordination, but on their own can not perform the ordinances.Their task - to help the bishops and priests.
few ranks deacon san
deacon who performs services in conjunction with the bishop, called a "deacon," that is, the senior deacon.If this is the priest, who took monastic vows, then he is called Archdeacon.The monk did not award more service to the bishop - ierodyakon.You can call more and Subdeacon, but he is not a priest, since it is not endowed with the grace of God.By their rank it lower than the deacon and serves purely ancillary duties.
duties of a deacon during the service
role allotted to these priests in a church service, is visible from the translation of the word "deacon."In the language of the ancient Greeks, it stands for - "servant" or "minister."To understand what is a deacon in the church, it is enough to go to worship and see how many duties assigned to him.This burn incense - fumigation temple incense smoke.The resulting from the combustion of aromatic resin incense is inextricably linked in the minds of each parishioner with a church service and thereby helps to create a favorable attitude of prayer.
In addition, the deacon has another important duty.Opening the Church calendar, you can see that every day of the year correspond to certain passages of the Gospel and of the apostles.
Apostle normally reads acolyte and deacon - is precisely the one who entrusted our main reading of the New Testament books - the Gospel.Every day, under the arches of the temple of his voice brings to parishioners her immortal line.In addition, it the duty of the service to give specific guidance worshipers.
During the service entrusted to the deacon to proclaim the divine litany.This prayer requests, converts to God.At the end of each chorus sings: "O Lord, have mercy" or "Give me, O Lord."The litanies are divided into several types.Among them: the Great, Augmented, pleading and Malaya.Each carries a certain meaning and psychological burden, and their reading of special requirements.Deacon it must understand and be able to bring to the consciousness of the faithful to proclaim the full depth of his words.
Underestimating the role of the deacon in the liturgy
should be noted that during a church service all the duties of a deacon can perform directly a priest or bishop.This sometimes causes the underestimation of the role of deacon in the liturgy.There are even times in the recent history of the church, when there was a massive reduction of the parish due to the abolition of the state in which the post.In most cases, this practice aroused strong dissatisfaction on the part of the congregation.There are cases when a deacon, derived from the staff and thereby deprived the salary, took on the maintenance of the church community.
deacon in the early Christian
From the history of the Church is well known that at the time of the first Christians there was a similar service.The deacon - a minister, who then assigned responsibilities associated with the charity.Due to the fact that he took care of all the arrangements for the collection and distribution among needy parishioners alms and provisions, the priests had the opportunity, without being distracted by these needs, devote ourselves worship.
should be noted that in the old days were not only deacons, men and women.Deaconesses - translated as "Servants" were mainly engaged in caring for sick women and preparing parishioners for Holy Baptism.Over time, this ministry was abolished.
