Servers
A server at Holy Trinity sets up the altar for Holy Communion services and processes the cross, book and candles and sometimes incense to and from those services. We also support and keep an eye on the vicar during services in case he overlooks something so we can remind him (not common). We also carry out other duties that revolve around the smooth running of the services. We call ourselves 'The East End Mob' (think about it!).
Our collars are coloured according to the church season with red being reserved for saints days. Occasionally there is a choice of colour for one service and so we follow whatever colour the alter has been set up with, as the vicar makes the final decision on these days. We prefer to have a team of four servers for the majority of services, increasing to five or six when incense is used (Saint's and Holy days). We rotate the duties of Crucifer - carrying the cross, Book - carrying the book and Acolytes - carrying the candles of which we have two pairs - one pair for indoors and one pair for outdoors).
When a service contains a part that is not usual we discuss this before the service, involving other members of the church, such as the vicar or the choirmaster, so we don't move at the wrong time. Errors do creep in despite our best planning. Then we make things up as we go along! These errors allow us to sometimes have a little chuckle about them; sometimes they can be annoying and apologies become due.
We also count the numbers of persons in church with the numbers being split between those under 16 and those of 16 and over for the records. A count is also taken on the number of bread wafers put out and how many are left over at the end to see how many communicants there were in the relevant services. The count is also done by others in the church and they send up a total number to Crucifer part way through the service. Generally we take the largest number, as being the safest, to work out how many wafers Crucifer needs to put in the holy vessels during communion services. Any left over, along with wine left over is consumed by Crucifer, with others to assist when we've got a lot left over. This tends to happen in communion services that include a baptism as judging how many will receive is sometimes 'best guess' in these services. Otherwise we find that experience gives us a fairly accurate count. I can count on one hand the number of times we have put too few wafers out since 1985. When this happens we try and figure out where we got it wrong to try and avoids a repeat of this mistake.
Whilst communion is being received we count how many children and adults receive blessings only. Occasionally the numbers who receive communion and blessings, added together, is larger than the count anyone did of the total number of persons in the service. We have come to the conclusion, in these rare occasions, that people sneak into services in their cloaks of invisibility!
We are always looking for younger members of the church to join our small team. If you are interested in volunteering during Sunday Worship, we are looking for new servers to help out! Training and information will be provided, and the minimum age that we can tae on is 10 years old. Please speak to a server, Carole, Gloria or Graeme if you are interested!