How Shall I Serve Him?
THE ALTAR GUILD
The Trinity altar is always bright and beautiful, thanks to the Altar Guild, a group of active, dedicated women in our congregation. We seldom see them at their work, but we know who they are: Janie Burgett, Sheri Gibson, Betty Goodwin, Florence Mgbike, Nancy Michaels, Dolores Shreckengaust, Elizabeth Thompson, and Sheila Lewallen, Director. They serve God by preparing and tending the places where the congregation worships. Their work is an offering of time and many talents, a ministry of love undertaken in the Name of Christ.
Among their many responsibilities, the altar guild members set up the altar and credence table with the proper vessels; they mark the altar book with the collect, epistle and gospel needed for the day’s service; they set out clean linens and have the veil, burse and other paraments in the colors appropriate to the season or day. They also see that the silver and brass are polished, the candles are filled, and that all is neatly in order. They may, at the priests’ convenience, take care of cleaning and stocking the priests’ visitation communion sets.
After a worship service concludes, the team on duty is responsible for washing the purificators, the lavabo towel and, if necessary, the corporal. They also set up for baptisms, funerals and memorial services and for any other service needed, such as participating in special rites like the stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday. The altar guild team on duty is always under the supervision of the celebrating priest. Anything having to do with the altar is his to decide.
The director consults the Ordo calendar for the information used in preparing the semi-annual service schedule, which lists each celebration, its colors, page number in the altar book for that service, and the names of the ladies who are to serve on that day. After approval from the rector and necessary corrections, each guild member is given a copy to help expedite her work. Few of our congregants realize that they are responsible for laundering all the Fair Linens at the Altar, cassocks and surplices for acolytes, lay readers and clergy and celebrants’ albs and amices freshly laundered.
Altar guilds as the Anglican tradition has known them developed in the late nineteenth century, a natural outgrowth of what had been from the beginning an exclusively male world. In the early days of the church, when followers of Christ gathered in private homes to break bread together and share their memories of Him, presumably the head of the household provided whatever was required for the meal. As Christians multiplied and needed larger buildings in which to meet, certain people were given the ministry of caring for these places, and the worshipers themselves provided the food for the meal -- and for their leaders and also for the poor. By the fourth century, parish ministry as known today had been generally established, and for hundreds of years the lesser clergy (later called sacristans) were responsible for everything that is now considered “Altar Guild work.” A sacristan supervised the sacristy and all the accoutrements of worship, prepared for services, and did the Church housekeeping as well. (Still today, parishioners can help by picking up things from the pews [including bulletins and miscellaneous items] and returning hymnals and prayer books to their racks when leaving the nave after the service.)
In the early Church of England, altar care was also the task of lesser priests such as the sacristan and verger in the cathedral and the cleric in the parish. Years later, laymen became the sacristans and eventually in the nineteenth century, women were included in this ministry as assistants to sacristans. By the turn of the twentieth century, women were beginning to organize into “Altar Guilds,” and in most parts of the United States they assumed the sacristan’s duties themselves, under the guidance of their priests. This in part developed by the rapid increase of small congregations that were without the availability of lesser priests.
Serving on the altar guild is a gift to God, a unique ministry to His church. It is a preparation for Christ’s presence among us in the bread and wine. Just as our homes are carefully prepared for an important visitor, so much even more do guild members provide specially diligent and careful preparation for Christ at His Altar.
The Trinity Altar Guild is a warm and caring group of women who will welcome you into their midst. A volunteer needs only to contact Sheila, and she will give you current information and training. Preparation of the altar offers a sense of personal fulfillment and active participation behind the scenes in the worship of the church. Presently, volunteers are particularly needed who can serve at evening services (as well as those in the morning) because some of our present members are not able to drive at night.
In our quiet times, when we are “still and know that (He is) God,” He renews in us an earnest willingness to surrender all that we are to Him, and to find ways to serve that are pleasing to Him. If the Trinity Altar Guild appeals to you as a place to offer your service, just tell Sheila or Janie. We will all be glad that you did.