The Imposition of the Tonsure is not a sacred rite, but a simple ceremony instituted by the Church to officially introduce to the ministry those whom God calls to the Priesthood (CANON 973).

The children in the music schools of the cathedrals were in former times tonsured.

The Tonsured have the right to touch sacred vessels,but only outside of the Sacrifice.That is to say when one is not celebrating the Liturgy of the Eucharist during which this privilege is only exercised by the Acolytes (4th degree of Minor Orders, Latin Rite) The Tonsure is not a Minor Order, but a period of probation, a probationary stage in the progress and process toward the priesthood. It is not itself a sacrament but the ministry opens new horizons.The Cardinal Richelieu never was ordained a priest in his life; he never even had the occasion to receive the Minor Orders; he was only tonsured, and yet he never hindered to see himself take on the cardinal's purple robes. He was one of the most powerful and prestigious Princes of the Church, and he was perhaps a force of intrigue to those who sat on the Throne of France, because he was the regent for the kings in his great power and maintained them under his discipline while they were minors, and he asked if ever they had to present themselves at the famous ceremony of the opening and closing of their mouths, at the time of his investiture to the cardinal's chair.. -The Ceremony of the IMPOSITION OF THE TONSURE is divided into two parts:
1) The renouncement of the vanities of this world, by the symbolic rite of the cutting of the hair and abandoning the lay style of dress,
2) The admittance to the clergy, by the imposition of the Tonsure and the Surplice
-The rite of the conferring of the Tonsure goes back to the sixth century and as a separate ceremony of the first Minor Order dates to the eighth century. The Rite of the Imposition of the Surplice was added to the Tonsure ceremony in the 14th century. In the past, all the clergy were wearing a white linen flax alb falling to the ground and of which the surplice was adiminution.

RITE OF THE TONSURE

The Archdeacon:
"Approach all you who are to receive the Tonsure."They are called by their names and they respond: "Present".When the future clergy are on their knees before him, the Bishop says:" May the Lord be blessed, now and forevermore. Our Help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Let Us Pray. Our very dear Brothers, we pray to Our Lord the PANTOKRATOR for his servants who are earnest in their love for Him to have their hair removed from their heads, so that He sends them the Holy Spirit that the Spirit may always keep for them the Holy Religious Garb and may the Spirit defend their hearts from the difficulties of the world and every secular desire that they are not only changed on the exterior, but also by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit might make them always grow in the truth. That the Holy Spirit may rid their eyes of every blindness of the spirit and of the flesh and obtain for them the light of eternal grace, Him Our Lord Jesus Christ who being God lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit through the aeons of aeons. Amen.

IMPOSITION OF THE TONSURE

(Essential Ceremony)
The Choir sings the Antiphon:
"It is You, Lord, who will give me my inheritance",then they sing Psalm 15. During this time the Bishop then cuts the hair of each Ordinand with the scissors of precious metal, Gold or Silver, five bits of hair cut in the form of a cross, at the same time the Ordinand says with the Bishop the following formula:"The Lord is a part of my inheritance and of my cup (Allusion to the biblical usage of the drawing of lots from a cup). - It is You Lord, who gives me my inheritance! Then the Bishop says:- Let us pray. Make us yours we ask, O Almighty God, that your servants whom we have just cut their hair for your divine Love, live forever in your direction and keep them keep them always free from every impurity, through Christ Our Lord. AMEN!

IMPOSITION OF THE SURPLICE

The Choir sings the antiphon:
"Hic accipient" and Psalm 23, the Bishop then sings the oration: Let us pray. Let us kneel! Arise! Turning toward the Ordinands, them still on their knees, he says, "Grant our prayers,Lord, and deem to pour out your blessing + on your servants to whom we will impose in your blessed Name the Holy Religious Garb, so that you will help them with your grace, that they continue to serve your Church with piety and earn the right to obtain Life eternal, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.AMEN!

The Bishop vests each one who has received the Tonsure in a Surplice saying: "That the Lord dresses you as a new man (Le Nouvel Homme) who has been created in Justice and in true Holiness".

CONCLUSION:

Let us pray. Almighty and Eternal God, forgive us our sins, and purify these servants from all slavery from the clothes of our time, so that having deposed the shame of the habits of our time, they ever revel in your grace, to acquire in their hearts theinheritance of the eternal crown. O you who being God, lives and reigns with the PROPATOR and the divine PNEUMA HAGION through the aeons of aeons.Amen. My very dear sons, note well that you are entering today in the innermost heart of the Church and that you have access to the privileges of the clergy. Be attentive not to lose them by your own fault, but on the contrary by a decent exterior, as by morals and holy deeds, apply yourself to please God. That he will reconcile you to himself,by his Holy Spirit. Amen!The Ordinands kneel down one at a time before the Bishop. He puts his right hand on the head of each and says: "In the name of Christ Our Lord the LOGOS SOTHER, I admit you into the Order of Clergy." The Bishop places a surplice on each of the Ordinands and says: "I adorn you with this Holy Vestment and I exhort you to diligently develop the powers which are in you so that your service will beefficacious!" Having ordained the different candidates, he blesses the new clergy with the following words: "May the blessing + of Almighty God, the Father +the Son+ and the Holy Spirit + descend upon you so that you might accomplish suitably what you have undertaken today. AMEN."After this speech and blessing, the Tonsured ones led by the Archdeacon retire to their place, then the Bishop reads the first Collect, if it is extemporaneous after the Kyrie (or the Gloria in Excelcis, when there is one, he proceeds to the Ordination of the PORTERS.

Translated from the French
Under the Auspices of:
Monseigneur Robert M. Cokinis
Presiding Bishop of the Midwest
Ecclesia Gnostica Apostolica Catholica