Editing Altar server (section)

==Byzantine Rite==
[[File:Me in church with bishop.jpg|right|thumb|[[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Ukrainian Catholic]] bishop and priests during the [[Divine Liturgy]], with altar servers in front (note the crossed [[orarion|oraria]] the servers are wearing)]]

In the [[Byzantine Rite]], altar servers assist the higher clergy during services. They might carry the cross, candles or [[Flabellum|liturgical fans]] in [[Crucession|processions]] and [[Entrance (Liturgical)|entrances]]; maintain the [[thurible|censer]], ensuring it has enough live charcoal, loading it with [[incense]] and handing it to the priest or deacon when required; preparing the hot water (''[[Zeon (liturgy)|zeon]]'') in time for it to be added to the [[Chalice (cup)|chalice]] at the [[Divine Liturgy]]; prepare the [[antidoron]] for the people to receive after [[Holy Communion]]; and any other necessary tasks so that the priest need not be distracted during the service. An altar server is vested in the [[sticharion]] only.

In the [[early Church]], before someone could be a server he had to be [[Tonsure#Eastern Christianity|tonsured]]. Nowadays, in many places it is not necessary to be tonsured before one is allowed to serve (since the tonsure must be done by a bishop or higher-ranking priest). The rites of "Setting Aside a Taper-bearer" and "Tonsuring a [[Reader (liturgy)#Orthodoxy|Reader]]" have now been combined into one service. It is the custom in some traditions, such as the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] or [[Melkite]] Catholic, to allow tonsured altar servers to also vest in the [[orarion]], worn crossed over the back like that of a [[subdeacon]] but with the ends hanging parallel in front. Among the [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russians]], however, the orarion is not usually worn by servers, but only by duly ordained subdeacons and deacons, with the exception that laymen who are blessed to perform some of the functions of subdeacons may sometimes be blessed to wear the orar.

Before vesting, the server must fold his sticharion and bring it to the priest for him to bless. The priest blesses and lays his hand on the folded sticharion. The server kisses the priest's hand and the Cross on the vestment, and then withdraws to vest. Any server who has not been tonsured must remove the sticharion when he receives [[Holy Communion]], because communicants receive the Mysteries according to their order within the Church (so tonsured clergy vest while laymen remove their vestments). Before divesting at the end of the service, the server must receive the priest's blessing.

The minimum age varies by local circumstance, but boys must be mature enough to carry out their duties without disrupting the sanctity of the altar. Although it is common in North America for boys to act as altar servers, in some places this practice is virtually unknown and these duties are always carried out by adult men. In other places where altar servers are normally boys, adult men will not vest if called upon to serve. In yet other places, boys are not permitted to serve in the Altar on reaching their teens on the grounds that the young man is no longer innocent enough to serve in the altar. <!-- This last sounds like BS to me, but am preserving the information for reasons of AGF on the part of the editor who added it. I'd delete it as OR if this article were at all referenced. -->

Altar servers, regardless of age, are subject to all the normal restrictions for those not of higher clerical position. Anyone who is bleeding, or has an open sore, is not permitted to enter the altar. They may not touch the altar table or anything on it under any circumstances, nor the [[prothesis (liturgy)#Architecture|prothesis]] without a blessing. They may not touch the sacred vessels, the chalice and [[paten|diskos]] (paten) at any time. They may not stand directly in front of the altar table or pass between the front of it and the [[iconostasis]], but must cross between the altar and the [[High Place]] if they need to move to the opposite side.

In general, women do not serve in the altar except in women's [[monastery|monasteries]]. In that case they do not receive the clerical tonsure (though they must be tonsured [[nun]]s), and do not vest in the sticharion, but wear their normal [[religious habit]] for attending services, and serve at a certain distance from the actual altar table. Normally, only older nuns may serve in the altar; but the [[Hegumen]]ia ([[Abbess]]) is permitted to enter even if she is younger. A few parishes have begun to use women as altar servers.