Altar Guild

[JM]

The kids at my church kinda suck at it. Won't even do up their robe.

 

[The Liturgist]

I can do that.

I would be very happy to provide you with any resources you might require in undertaking this very important work, as I care a great deal about having beautiful, well-furnished altars.

Among the resources I have on hand include a book that provides guidance for United Methodist altar guilds, and its contents strikes me as generally applicable to Lutheran altar guilds, with perhaps some minor commentary; also of interest concerning the decoration of altars would be the Parson’s Handbook by the Anglican priest Rev. Percy Dearmer, which I can also supply you with.

Additionally, I can dig up some Lutheran specific material, specific to your jurisdiction (you are in the LCMS, right?), and also if your parish has a particular ethnic composition I should be able to furnish additional resources based on the traditions of the Lutheran community in that particular country concerning paraments and altar furnishings.

It would be useful to know what vestments your pastor has and uses, and whether or not your denomination prefers to use violet or Sarum Blue during Advent, and also whether or not you use rose colored vestments on the third Sunday in Advent and the fourth Sunday in Lent (I recommend doing this if you can afford it as it looks quite beautiful, especially if your pastor can be persuaded to wear a cope or chasuble, but even if he just wears a stole it can still look quite nice).

The altar guild is extremely important in liturgical churches in the Western tradition, and there is a lot of nuance which can go into it. Even if your parish lacks the budget to procure any new paraments or altar fixtures, there is still a lot that can be done with no budget, for example, obtaining donations of flowers from members of the laity, and obtaining donations of fittings for the altar, and so on.

One thing I love about the LCMS is how it has managed to maintain a traditional appearance on its altars, since confessional Lutheran churches generally prefer to celebrate the Divine Service ad orientem rather than versus populum. There are also lots of distinctive practices regarding the furnishing of the altar and other aspects of the church from different Lutheran traditions in Europe: in addition to the general divide between German and Scandinavian churches, there are also subtle nuances between how altars are furnished between Swedish, Norwegian and Danish churches.

 

[The Liturgist]

View attachment 340310
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. This is what the congregation sees.

View attachment 340311
I've got a ciborium of hosts, a tray of cups of wine (the bottom one is usually empty), and a stack consisting of chalice, linen, pall, and paten. There's usually a cruet of water as well. They had forgotten that until I checked. I had 2 lavabo towels for the early service but a true purificator appeared for the late service. I am generally the only one who drinks from the chalice.

View attachment 340312
And a wider view of the altar. I've got 2 candlesticks, which they told me were going to be changed out for candelabras for Advent (I prefer the candlesticks). There's the Altar Service Book and the offering plates well off to the side. And there's a binder with the services printed out as they are in the bulletins (they are not exactly the same). I wish the binder would disappear but it gives the Secretary something to do.

Ah that is exquisite.

 

[The Liturgist]

Below are some excerpts from my manual. Any questions, fire away!!

Mark

View attachment 340198View attachment 340199
View attachment 340200View attachment 340202View attachment 340204

Ah that is beautiful. I would love to see your manual, to compare it with the manuals I have.

 

[The Liturgist]

Yes. I have known a few old-timers who like to get sharp creases in the linens but it's unnecessary.

Still, it does look nice.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

The kids at my church kinda suck at it. Won't even do up their robe.

Wow, if I had done that my mom and dad would have given me a slap and told me to be respectful.

 

[The Liturgist]

By the way @Shane R and @MarkRohfrietsch if it makes you feel any better, in the various Eastern churches (Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East) the priest, sometimes with the help of the deacons, is the altar guild. In most Eastern churches no one under the rank of Subdeacon is even allowed to touch the Holy Table, and women are in many cases not even allowed in the altar (on the other side of the iconostasis or curtain). Fortunately, the frequently-changing floral displays and icons in the nave of an Eastern Orthodox church are outside of the altar, and so are most of the paraments, and thus women are still able to do most of the work in terms of decorating the church for each Sunday. Lay support in that area is essential since the liturgical color might change two or more times in a given week, for example, around the Annunciation and in Holy Week.

 

[The Liturgist]

Wow, if I had done that my mom and dad would have given me a slap and told me to be respectful.

Indeed. Perhaps @JM you might coordinate with your pastor to perhaps designate someone as a youth leader who could inspire the kids to a higher standard of reverence? Because in my experience, many kids are as reverent as possible, and when they are sloppy, it is often due to phases they might be going through that have reduced their enthusiasm for the church, and they are tuning out, and its actually a bit dangerous for them, in that if they remain disinterested, such disinterest could become persistant.

So I feel it is extremely important to engage with the youth when you start to see things like slovenly use of vestures.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Ah that is beautiful. I would love to see your manual, to compare it with the manuals I have.

Send me an email in a private message and I would be glad to share; anyone else want a copy, do the same.

 

[The Liturgist]

Send me an email in a private message and I would be glad to share; anyone else want a copy, do the same.

Will do. You can also attach it to a private message, which you might find handy.

 

[JM]

I would be very happy to provide you with any resources you might require in undertaking this very important work, as I care a great deal about having beautiful, well-furnished altars.

Among the resources I have on hand include a book that provides guidance for United Methodist altar guilds, and its contents strikes me as generally applicable to Lutheran altar guilds, with perhaps some minor commentary; also of interest concerning the decoration of altars would be the Parson’s Handbook by the Anglican priest Rev. Percy Dearmer, which I can also supply you with.

Additionally, I can dig up some Lutheran specific material, specific to your jurisdiction (you are in the LCMS, right?), and also if your parish has a particular ethnic composition I should be able to furnish additional resources based on the traditions of the Lutheran community in that particular country concerning paraments and altar furnishings.

It would be useful to know what vestments your pastor has and uses, and whether or not your denomination prefers to use violet or Sarum Blue during Advent, and also whether or not you use rose colored vestments on the third Sunday in Advent and the fourth Sunday in Lent (I recommend doing this if you can afford it as it looks quite beautiful, especially if your pastor can be persuaded to wear a cope or chasuble, but even if he just wears a stole it can still look quite nice).

The altar guild is extremely important in liturgical churches in the Western tradition, and there is a lot of nuance which can go into it. Even if your parish lacks the budget to procure any new paraments or altar fixtures, there is still a lot that can be done with no budget, for example, obtaining donations of flowers from members of the laity, and obtaining donations of fittings for the altar, and so on.

One thing I love about the LCMS is how it has managed to maintain a traditional appearance on its altars, since confessional Lutheran churches generally prefer to celebrate the Divine Service ad orientem rather than versus populum. There are also lots of distinctive practices regarding the furnishing of the altar and other aspects of the church from different Lutheran traditions in Europe: in addition to the general divide between German and Scandinavian churches, there are also subtle nuances between how altars are furnished between Swedish, Norwegian and Danish churches.

Let me attend the training and get back to you on the offer. My Pastor is old school and will likely cover everything I need to know during the training sessions.

Here is our altar.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Will do. You can also attach it to a private message, which you might find handy.

Tried, it did not like the file format. (Word or PP; tried both).

 

[The Liturgist]

Tried, it did not like the file format. (Word or PP; tried both).

I could send you my LiturgyWorks e-mail address or give you upload privileges on our server, although I could have sworn PDFs worked as uploads on ChristianForums.

Edit: did you mean you tried attaching it as a Word or PowerPoint? Those probably would not work since they are OOXML. However, if you have any recent version of Microsoft Office (version 2007 or newer), it will export to PDF.

By the way, I have Office365 for the LiturgyWorks project, which is a great convenience.

 

[The Liturgist]

Let me attend the training and get back to you on the offer. My Pastor is old school and will likely cover everything I need to know during the training sessions.

Here is our altar. View attachment 340718

This looks really pretty @JM

 

[JM]

This looks really pretty @JM

It's a simple altar but in the simplicity there is beauty.

 

[The Liturgist]

It's a simple altar but in the simplicity there is beauty.

Indeed. I enjoy a range of altar configurations, but many Orthodox churches almost invariably use an unchanging configuration for the Holy Table itself, which is often quite simple, probably due to the headaches associated with changing it, and this works. In the Western church context, Rev. Percy Dearmer stressed an approach of relative simplicity with regards to altars, although I will confess i do not mind an ornate Holy Table. What I care about is simply a maximum of liturgical beauty.

Also I think the architecture of the church ought to inform what one does on the altar. And it is also informed by, frankly, the wealth of the parish. So naturally St. Thomas Fifth Ave has a stunning collection of paraments and other liturgical furniture, such as chalice and patens, and as is the custom in Anglican churches they display all of this finery on Pascha, and likewise Westminster Abbey has a priceless amount of such material, much of it having a very well-documented pedigree. And that’s fine. However, the fact that most parish churches can’t hope to match that does not make their altars any less potentially beautiful, provided one is tasteful about selecting paraments, which LCMS parishes almost invariably are, but lately some Church of England cathedrals have selected paraments that make me cringe, especially Gloucester, which used to be my favorite in terms of the quality of its boys choir (now abolished) and its architecture (despoiled by ugly furniture placed before the chancel screen and hideous altar frontals).