Adults serving as Altar Servers

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Is there anything that says that adults, men or women, cannot serve as Alter Serves at Mass?
At times at my parish, there are no Alter Boys or Alter Girls there to serve the priest. We even had one Mass recently were there were no Alter Serves or a Deacon.
I was thinking that if some of our men or women could be trained, perhaps we could step in when no one else is there to assist the Priest.
 
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There are adult altar servers in my parish, and as far as I’m aware our priests are orthodox, so I doubt there’s any issue with it.

It may be one of those things, like with female altar servers, where it’s up to the discretion of the local bishop.
 
I see lots of adult altar servers, especially where there is no school attached to the church or it’s in a bad neighborhood. One priest has a religious sister that regularly serves at his daily Mass.
 
I have never seen adult Alter Servers anywhere. That is why I was asking.
I just hated to see the Priest doing it all, by himself recently, no Alter Servers or Deacon.
Fortunately, there were several Eucharistic Ministers or it may have taken a lengthy time to distribute Sacrament.
 
I presume there is some training involved. I was wondering how long it takes for a person to learn what is needed to become an Alter Server?
 
There is absolutely no reason why adults could not serve at the altar, other than the priest doesn’t want them to. The persons who would normally serve at the altar are the instituted acolytes. Since they are as rare as hen’s teeth in most dioceses in North America, with a few notable exceptions, youth altar servers are used. But that’s only because there aren’t that many adults volunteering.

I have to say that my father served at the altar, in cassock and surplice, from the age of 12 to the age of about 40. I still have his surplice which has been folded and tied together since ~1954, he died aged 90 in 2004. He started serving again at daily Mass after he retired.
 
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We have adult servers at two parishes we attend. We also have younger servers, but they aren’t available weekdays.

If you have the time and ability, volunteer. As for training, sure there’s some, but if a young man or woman can learn, you could too.
 
Don’t know if anything says they cannot serve but I believe purpose of servers is recruiting vocations into Priesthood. Priests can do all the tasks of server on their own , so clearly its to incentivize young boys into priesthood.
 
YourNameHere said:
Is there anything that says that adults, men or women, cannot serve as Alter Serves at Mass?
At times at my parish, there are no Alter Boys or Alter Girls there to serve the priest. We even had one Mass recently were there were no Alter Serves or a Deacon.
I was thinking that if some of our men or women could be trained, perhaps we could step in when no one else is there to assist the Priest.
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Adult Altar servers exist, but in many Parishes, the priests will not have them wear an Alb like the kids do.

They also most offen happen at daily mass and/or funerals.

Though, I think one reason why they are not often sought after is because a lot of priests don’t want to mix scheduling adults and kids. In other words, they don’t want an adult taking a space away from a child server.
 
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My idea was mainly to have some people on hand, in case of need.
Occasionally, we have some readers who attend a Mass and see that the scheduled person for whatever reason is not there. They are able to step in an give the readings for that Mass.
I would suggest that adult Altar Servers be there on a standby basis.
 
YourNameHere said:
Is there anything that says that adults, men or women, cannot serve as Alter Serves at Mass?
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No there is not.

I do know that a number of years ago, three women in their 60s began serving Mass at my parish during a time when we had no pastor and things were very “loose.” They started to do some fairly odd things, such as wearing very ornate albs and scarfs that looked a lot like priestly stoles. The pectoral crosses they wore would have made a cardinal blush. They would also walk around before Mass using homemade “canes” that looked like something carried by Orthodox bishops.

They also began to read at the same Masses they served at and they also distributed communion. There was a huge blow-up behind the scenes (I don’t know the particulars) and all 3 left to join a priestess society of some sort. One of their husbands still attends Mass though.

Those 3 have left a very bad taste in the mouth of my parish when it comes to adult females serving at the altar.
 
YourNameHere said:
I would suggest that adult Altar Servers be there on a standby basis.
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By all means, propose that to the pastor, along with what you will do to make it happen. Also be aware of what @phil19034 said about adults and children; certainly more in the spotlight today.
 
The excerpt below is from the guidelines by the USCCB; the guidelines try to be specific about what are rules (as in, what is in the GIRM) and what are suggestions (presumably made by the USCCB committee that wrote the guidelines). The link to the entire paper is provided at the end.

Although institution into the ministry of acolyte is reserved to lay men, the diocesan bishop may permit the liturgical functions of the instituted acolyte to be carried out by altar servers, men and women, boys and girls. Such persons may carry out all the functions listed in no. 100 (with the exception of the distribution of Holy Communion) and nos. 187 - 190 and no. 193 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal .

The determination that women and girls may function as servers in the liturgy should be made by the bishop on the diocesan level so that there might be a uniform diocesan policy…

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...ed-questions/guidelines-for-altar-servers.cfm
 
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I much prefer adult male altar servers at Mass. It would be nice if more dioceses began instituting male acolytes and lectors. I really don’t think serving at the altar is a place for most children.

We have a few adult male altar servers at my parish. They are extremely experienced and competent. They make a difference.

They serve Mass because they want to be of help, and not because they parents thought it would be cute.

It would be nice it parishes began recruiting 10th-12th grade males to apprentice as say “pages of the altar” to experienced “knights of the altar.” I think that might help vocations too. All too often kids sorta serve and then they are completely out of it by the time high school begins.
 
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I think anyone who wants to help – male or female – should step forward. We need all the volunteers that we can get.
Only one priest at my parish. The less responsibilities we place on him the better! 🙏✌️🤝👍
 
And while women and girls may be altar servers, it’s up to the celebrant to decide whether to have them serving at the Mass he’s celebrating since no one has a right to serve at the altar.
 
Phemie said:
And while women and girls may be altar servers, it’s up to the celebrant to decide whether to have them serving at the Mass he’s celebrating since no one has a right to serve at the altar.
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The celebrant may choose anyone or elect not to use any particular person for any reason or even without a reason. That is both his right and his sacred duty, absolutely. The guidelines of the bishop limit who he may use, but bishops don’t force priests to use someone the priest judges to be unsuitable.
 
I guess the bottom line on all this is that we need more people to serve. Either as Altar Servers, readers, Eucharistic Ministers, etc., etc.
Needless to say, we could use a lot more Priests.
May we offer a prayer here 🙏🙏🙏 to ask for God to move more people to service in one capacity or another.
 
Phrancez said:
I do know that a number of years ago, three women in their 60s began serving Mass at my parish during a time when we had no pastor and things were very “loose.” They started to do some fairly odd things, such as wearing very ornate albs and scarfs that looked a lot like priestly stoles…
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That is unusual. The older women who I see serving are wearing either the type of conservative pants and tops that an elderly woman would wear to be an EMHC or lector (in fact sometimes they are doing double duty as the server, EMHC and/or lector for the Mass) or else they are religious sisters and are wearing whatever kind of habit, veil or other garb their order has them going around in.

I have only seen one adult server who wears the alb and he is an older man who is also the head of the K of C post, at an old-fashioned urban parish where he assists an elderly Polish priest. Usually the male servers (who also double as EMHCs and/or lectors) are just wearing the normal pants and shirt they wear to daily Mass.
 
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