Very often during the service you 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 (crib). Such clergymen are usually called sextonists.
Sometimes ponomareas are also called altars. These people are ministers of the altar. Any male Orthodox Christian who professes Orthodoxy can become a monk. Even children can be altars, because the blessing of the head priest is enough for this. Altarmen do not take the priesthood, being clergy.
The main duty of the sexton is to help the priest during the service. An altar cook prepares a censer: he kindles coal, puts incense, gives a censer at a certain moment of worship to a priest or deacon. The sexton also participates in the so-called entrances (when the priest leaves the side gates with the gospel or the Eucharistic cup and goes to the central gate). In this case, the altar is preceded by a priest with a candle.
In addition to the duty of assisting in worship, the sexton must monitor the cleanliness of the altar. He was instructed to wipe the icons, do the cleaning in the most holy place of the temple.
Sometimes ponomari can help readers in worship. In some temples, these two posts merge. If a sexton knows how to read Church Slavonic, then he can be allowed to proclaim the word of God to the people through reading at the liturgy of the apostolic letters.
