04/26/2024
Just posted this to our Succession students:
The minor orders on the path to the priesthood have gone thru some changes over the years, but we in the ISM (Independent Sacramental Movement) still take our priests-to-be thru all of them.
This 2021 article, with pictures, nicely describes each one explaining it's origins. Porters aka Doorkeepers literally guarded and opened doors. literally were tasked with keeping "unclean spirits" / entities and energies from the sacred workspace. The article also explains the changes to the Minor Orders made by the RCC (Roman Catholic Church) since 1972, changes we in the ISM have not embraced, although we do like to have laity play these roles, too.
Our Porters / Doorkeepers are also Bell-ringers. It's a cool job the original Porters had. And we have bells to ring in our services, so they are still literally ringing bells!
When a new seminarian comes to study with us, we call them a Porter for about a month, then into Lector. But altho we do take you thru the third minor order of , we basically combine that with , so that you're never called Exorcist(!). That would be a bit freaky, eh?
As early as the third century, certain roles of service, including deacon, subdeacon, lector, and acolyte, were present in the church. These orders over time became linked to preparation for the pr…