Ordination rites of the ancient churches of East and West

About this book

A study of the early texts in ordination to the offices of greatest antiquity in the Christian churches of East and West. These offices include bishop, presbyter, deacon, deaconess, subdeacon, acolyte and reader. The author introduces the primary sources of the texts and outlines the nuclear structure of the ordination ritual and comments on the prayers and ceremonies proper to each order. Then in the second part of the book, he offers English translations of the texts available.