Tonsure and Elevation to the Office of Reader

In Hebrews 10:1, we are told that the Law was given as a “shadow of the good things to come”.

Under the Law, ministers in the Temple were organized into three groups, the High Priest, the Priests, and the Levites.

In the same way, God has ordered the service in the Church in a threefold manner.

• Christ is our High Priest (Heb 4) after the Order of Melchizedek
• The ordained Priesthood in the Church, i.e., the Major Orders - bishops, presbyters, and deacons – corresponds to the Levitical Priesthood. They are the Priests after the Order of Melchizedek.
• The Minor Orders (known as Instituted Ministries in the Latin Church) correspond to the Levites.

What did the Levites do in the Temple? They were the gatekeepers and the financial officers. And, the two duties most relevant today were the Temple musicians and those who attended to the priests during the Divine Services.  This is detailed in various chapters of 1 Chronicles – chapters 6, 9, 23, and 25-27

Today, men who have been blessed by their bishop to server in Minor Orders fulfill those same functions.

• The Reader (Чтец) delivers the Liturgy readings, leads the congregation in song, and is knowledgeable about the structure of the various Liturgies.  
• The Subdeacon (Піддиякон) attends to the bishop and the altar during the Liturgy.

Under the Law, the priests were a special class of men, a part of the men of the tribe of Levi, namely, the descendants of Moses’s brother Aaron.  And the Levites were the remainder of the tribe, who were themselves descendants of the Jacob’s son, Levi.

In the same way, priests (deacons, presbyters, and bishops) are the spiritual sons of their bishops, men chosen from those in Minor Orders. And those in Minor Orders are clerics not by right of birth, as sons of Levi, but have been admitted to the clerical state by a bishop through the act of tonsuring, the ritual cutting of hair. 

This is my Tonsuring and Blessing as Reader.

March 10, 2018

The reading, not easily heard here, is Acts 6:1-7 (NAB Translation)

At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. 

The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

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A word regarding terminology:

Prior to Vatican II, the Latin Church used the term "Minor Orders", of which there were 4: Porter, Lector, Exorcist, and Acolyte, with the major orders being Sub-Deacon, Deacon, and Priest.  First Tonsure was performed prior to ordination to the office of Porter. Those in Minor Orders were classified as Clerics. 
This classification/ordering was altered after the Council, as explained by Bl Pope Paul VI in his Motu Proprio, Ministeria Quaedam. Those in Instituted Ministries are not tonsured; neither are they clerics. 

The practice in the Byzantine Churches - Catholic and Orthodox - was not changed by the Council, and differs slightly, with Reader and Sub-Deacon being the Minor Orders, and Deacon, Priest, and Bishop being the Major Orders.  The office of Porter once existed, but had been dropped from practice fairly early on.  Those in Minor Orders are technically referred to as Minor Clergy, although I've seen the term used only rarely.  (The Ukrainian Catholic Catechism, Christ Our Pascha, uses the term Ministries).

"Readers, like subdeacons, are ordained by Cheirothesia - literally, "to place hands" - whereas Cheirotonia - "to stretch out the hands" - is practised at the ordination of the higher clergy: bishops, priests and deacons" - Wikipedia article Reader (Liturgy)

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Further note, 5/11/18
A few weeks back I received the official certificate of ordination, and it said that I was ordained as "Acolyte, Lector, and Cantor".

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A further note, 2/15/21

I have realized that I was somewhat mistaken in my understanding of the relationship of the Minor Orders to the Major.
As the Church Fathers usually taught it, the Old Testament High Priest/Priest/Levite paradigm corresponds to the New Testament Bishop/Priest/Deacon paradigm, with the Minor Orders (or Instituted Ministries) being an extension of the Levitical ministry of Deacons.