Very often during the service one can see in the altar not only the priest, but also people who help the clergyman. They can even be children dressed in special clothes (surplice). Such clergymen are usually called sextons.
Sometimes sextons are called differently altar boys. These people are ministers of the altar. Any male Orthodox Christian who professes Orthodoxy can become a ponomar. Even children can be altar boys, because the blessing of the head of the temple is enough for this. Altar men do not accept holy orders, being clergymen.
The main duty of the sexton is to help the priest during the divine service. The altar boy prepares a censer: he kindles coal, puts incense, gives a censer at a certain moment of the service to the priest or deacon. The sexton also participates in the so-called entrances (when the priest comes out of the side gates with the gospel or the Eucharistic cup and follows to the central gates). In this case, the altarpiece precedes the priest with a candle.
In addition to the duty of helping in the divine services, the sexton must keep the altar clean. He was entrusted with wiping the icons, doing cleaning in the most sacred place of the church.
Sometimes the sexton can help the readers during the divine services. In some temples, these two positions are combined. If the sexton knows how to read Church Slavonic, then he may be allowed to proclaim the word of God to the people through the reading of the Apostolic Epistles at the liturgy.
