Office: Mon–Fri 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (closed 12–1)

MinistriesAltar Servers

Altar Servers

From Grade 3 to grandparents, altar servers assist the priest at Mass, weddings and funerals. Training is three sessions; the reward is a front-row seat to the mystery.

Altar servers carry the cross and candles, hold the book, present the bread and wine, ring the bells and — most importantly — show the congregation how to pray by their attention. Sixty-five servers, aged eight to seventy-two, serve at St. Columba. Girls and boys serve equally; a growing number of adults serve at weekday Masses and funerals.

Who

  • ChildrenGrade 3+, after First Communion
  • Teenssenior servers & trainers
  • Adultsweekday Masses, funerals

Training

  • Three Saturday sessions
  • Offered
  • Commissioning at Mass

Serving

  • Monthly rota2–3 Masses
  • Weddings & funeralssign-up, $10 stipend
  • Arrive
Mass at the Catholic Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

What we ask

  • Serve the Masses you are scheduled for, or find a swap and tell the coordinator.
  • Arrive twenty minutes early; vest in the sacristy; phones stay in the sacristy.
  • Dress: dark trousers or skirt, dark shoes, no sports jerseys under the alb.
  • Reverence in the sanctuary — no whispering, no waving to parents (a smile is fine).
  • Keep learning: senior servers train the juniors and take the harder roles (thurifer, master of ceremonies) at feasts.

The year

Training sessions in October and February cover the parts of the Mass, the vessels and their names, processions and the roles of crossbearer, candle-bearers, book-bearer and thurifer. New servers are commissioned at the 11:00 AM Mass and receive a St. Columba server's medal. The Holy Week liturgies are the highlight of the year and the senior servers' privilege. In June the whole group goes to Canada's Wonderland, paid for by the Knights of Columbus; there is a pizza night at Christmas, and servers who have given five years receive the parish's silver cross.

For parents

How much time is it?

Two or three Masses a month, chosen from the Mass your family already attends. Schedules come out two months ahead by email and are posted in the sacristy.

My child is nervous.

Everyone starts as a candle-bearer beside a senior server, with nothing to say and little to carry. Confidence comes within a month.

Is it safe?

All adult servers, trainers and sacristans are screened; children are never alone with an adult in the sacristy, which has a glass door; and the sacristan is present at every vesting. Parents are welcome in the sacristy at any time.

Do servers get paid for weddings and funerals?

Families customarily give a small stipend ($10–20) which servers may keep or, as many do, put in the poor box.

Coordinator: Deacon Paul Ferreira, ext. 24 · Senior server captain: Olivia Chen · servers@stcolumbatoronto.ca.

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