Minor orders are ranks of church ministry lower than major orders.
The Roman Catholic Church in its Latin Rite traditionally distinguished between the major orders (holy orders) of bishop, priest, deacon and subdeacon, and four minor orders, that of acolyte, exorcist, lector and porter (in descending sequence).
In 1972, the minor orders were renamed "ministries", with those of lector and acolyte being kept throughout the Latin Church. All four minor orders are still conferred on members of some Roman Catholic religious institutes and societies of apostolic life authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the three minor orders in use are those of subdeacon, cantor and lector.
Read more about Minor Orders: Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Christianity
Other articles related to "minor orders, minor order, order, orders":
... some of these ministries were formalized under the term "minor orders" and (along with the diaconate) used as steps to priestly ordination ... One of the minor orders was the office of acolyte ... particularly young boys, to substitute for acolytes, even without being professed in minor orders ...
... Christianity traditionally views the subdeacon as a minor order, unlike the practice of the West which considered it a major order ... The other common minor order is lector (reader) ... 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 ...
... There are a few lesser-known orders of St ... L'Ordre de la Croix-Rose Veritas, or the Order of the Rosy Cross of Truth, was founded in 587 (CY), after the Greyhawk Wars ... an evil warlord had been corrupted by a devil in disguise, he founded the new order in order to track down other devils living among mortals in disguise ...
... Only a bishop possesses the power to confer the sacrament of Holy Orders ... In the Latin Church the minor orders were abolished after the Second Vatican Council ... In Eastern Catholic rites, a monastic archimandrite may tonsure and institute his subjects to minor orders however, the tonsure and minor orders are not considered to be part of the sacrament ...
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