Messy altar servers

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

One could have plenty of people taking an unhurried interest and looking in often.

One could have 12-14 y. o. mentoring younger ones.

One could have everybody modelling that it is “cool” to take an interest in sizes, colours, progressions from left to right along the rail, etc.

Big charts and/or simple lists on the insides of doors or indeed above doors (with some wording in colour) (maybe incorporating arrows or other simple symbols)

Alphabetical initials of surname or size numbers could feature on labels on the outside of furniture and fittings.

When I am at meetings in sacristies I admire all the labels above doors and drawers!

(I have had coaching in learning styles in the workplace and home)

If you ask for them to be brought say 2 minutes earlier, they can notice themselves taking their robes off the hook which makes it more interesting hanging them up again, which again may take no more than an extra 2 minutes.

It could be explained not as a way of “telling off” but as a way of “getting really good”. You could perhaps get the younger ones to “proudly explain” the swish new system to their parents as a cunning way to enlist the parents’ co-ownership.

I’m not sure what a sacristan is.

If they are bright enough to work things out, it sounds like they have lots of potential to improve further.

 

[zab]

Lol This sounds like a common problem. My husband is the sacristan for Saturday morning Mass. Last week he told he told me that Father was chastising the altar servers for not hanging up their cassocks. And for the past couple of weeks he has been going back to check up on them after he got word that some are tossing their cassocks on the floor. Most of our altar servers really do like and respect our pastor and they do not want to get in trouble. They really aim to please him. He’s tough but he is also kind and talks with them and blesses them.

 

[Glennon_P]

It’s an unwritten rule that we can’t ask a server not to serve.

Therein lies the crux of the problem. There are no negative consequences for those servers who do not follow protocol.

 

[Confiteor_Deo]

Tell the altar boys that they have been leaving a mess and that they need to be neat & tidy by leaving the sacristy in just as good a condition as when they got there. Being so messy is unbecoming of someone in such an important role in the Mass. The tips on organizing the cassocks according to size and having each altar boy know his size are good ideas.

 

[kdbueno]

I pre-suppose that the sacristy is not prepared

 

[paperwight66]

I pre-suppose that the sacristy is not prepared

kdbueno, your posts are really cryptic sometimes.

And anyway, the OP is not talking about before Mass, but afterwards.

Or by ‘prepared’, do you mean that the sacristy isn’t properly equipped - with hooks, wardrobes etc?

 

[UpUpAndAway]

My parish has 7 Sunday masses and after every mass some the servers just toss their cassocks and surplices into the closet. The ones that do hang them don’t do a good job at it and they end up on the ground with the others.
Some of the servers also have the nasty habit of trying on several cassocks and just tossing them back in of they don’t fit. So by the end of the day we have a pile of cassocks and surplices that won’t be picked up unless someone notices them.

What are someways to fix this?
Should I print something out and tape it on the closet door?

We solved this problem by requiring the presence of at least one parent before and after Mass to make sure the servers keep everything tidy and leave each item in its proper place. Before this happened, there was a sentiment of, “oh, the sacristan will take care of that.” As head sacristan, I know the sacristan already has more than enough to do and can’t keep his or her eye on absolutely everything that happens before and after Mass. I felt it was unfair to require more of this person who is already the first to arrive and last to leave.

Signs are pointless because they’re ignored. I can’t even get the adults to read them.

 

[Phemie]

That’s one problem we don’t have in our parish. The few servers we have (very rarely more than three at a given Mass) are all good at hanging up their alb after Mass.

We have a different problem triggered by never saying someone can’t serve. Our best server is a girl whose parents are almost always late. The woman in charge of the servers has taken to laying M.'s alb on the back of the last pew so she can vest whenever she comes in. That means that at some masses she comes up the aisle vested at the first reading. If the alb is not laid out she still serves, either in street clothes or she walks up to the sacristy, vests, and returns to the sanctuary. Personally, I think it sets a bad example. But the attitude seems to be “better a late server than no server.”

 

[JimG]

That’s one problem we don’t have in our parish. The few servers we have (very rarely more than three at a given Mass) are all good at hanging up their alb after Mass.

We have a different problem triggered by never saying someone can’t serve. Our best server is a girl whose parents are almost always late. The woman in charge of the servers has taken to laying M.'s alb on the back of the last pew so she can vest whenever she comes in. That means that at some masses she comes up the aisle vested at the first reading. If the alb is not laid out she still serves, either in street clothes or she walks up to the sacristy, vests, and returns to the sanctuary. Personally, I think it sets a bad example. But the attitude seems to be “better a late server than no server.”

That sounds like an extreme instance. But I have occasionally noticed when arriving at church just in time, a parent’s car driving up to the entrance and letting out a server or two, who make a mad dash for the sacristy to vest just in time. There’s not much to be done about parents who are late. (Or maybe they were late because they had to drag the kids out of bed!)

 

[Gertabelle]

That sounds like an extreme instance. But I have occasionally noticed when arriving at church just in time, a parent’s car driving up to the entrance and letting out a server or two, who make a mad dash for the sacristy to vest just in time. There’s not much to be done about parents who are late. (Or maybe they were late because they had to drag the kids out of bed!)

This would just never be tolerated at my parish. If there are fewer than three servers by ten minutes before mass, someone goes into the congregation and fetches some kids to be servers. At five minutes before mass, you’re too late, maybe next time.

The 11:00 am mass (at which I play the organ) generally has six or seven servers – including 2 or 3 boys who are 18-20 years old. The older ones train the young ones very well, thanks be to God!

 

[Voltrael]

I was an altar boy from when I received first communion until I turned 18, and I can never remember things being as you describe. The alter servers always hung up there robes.

Just saying it doesn’t have to be like the original post.

 

[Redd_Jackal]

We had female altar servers in flip-flops. Also unfettered hair. Both unsafe conditions when you consider that they will be handling candlesticks with open flames and molten wax. I wonder how many of them have singed/burnt hair resulting from a quick turnabout near a tall candle.

 

[Phemie]

We had female altar servers in flip-flops. Also unfettered hair. Both unsafe conditions when you consider that they will be handling candlesticks with open flames and molten wax. I wonder how many of them have singed/burnt hair resulting from a quick turnabout near a tall candle.

We have no dress code for our servers; the kids wear what they (or their parents) want. The adults who deal with them have a conniption if you dare say that they could suggest alternate footwear. Again the motto: Better a server in flip-flops or runners than no server.

Our main server has her hair in braids so that’s not a problem.

 

[MorEphrem]

Again the motto: Better a server in flip-flops or runners than no server.

Certainly, just like, “Better unauthorized fire than no fire at all.”

 

[stanncie]

I am very surprised at some of the comments here. I guess my parish is just very organized and our pastor is very strict. All these thing would never ever fly at my parish.
All servers have a dress code whether it be the altar servers, EMHC, lectors or ushers and you must comply with it or you simply won’t serve. For altar servers it’s mostly what type of shoes you can wear and neat hair of course. For the others it’s a predetermined uniform.
If you are late you also can’t serve, I’ve seen with my own eyes people being told sorry but maybe next time

One time a whole group of altar servers (they were all teens) that served a particular mass was completely replaced because the pastor got fed up with their constant tardiness and absences of some of them. The pastor replaced them with an older group. And by tardy I don’t mean getting there when mass is about to start, I mean not getting there at least 15 to 20 minutes before mass starts. All servers are told to get there 30 minutes before mass.

The tossing of albs would just never happen either and if it did you would have tons of people on your back reprimanding you and probably the pastor would give you a lecture and dismiss you if you didn’t change your ways

 

[zab]

I am very surprised at some of the comments here. I guess my parish is just very organized and our pastor is very strict. All these thing would never ever fly at my parish.
All servers have a dress code whether it be the altar servers, EMHC, lectors or ushers and you must comply with it or you simply won’t serve. For altar servers it’s mostly what type of shoes you can wear and neat hair of course. For the others it’s a predetermined uniform.
If you are late you also can’t serve, I’ve seen with my own eyes people being told sorry but maybe next time

One time a whole group of altar servers (they were all teens) that served a particular mass was completely replaced because the pastor got fed up with their constant tardiness and absences of some of them. The pastor replaced them with an older group. And by tardy I don’t mean getting there when mass is about to start, I mean not getting there at least 15 to 20 minutes before mass starts. All servers are told to get there 30 minutes before mass.

The tossing of albs would just never happen either and if it did you would have tons of people on your back reprimanding you and probably the pastor would give you a lecture and dismiss you if you didn’t change your ways

I think there is such a thing as being too strict. And it usually backfires.

 

[MorEphrem]

I am very surprised at some of the comments here. I guess my parish is just very organized and our pastor is very strict. All these thing would never ever fly at my parish.
All servers have a dress code whether it be the altar servers, EMHC, lectors or ushers and you must comply with it or you simply won’t serve. For altar servers it’s mostly what type of shoes you can wear and neat hair of course. For the others it’s a predetermined uniform.
If you are late you also can’t serve, I’ve seen with my own eyes people being told sorry but maybe next time

One time a whole group of altar servers (they were all teens) that served a particular mass was completely replaced because the pastor got fed up with their constant tardiness and absences of some of them. The pastor replaced them with an older group. And by tardy I don’t mean getting there when mass is about to start, I mean not getting there at least 15 to 20 minutes before mass starts. All servers are told to get there 30 minutes before mass.

The tossing of albs would just never happen either and if it did you would have tons of people on your back reprimanding you and probably the pastor would give you a lecture and dismiss you if you didn’t change your ways
I thought it was fine until I read that. I’ve shown up to ordinations with less than 30min. before mass. That’s excessive.

 

[paperwight66]

I thought it was fine until I read that. I’ve shown up to ordinations with less than 30min. before mass. That’s excessive.

I agree. And in some parishes, it wouldn’t work because the previous Mass would still be finishing, or servers from that Mass still in the sacristy and it would be too congested for the next ‘shift’ to get changed.

What would the new servers do for that half-hour, anyway?

 

[babochka]

I thought it was fine until I read that. I’ve shown up to ordinations with less than 30min. before mass. That’s excessive.

I had the same thought. Standards of dress and grooming are fine and punctuality is important, but 30 minutes? That places quite a burden on the families of the altar servers, who may have other young children to deal with. It seems unnecessary to have all servers arrive that early. Is there really that much to be done that multiple altar servers can be kept occupied for 30 minutes?

On a related note (and perhaps I should start another thread), what is the age at which most parishes allow children to begin to serve at the altar? There seems to be quite a disparity between parishes.

My own parish allows boys to begin serving as early as they show a desire and are able to stand for the liturgy, follow directions, and not be disruptive. Another local parish allows servers who have received their First Communion. Yet another requires that servers be between 6th and 8th grade.

 

[HelenRose]

An organization is a reflection of the leadership.

I simply can not imagine any altar server getting away with that with our Mrs. Gilliam watching over them. No way. No How.

Kids love Mrs. Gilliam, who is in charge of the altar servers, but it would not enter their minds to do that.

It is leadership! Kids behave the way that are taught. Even the most cluttered of our kids would not dream of getting away with that.

That are guided and taught by Mrs. Gilliam.