Editing Minor orders (section)

==Eastern Christianity==
[[File:TonsureOfOthodoxReader.jpeg|thumb|Orthodox layman, wearing a cassock, is tonsured in preparation for being ordained to the minor orders of candle-bearer and reader.]]
Eastern Christianity traditionally views the subdeacon as a minor order.<ref>Faulk, Edward. ''101 Questions & Answers on Eastern Catholic Churches''. New York: Paulist Press, 2007, p. 51</ref>  The other common minor order is reader (lector). The minor order of porter is mentioned historically in some service-books, but no longer is given; all of the rights and responsibilities of each minor order are viewed as contained in the subdiaconate.<ref name="CE"/>

The 23 ''[[sui iuris]]'' [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] in union with Rome have their traditional minor orders, governed by their own particular law.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_P93.HTM#D ''CCEO, Title X, Canon 327''], 1992. Retrieved 2008-11-11.</ref> In all Eastern Catholic Churches, subdeacons are minor clerics, since admission to major orders is by ordination as [[deacon]].<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PFK.HTM#1O CCEO, Title 12, Canon 560] and [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PFP.HTM#H Canon 565], 1992. Retrieved 2008-11-11.</ref> The Byzantine tradition allows for several orders of minor clerics. The ''sui iuris'' Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, also called the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church, has the minor orders of [[acolyte|candle bearer]], [[cantor (church)|cantor]], lector and subdeacon, and in English uses the term "[[ordination]]" for their [[Ordination#Notes|cheirothesis]].<ref>[http://www.byzcath.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=334 Particular Law for the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church in the USA] (29 June 1999).  Retrieved 2008-11-11.</ref> The minor orders of candle bearer and cantor are given before [[tonsure]] during ordination to the lectorate.<ref>[http://www.eparchy-of-van-nuys.org/docs/newsletter_9810.html#ORDINATIONS Eparchial Newsletter]
(October–November 1998) ''eparchy-of-van-nuys.org'' Accessed 2007-11-28</ref>

Eastern Orthodox Churches routinely confer the minor orders of reader and subdeacon, and some jurisdictions also ordain cantors. Ordination to minor orders is performed outside the sanctuary and at any communal worship service, but always outside the context of actual Divine Liturgy.<ref name="SLOC">''The Sacramental Life of the Orthodox Church'', Calivas (2005) [http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7106.asp ''Minor orders''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205072056/http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7106.asp |date=2005-02-05 }}</ref> The order of taper-bearer is now used as part of ordination as a lector. The orders of doorkeepers, exorcists, and acolytes are no longer in common use.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}