How many people typically are at the altar in your parish?

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I’m curious how many clergy, minor clergy, and altar servers your parish typically has.

Ours usually just have the priest. Sometimes there will be servers (I serve on occasion), and being the Cathedral, the Bishop may be present although he travels and also he visits the other parishes as well so he is not there half the time. We also do not have a deacon and at present, no one in minor orders.
 
At our parish we have 3 assigned priest and one in-residence. We have a deacon asssigned to our praish who doesn’t live in the parish, and a deacon in training (he has received minor order of some type) who does. And 100s of altar boys.

At an ordinary Sunday Mass, we will have the priest celebrating, minimum of 4 altar boys, and sometimes a deacon. For the distribution of communion, all the clergy present in the parish at the time will help distribute–so potentially 6 clergy. We have 6 Sunday Masses, so we usually don’t have all the clergy at every Mass.

At a daily Masses, there is just the priest and 1 or 2 altar boys. The priests rotate through the 3 daily Masses.
 
We have three priests, but for normal Sunday Mass, only one is usually present on the alter. We have two deacons, four seminarians (which are only sometimes present) and usually four altar servers.
 
We have one priest and one permanent deacon. It’s usually just the priest at weekday masses and the Saturday vigil mass and the priest and deacon at the Sunday morning mass. There’s usually one or two alter servers at each weekend (vigil or morning) mass, always teenagers or younger children. One boy in his early teens is a particularly regular alter server, at maybe half the masses. Interestingly I’ve never seen a boy and a girl together as alter servers at the same time- when there are two it’s always two boys or two girls.

Besides these there’s the parish administrator (a sister) who is at every weekend mass to give the announcements and occasionally (illicitly) to give the homily, the lectors (not formally instituted lectors of course, much less lectors in minor orders), and a crew of EMHCs, generally four or five at each weekend mass I think, or one at a weekday mass. And of course there’s the cantor and choir, who are nearer the alter than the nearest crucifix so I suppose they would count too.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I’m curious how many clergy, minor clergy, and altar servers your parish typically has.
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Our Russian Greek parish usually has two priests concelebrating, a deacon, and an altar server. Our first Saturday’s DL is typically one priest, one deacon and two or more altar servers.

School has started so at the Dominican Priory tonight there were 10 priests concelebrating and one deacon. During the summer there are about 6-8 priests concelebrating and not often a deacon.
 
We have two priests total but only one per Mass. We also have one permanent deacon.
 
At our parish we have two priests - only one at a Mass, and a deacon, who may/may not assist at Mass. We usually have 3 or 4 servers at a Mass, usually 2 lectors, about 8 Eucharistic ministers and a cantor.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I’m curious how many clergy, minor clergy, and altar servers your parish typically has.

Ours usually just have the priest. Sometimes there will be servers (I serve on occasion), and being the Cathedral, the Bishop may be present although he travels and also he visits the other parishes as well so he is not there half the time. We also do not have a deacon and at present, no one in minor orders.
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Are you asking for Byzantine rite responses? Eastern Catholic Responses? All Catholic responses of any tradition? All Christian responses?
 
We have a priest - there is only one in our parish, one deacon - we have three permanent deacons, two altar servers.

As someone has already noted our altar servers usually are two girls or two boys.
 
AnotherVoice said:
We have a priest - there is only one in our parish, one deacon - we have three permanent deacons, two altar servers.

As someone has already noted our altar servers usually are two girls or two boys.
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Just pointing out…this is the Eastern forum!

We usually have 3 priests, 2 or 3 deacons and anywhere from 4 to 10 alter BOYS. Makes for great processions! 😃
 
ciero said:
Just pointing out…this is the Eastern forum!

We usually have 3 priests, 2 or 3 deacons and anywhere from 4 to 10 alter BOYS. Makes for great processions! 😃
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Thanks be to God! I thought no one else knew how many are at their altar. 😉 Don’t they come out from behind the iconostasis in other parishes? 😃

P.S. There have been some evening services when we had more at the altar than “in the pews”, not counting the faithful in the kliros.
 
Hesychios said:
Are you asking for Byzantine rite responses? Eastern Catholic Responses? All Catholic responses of any tradition? All Christian responses?
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Well, I did put this thread in the Eastern Catholic forum…

The Orthodox are welcome of course 😉
 
ciero said:
Just pointing out…this is the Eastern forum!

We usually have 3 priests, 2 or 3 deacons and anywhere from 4 to 10 alter BOYS. Makes for great processions! 😃
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I wish we’d have a deacon and maybe more servers.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Well, I did put this thread in the Eastern Catholic forum…

The Orthodox are welcome of course 😉
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Thanks, but that wasn’t my point 🙂

Although there is no way to be certain, at the time I posted my question it seemed like almost all of the responses (with the notable exception of 5loaves) were from regular parishioners of Roman Catholic parishes.

I had assumed you were looking for an eastern Catholic response.
 
Hesychios said:
Thanks, but that wasn’t my point 🙂

Although there is no way to be certain, at the time I posted my question it seemed like almost all of the responses (with the notable exception of 5loaves) were from regular parishioners of Roman Catholic parishes.

I had assumed you were looking for an eastern Catholic response.
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Of course. I do expect many have seen the thread from the new threads on the right and didn’t realize it took them to the Eastern Catholic Forum. But I don’t want to reject the Western POV here the same way the Eastern POV is rejected in the other forums. Eastern Catholics aren’t like that 😉
 
ConstantineTG said:
Of course. I do expect many have seen the thread from the new threads on the right and didn’t realize it took them to the Eastern Catholic Forum. But I don’t want to reject the Western POV here the same way the Eastern POV is rejected in the other forums. Eastern Catholics aren’t like that 😉
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Fine, but now you have a complete mix of answers and you are not going to get a good idea if your parish is typical for it’s type. That is why I was initially attracted to your thread, I was interested in the responses of eastern Catholics.

Why don’t you post a poll?
 
At St. Mary’s Coptic Catholic Church in Los Angeles, there are 2 priests, at least 7 deacons, and at least 2 altar servers at any given Mass on Sunday.

I just recently moved to the Philippines with my wife (we’ll be here for about 2 years). I just went to my first NO Mass here. It was very beautiful. There was a priest, a deacon, and 8 altar servers. As brother Ciero said, makes for a good Procession.😃

Btw, I am staying with my wife’s family in the countryside, and we don’t have I-net service at her house. I will only be able to post here on CAF maybe once or twice a week, and even less (depending when I can make it to the city to an I-net cafe).

Blessings,
Marduk
 
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