What Should Altar Servers Wear?

[OutinChgoburbs]

How is that enforced?

Show up in flip-flops or sandals and another kid is called up from the piles of kids waiting to serve to take your place. The call has gone out on many an occasion. It is not just a dress issue, but a safety issue. The sanctuary floor is extremely slick. The adult servers have to be careful with what shoes they wear, too.

By “no sandals” I mean the loose variety that slip on and off, not the kind with solid buckles and good rubber soles in the summer. The older ladies who serve like these, as they do not slip and slide.

I think the modeling Bl. Serra is quite noble. There is no canon law against it.

 

[Phemie]

I think the modeling Bl. Serra is quite noble. There is no canon law against it.

But don’t call that garment a brown alb. An alb by definition is white.

 

[Spiller]

…I think the modeling Bl. Serra is quite noble. There is no canon law against it.

There is no “canon law” against many things. I’m sure someone felt it was cute to use a simulated Franciscan habit in place of an alb or a cassock/cotta but that seems extremely tacky to me. Seems more like a costume than a vesment.

 

[edward_george]

• When the altar servers and EMHCs don’t get to ‘help themselves’ at Communion because the priest hands around the ciborium like a candy dish;
• when the priests genuflect at the Consecration;
• when no priest sits out the distribution of Communion and watches an EMHC do it;
• when the priest stops making the EMHCs purify the vessels and return the ciborium to the Tabernacle;
  .

Have you attempted to address these issues (charitably, of course) to your pastor? All of these are abuses–the first and fourth are expressly prohibited by the GIRM, Redemptionis Sacramentum, and a number of other documents. The other two, while abuses, are not as serious–and are possibly being done out of either ignorance or for some legitimate reason (i.e. priest isn’t physically able to genuflect or to distribute Communion).

-ACEGC

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

There is no “canon law” against many things. I’m sure someone felt it was cute to use a simulated Franciscan habit in place of an alb or a cassock/cotta but that seems extremely tacky to me. Seems more like a costume than a vesment.

And in some parishes, the vestments are more like costumes as well. I, for one, am not a fan of the “fiddleback”.

I wouldn’t call a Franciscan habit an alb. And maybe it would be better for the servers to wear regular clothes. I don’t see why at the missions- esp. the California and Texas missions- it would be a shock. I am sure the Native Americans who served there in Bl. Serra’s time did not wear albs, or have a cassock and surplice. better the Franciscan habit than what was actually worn or not back then.

 

[Spiller]

And in some parishes, the vestments are more like costumes as well. I, for one, am not a fan of the “fiddleback”.

I wouldn’t call a Franciscan habit an alb. And maybe it would be better for the servers to wear regular clothes. I don’t see why at the missions- esp. the California and Texas missions- it would be a shock. I am sure the Native Americans who served there in Bl. Serra’s time did not wear albs, or have a cassock and surplice. better the Franciscan habit than what was actually worn or not back then.

I serve Mass regularly at one of the (real) California Missions and it would be ODD to wear a Franciscan habit/costume. In fact I have served Mass with a Franciscan brother before and he wore a white alb over his habit! Being cute does not change the fact that the habit is the Franciscan’s daily wear – and not their liturgical garb.

Better to just follow the Church rather than attempt to speculate what Native American might have worn while serving Mass – which was often an alb/surplice-like garment…

 

[Phemie]

Have you attempted to address these issues (charitably, of course) to your pastor? All of these are abuses–the first and fourth are expressly prohibited by the GIRM, Redemptionis Sacramentum, and a number of other documents. The other two, while abuses, are not as serious–and are possibly being done out of either ignorance or for some legitimate reason (i.e. priest isn’t physically able to genuflect or to distribute Communion).

-ACEGC

I’ve tried, discussing a lot of this but I get the same response “Our diocese has not promulgated Redemptionis Sacramentum and our country will not be implementing the new GIRM until we get the translation of the Roman Missal.”

Mentioning other Eucharistic documents that previously said almost everything that RS says did not particularly impress him.

BTW, there’s nothing stopping him from genuflecting. He’s neither sick, nor infirm. He’s also not the only one who doesn’t genuflect. It seems that lately the only priests I’ve seen genuflect were those who were ordained pre Vat. II – no wait, I take that back. We had a young Polish priest, only ordained a year, with us for 6 months. When he came he genuflected at consecration, but the time he left he’d stopped genuflecting and only started bowing instead.

 

[spellinggirl]

My dad is the leader of the altar servers at my church, and, as the head altar server, I help him out by insisting that my fellow altar servers dress nicely. We really prefer that the servers wear black, white, or brown dress shoes, as they look much nicer with the robes we wear. Our robes are quite thick, so it’s really hard to see through them.

The girls are allowed to wear pants, as I live in a part of the country where, during the winter, it is not only foolish but dangerous to have exposed legs. The pants must be dress pants.

The boys generally wear dress slacks, a polo shirt, and dress shoes. If the pants are ridiculously long, we have them roll them up a bit. The girls almost always roll up their pants under the robes, as they can get pretty hot.

Our best female servers wear skirts and nice shirts, with dress shoes. We do insist that the shoes are stable and strong, because our altar is on a raised platform, and stair climbing is frequent, and we have had problems with people nearly falling down the altar when their shoes aren’t sturdy enough to move quickly in.

As for jeans, since our parish is fairly casual, at the few Masses we have during the week, servers usually wear jeans, since most of us have just gotten out of school and have no time to change. We always roll our jeans up so they are not visible below the robe. They are not to be ripped, but in one whole piece! This is also the only time tennis shoes are allowed, though they must be clean and neat, and are generally discouraged.

Regarding sandals, the only time they are allowed (if they are not the dressy type) is on Holy Thursday when people may have their feet washed. We altar servers jokingly call that day “Flip-Flop Thursday.”

Myself, my dad, and our priest would be deeply unhapy if anyone ever came in with swim trunks on. If any altar server did this, they would be in serious trouble, but it has never happened. If we ever have any dress issues, the person is spoken to and almost never does it again. It rarely happens, anyway.

I personally wear a shirt, dressy skirt (that I can easily move in), and sturdy dress shoes to church. My brother wears a suit every week (her serves, too).

Sorry about the long post, but this is what my church does and I just wanted you to know our standards.

 

[dandn5000]

To me, non-flashy shoes and light colored clothes are all that are really strictly required, especially with albs. At school, we don’t know ahead of time when we’re serving for the school Mass on any given Tuesday or Friday, and usually its the day that I’m wearing a very bright orange shirt without thinking about it that I’m at the altar wearing an alb. Not the best look.

Obviously, nice clothes would be much preferred, but at the same time a person should not be turned away from serving(God knows that nine times out of ten, at least at my parish, we always need another server) because of their dress unless it is obviously inappropriate(such as things hanging out, ripped, etc). One might even argue that they should be serving when not wearing their nicest clothes because they’re covered up. I remember a few years back a kid in my class wasn’t able to serve for May Crowning because he forgot that it was that day and he wore shorts(a no-no for any religious observance anything - Mass, May Crowning, etc) - to me it didn’t make sense because if he was covered up by the cassock, it wouldn’t really matter, nobody would see.

 

[Melissa]

Well, our altarboys wear a black cassock and white surplice, so my preference (and what I buy my sons) is dark dress slacks (navy is fine, as are black and a very dark gray) with black dress shoes. Shirts, I’m less fussed about but generally buy them long sleeve dress shirts. I think that the light gray or khaki colored dress slacks are rather jarring and make a missed button or too-short cassock very noticeable.

Sneakers look terrible, generally speaking. It just doesn’t match the formality of the rest of the clothing. Kind of like a man wearing one of those novelty ties that looks like a fish at a formal occasion.

 

[lak611]

Sneakers look terrible, generally speaking. It just doesn’t match the formality of the rest of the clothing. Kind of like a man wearing one of those novelty ties that looks like a fish at a formal occasion.

My dad went to Catholic school in the 1940’s and said that the altar boys were required to wear sneakers when serving. Dress shoes at the time had leather soles. The pastor did not want the kids slipping on the marble steps due to the slickness of the leather soles on their shoes. My old parish when I was growing up listed the names of the servers in the bulletin. There was a cartoon picture of an altar boy wearing Converse Chuck Taylors above the schedule.

 

[Phemie]

My dad went to Catholic school in the 1940’s and said that the altar boys were required to wear sneakers when serving. Dress shoes at the time had leather soles. The pastor did not want the kids slipping on the marble steps due to the slickness of the leather soles on their shoes. My old parish when I was growing up listed the names of the servers in the bulletin. There was a cartoon picture of an altar boy wearing Converse Chuck Taylors above the schedule.

For years in my home parish the altar servers were required to wear Phentex slippers with pompoms so as to not dirty the carpet in the sanctuary.

 

[Melissa]

My dad went to Catholic school in the 1940’s and said that the altar boys were required to wear sneakers when serving. Dress shoes at the time had leather soles. The pastor did not want the kids slipping on the marble steps due to the slickness of the leather soles on their shoes. My old parish when I was growing up listed the names of the servers in the bulletin. There was a cartoon picture of an altar boy wearing Converse Chuck Taylors above the schedule.

Might be something to that–but nowadays, the dress shoes come with a decent tread to prevent slipping on the marble not covered by carpet/rug. I always look at the bottom of the shoes before buying them, as smooth leather is likely to produce falls in all sorts of conditions, not just on marble.