Altar Service January 7, 2010
Posted by jennyjumps in Uncategorized.trackback
Now, I had been dreaming of joining the leagues of altar boys since I was very young. Those boys were all friends of mine and their role as altarboys gave them so many cool opportunities. I watched them leave school in the priests car to “serve a funeral” or “serve a wedding” and during school masses (I went to a catholic school) they got to sit right next to the priest and ring the bells throughout the service.
So whenever the priest visited our school for yearly religion classes I made sure to ask him, “why can’t girls be altar boys?” and I always got the same answer, “you see, were any of Jesus’ disciples girls? no.” and it frustrated me, but I just accepted that it was true. Despite my now more knowledgeable catechesis, at that time it was something I was unable to dispute, so it was to my great surprise to discover that sometime around 7th grade, the POPE himself had declared that GIRLS could perform the same role as an altarboy so long as they were called Altar SERVERS instead!
It was even MORE surprising, when my own 7th grade teacher, turned to the class one week before the school mass, and asked if any boys, or “on second thought, any girls” were interested in being the altar servers for the upcoming service. I threw my hand up as high and as quickly and as frantically as I ever had and sure enough, my teacher chose me saying, “I didn’t know that you were interested in being an altar girl, I guess we’ll have to speak to the priest, and get you trained.”
Oh, but I remember that first day – the teacher had obviously waited until the day-of to mention this little, nuance to the priest and when I walked in on their meeting he was busy shaking his head at her – then I noticed her gesture in my direction and definitely heard him say, “OH Jennifer! Oh, ok. Yes. Leave her here, and I will show her what to do”. See? He already KNEW me and it turns out I was the perfect choice to break ground in this unchartered territory of girls on the altar. I had already spent years faithfully serving opposite the boys, and he had seen me there even more often than any of his existing altarboys with their hockey and whatnots that constantly caused their absences.
So it began and I made my weekly transition from choir area to altar boys row. It wasn’t long before I had served three years faithfully attending often two or more masses a week and the priest announced I was to attend the Archdiocesan cathedral in downtown Toronto to receive my Cardinal Carter Altar Server Medallion (a new special issue had to be forged for upcoming and ground breaking girls like myself, the bronze medallion had previously been cast to read “Altar Boy Medallion”).
What an honour, received not without due hardship and dedication. In those early years faithful fundamental catholics would change lines while standing before the priest to protest my presence whenever I held the communion patent. First, altar boys weren’t allowed to be scheduled at the same time with me. Then other altar boys parents wouldn’t let them serve with me. In the beginning I was only given certain partial duties of the altar boys. I couldn’t go into the sacristy at certain times. People would stop my father and tell him what he was having me do was just plain “wrong”. They were sure that we were supporters of women priests – when the truth is, my poor father really had nothing to do with my becoming a server, outside of his ordinary support for anything that encouraged the development of my responsibilities and regular attendance at sunday mass.
The truth is, that priest became more like my good uncle than anyone else I knew. My father worked closely with him during the construction of the church and always used his skills to tend the maintenance needs of the church and rectory. That priest taught me multiplication and division, responsibility and work ethic, gave me administrative experience in the office and taught me so many other life lessons I cannot possibily list them all.
I stood by him right through to his death. As he became older and sicker he would have trouble keeping track of his place in the mass. He would repeat parts, forget parts and fall asleep during readings. I helped him stay on task, reminded him gently and subtly, avoiding any instances that might cause him any embarrassment.
When he finally died a lot of people had a lot of opinions and our parish cycled through a number of serious changes. Eventually we received a priest who was interested in the development of our youth community. He bestowed upon me the position of head altar server and trainer – a position that I took very seriously. Recognizing an opportunity for change and development, I immediately began a recruitment and training campaign. Because of the ongoing building project and dropping confidence in our poor old priest, our altar server numbers had plumetted to a single digit figure, but within a month I had that number back up to over 30 available and willing servers.
I staffed them 6 per service on a rotating schedule according to requests and to encourage flexibility and retraining. I involved them all in their own learning by educating them about the history and meaning behind their duties. I encouraged personal development and introduced all the new recruits to the medallion programme so they could know there were rewards for their hardwork and dedication. I also planned social outings, carpools, contact trees and seasonal gatherings.
I continued altar serving and training until I left for university in 2002, at which point I entered the McMaster University catholic community and continued my service in other ways.
