Female altar servers

The development of the ministry of <a href="/facts/Altar_server/FEx8y0JA">altar server</a> has a long history. By the early Middle Ages, some of these ministries were formalized under the term "<a href="/facts/Minor_orders/u2wfl6HJ">minor orders</a>" and (along with the diaconate) used as steps to priestly ordination. One of the minor orders was the office of <a href="/facts/Acolyte/dNg5AFAg">acolyte</a>. Altar servers are a substitute for an instituted acolyte.
In several though not all <a href="/facts/Christian_Church/mXj3F6ED">Christian Churches</a>, women have traditionally been excluded from approaching the <a href="/facts/Altar/x765TWyq">altar</a> (located in the <a href="/facts/Chancel/nFQAFrzK">chancel</a>) during the <a href="/facts/Liturgy/GlxuzMSY">liturgy</a>. Thus The Service Book of the Orthodox Church (English translation by <a href="/facts/Isabel_Florence_Hapgood/qDz0xE3z">Isabel Florence Hapgood</a>) states that "no woman may enter the Sanctuary at any time". In the <a href="/facts/Roman_Rite/ET6mMUQm">Roman Rite</a> of the <a href="/facts/Catholic_Church/rJ4F4gqH">Catholic Church</a>, the former rule was: "women may not enter [the sanctuary] at all". The normative practice within the <a href="/facts/Lutheranism/L4pMlRcS">Lutheran Churches</a> permits both males and females to serve as altar servers (acolytes).
This did not exclude women, especially in convents of nuns, from entering the altar area at other times, for cleaning.
In Eastern Churches, women are further restricted by not being allowed inside the altar area and in several traditions even within the church building during their monthly <a href="/facts/Menstrual_cycle/AY6Y9xxM">periods</a>.

Female altar servers open-in-new

Female altar servers