19 June 1996
The Pious Pastors
of the Holy Diocese of Denver
Beloved in the Lord,
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)
Each one who is called to service in the altar must remember that there is only one Priest in the Church, namely our High Priest, Jesus Christ, Who is both the Offeror and the One Who is offered. The Bishop, who is the celebrant of all Mysteries in his Diocese, is only a living icon of Christ the High Priest. Likewise the priests who represent the Bishop, and who function only under his authority, are vested as icons of our Lord. The others who serve at the altar Ð deacons, subdeacons, and acolytes Ð also have an iconographic purpose, representing as they do the service of the angelic hosts at the heavenly altar.
I therefore ask every pastor to ensure that his vestments are clean and in good repair, and likewise that the vestments set aside for the deacons and acolytes are also neat, clean, and properly mended.
Additionally, I ask you to remember the basic fact that no one has a "right" to enter the sanctuary Ð neither men nor women. Only ordained clergy and those who have received a specific blessing from the Bishop through tonsure or a prescribed prayer may enter the Holy of Holies and then only to fulfill their sacred duties therein.
Note also that the use of altar boys (acolytes) originally came into existence to fill the void caused by a lack of subdeacons and deacons. This ancient and venerable tradition was unfortunately not always continued in the Church in recent years, especially in countries of the Orthodox diaspora. Perhaps now that the Church has ceased its foreign and immigrant status, it will bring back the permanent order of deacons and subdeacons and the concept of having altar boys, who in many cases are too young and immature to realize the seriousness and importance of their presence in the holy sanctuary, will end.
Indeed, the figure of the tonsured chanter/reader and the subdeacon are familiar to us, although we observe them in current practice in the roles of the psalti and of the 'altar boys' respectively. The functional distinctions of these important servers at the sacred Mysteries and services of the Church can be seen in the vestments traditionally prescribed for each: the reader wears only a sticharion, while the subdeacon wears a sticharion and a crossed orarion. Of course it is now common practice within the Greek tradition for the psalti to wear a black rasson and for our young acolytes to wear the subdeacon's sticharion and orarion.
I ask the pastors to keep in mind that only ordained clergy, professed monastics, and tonsured male readers may wear a rasson. Altar boys and other assistants in the sanctuary should be attired in altar boy or deacon vestments and not in choir robes which resemble the black rasson. Great scandal is caused among our Orthodox brethren from other jurisdictions when you allow lay men who have not been tonsured to wear the rasson. For them the rasson symbolizes a sacred role, and we do well to emulate their respect for these roles. When women who by necessity are used as chanters and readers, it would be well for them to wear choir robes.
For all those others who serve as readers, chanters, and assistants in the services, the words of Saint Peter seem most appropriate: "Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." (1 Peter 3:3-4)
With Paternal Blessings,
+ Bishop Isaiah of Denver