www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Need Alter Server guide

Christ is Risen!
Indeed, He is Risen!

Good afternoon to all. I have searched the forum for a guide for assisting in the liturgy as an "alterboy" or "alter server". Alas, I am unsuccessful. Does anyone know of any websites that would have the basic procedures outlined for assisting the priest?

Thank you to all in advance.

Michael

This site may be of assistance:

http://www.saintelias.com/DivServices_elia/Servers/Servers1_elia.html

It's from St Elias Ukrainian Catholic parish near Toronto.

About forty years ago the Antiochian Archdiocese published a guide-book for altar-servers; they may still have copies available.
Christ is Risen!
Incognitus

Hmm - this brings back a memory of something I spotted fairly recently -I think.

Try e-bay - among Russian Church stuff - I think that's where I saw it

Anhelyna

There was a nice book prepared by St. Mary's OCA Cathedral in Minneapolis that had the three Divine Liturgies (Chrysostom, Basil and Presanctified) with server rubrics as per their practice. There was another book, by "Pantocrator Press," that was written by a ROCOR priest. I don't know where these books could be obtained; probably Light and Life publishers.

However, there is really no standard server's guide, and every church has their own ways of doing certain things. A good call would be to sit down with your priest and mark a copy of the Divine Liturgy, writing in when to get candles, censer, etc.

Dave

Thanks to each of you for your assistance. You are what makes this forum fantastic. I will search for the guides/books, but also will look at the link. I am going to assist the current Alter Server next Sunday (we discussed it this morning after Liturgy), and wanted a quick "down and dirty" guide to utilize for homework, per se.

If you attend our parish, please do not laugh next week if you see me trying and I make a mistake. My very first time as an alterboy at our RC church in Ohio, I made the most dreadful (to me anyways) mistake of forgetting to ring the small bell during the Eucharistic prayer part where the Host was elevated . 30 years later, I now am praying that I do not burn the church down with the censer or get nervous and knock something down. Truly though, I am excited to be able to assist more fully in the worship of our Lord!

Thank you all again.

Christ is Risen!
Indeed, He is Risen!

Michael

Michael, relax, you will do fine. My sons really liked the "The Divine Liturgy: A General Guide for Altar Servers" put out by the Pantocrator Press/ROCOR which Dave mentioned above. It contains instructions for serving, drawings of the parts of the Divine Liturgy accompanied with the appropriate Divine Liturgy texts.

It also contains a glossary of liturgical terms, and the after-Communion prayers. It is the best thing I have seen yet for server instruction.

There is another one, much more simplistic, put out by as I recall the Antiochians called something like "So you want to be an Altar Server" or something like that. We had one, but it never got much use as the boys always gravitated to the Pantocrator Press booklet.

With the Pantokrator Press booklet, and taking a look at the St. Elias website, www.saintelias.com, [saintelias.com,] you will get a decent background.

Michael,

Christos voskrese!

This is Karen from church. :-)

I'm sure Paul could help you out... you'd be a wonderful altar server. And we could use another server, since he isn't there every week.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see you become a deacon in the future...

Hope Donna's feeling better-- tell her I said hi. And thanks again for the troika-- I LOVE IT!

God bless,

Karen

Christ is Risen!

Here you go:

http://www.sarovpress.com/servicebooks1.html

The book used to be put out by Pantocrator Press which has now been bought out by Sarov Press who prints it now. It is a very good book, as are their Divine Liturgy and Holy Friday Books!

In Christ,
-'Nikolai'!
http://EuphrosynosCafe.com

Dear-in-Christ Michael,

Christ is risen!

All of the suggestions for texts (online and other) are useful but if you are in a Ruthenian parish some things that are common in other parishes will just not be there and some others may.

Greek and Antiochian use texts will tell you when to bring the bread to the priest (at the Axion estin/Dostojno jest'/It is truly proper). Russian use texts will tell you when to go to the High Place and how to make the reverence and bow to the celebrant, etc. Ruthenians don't normally do either of these. The above are just two examples, things such as how the entrances are made are also different.

I second Dave's suggestion to mark up a book for yourself.

I wish you all the best for your willingness to serve God in his holy temple.

Tony

Michael,

I wouldn't worry--just relax. The great thing about being Byzantine is that an iconostas hides a multitude of 'goofs'!

Justin

I second that!

Glenn

Christ is Risen!
Indeed, He is Risen!

I wish to thank all of your for your positive support and helpful links and advice. I am very eager to assist in our wonderful Divine Liturgy. It is so hard to believe that I spent almost 44 years not knowing such spiritual beauty existed in this world. Well, that is certainly another topic. Once again, thank you so much.

Michael

This has been very informative. The Ukrainian church I attend from time to time has introduced some very strange practices such as having the servers kneel in front of the iconostas during the Anaphora holding candles. They also stand at other times in front of the folded back Holy doors. Very much where servers ion the old Latin Rite used to be positioned in relation tt he priest. The priest is another of those produced by the thankfully now closed Santa Sophia Seminary in Rome. A few graduates I have seen could not incense and iconostas without mucking it up.