bishop. The deacons and servers receive blessings and vest in the manner described above. However, only the priest who will be performs the Liturgy of Preparation will vest, the other priests remain in choir dress. The bishop is formally received in the church before the Little Hours. The bells ring as the bishop approaches the church, and the clergy come out of the altar (sanctuary). The priest who celebrated the Liturgy of Preparation carries a tray covered with an aër on which is placed a blessing cross. The protodeacon carries the censer. Other servers carry the dikirion and trikirion, the bishop's crozier and a standing candlestick. The bishop enters the church clothed in his monastic habit and klobuk, and carrying his staff. As he enters the narthex, a server takes his staff and the subdeacons place the episcopal mandyas on him as the choir chants Axion Estin (or, if it is one of the Great Feasts, the Ninth Irmos of the canon of the feast). The bishop kisses the blessing cross and holds it for each of the priests to kiss. The bishop is then handed his staff and the clergy go in procession to the ambon in front of the iconostasis. Instead of saying his own vesting prayers, the prayers are recited aloud for him by the protodeacon, and the bishop venerates the icons. He then turns and blesses as the choir sings Ton Despotin. He then stands on the kathedra (a platform in the center of the temple) and the priests each come to him, receive a blessing, and return to the altar to vest. The subdeacons remove the bishop's mandyas and place his episcopal vestments on him. As each vestment is placed on him, the protodeacon swings the censer and recites the appropriate vesting prayer, changing any reference from "my" and "me" to "thy" and "thou", and ending each prayer with "always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen." During the vesting, the choir chants the following hymn (especially during the Liturgy of St. Basil): The prophets proclaimed thee from on high, O Virgin: the Jar, the Staff, the Tablets of the Law, the Ark, the Candlestick, the Table, the Mount Uncloven (), the Golden Censer and the Tabernacle, the Gate Impassable (), the Palace () and Ladder, and the Throne of Kings. They may also chant the first vesting prayer, the one for