www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Is there a Byzantine Confraternity for Acolytes?

As an RC some 15 years ago, I joined an altar server confraternity dedicated to the patronage of St. Stephen. The Archconfraternity of St. Stephen originated around the turn of the century in Hammersmith, England. It is not well known in the US, and at the time that I was enrolled there was only one parish where it had been permitted to be established due to the more traditional liturgy that was celebrated there.

My question is: does such an organization exist here in the States for Byzantine Catholic acolytes? If not, should one be established? A very simple rule of life and handbook could be set up as part of the"common life". I believe such an organization could be a way for servers to be formed in a spirituality of service. That in turn might prove to be a seedbed for future priestly and diaconal vocations.

If one does not exist, is anyone interested in helping to get one established?

Peace,

Gordo

I take it from the lack of responses that no one is aware of such a group?

Bueller?

:p Gordo

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Gordo,

We did have an Altar Servers' Congress which I was the Director for until a year ago. The lack of interest by participants and a couple of dropped opportunities (not my planning them)were reasons why there was a decline in attendance. A Deacon Candidate from Saint Mary Magdalene Parish in Fairview Park, Ohio, Dan Surniak is now running the program. We did not establish any type of program for the Adult Acolytes, as most parishes did not have Adult Acolytes although I did start the Fathers Serving with their sons in Mentor-on-the Lake, Ohio and Akron, Ohio. I have four Adults here in Columbus. Maybe it is time to look into some sort of program.

Yours In Our Lord,

Fr. Batcha

That is a good move Fr. Batcha.

My husband started serving with our oldest when he was 12. He is now 29 and my husband is a deacon. He never served the altar as a child. So I can see what is meant about boys serving the altar being a preparation to recognize a vocation.

As it is, we have two more men who are serving with their sons, they are biding their time until their kids are grown a lot more, then they too desire to enter the diaconate. They both have four boys, so they will have lots of hours invested by then.

Pani Rose

Father Batcha and Pani Rose,

I certainly offer to take an initial "whack" at a possible model and statutes for such a group. I still have my archconfraternity handbook and medal that could serve as something of a model. (The medal is worn on all occasions while serving.)

Any recommendations on a patron for this confraternity? Would St. Stephen be a good patron? (Confraternity of Saint Stephen the Proto-Martyr) His courageous witness in service to his fellow Christians and testimony to the point of shedding his blood for Christ is a certainly a spiritual ideal for such a group.

I also envision something slightly more than just "an altar servers club". I think any confraternity of this nature must also have an emphasis on spiritual formation as well as the "liturgy after the liturgy" in a spirit of service to the parish and the local community. (working together at a local food shelf, helping at certain events in the parish, etc, etc)

The Father/Son emphasis you mention, Father and Pani Rose, REALLY resonates with me. I've already trained one of my sons in how to serve and offered to Father James Atkins, our pastor, to help lead an acolyte in-service/retreat this summer. My thought was that fathers and sons could both be in attendance.

Your thoughts?

Pray for me a sinner!

Gordo

Gordo contact Deacon Lance. He may have more of a thought on this.

The Boy Scouts have a medal program, a religious award. For the Byzantines it is called Light is Life, for the Romans it is called Alitari Dai(sp). There may be something of that nature that could be developed for this. The program takes them into a deeper understanding of tradition and service to the Church.

Pani Rose

Gordo,

I did a bit of a search for the "Altar Servers' Congress" and found mention of a chapter at Saint John the Baptist Byzantine Church [stjohnbyz.org] in Pottsdown, PA.

Many years,

Neil

Neil,

Great find, thank you! I will contact them ASAP to find out what they are planning. Perhaps we could follow their model here for our little retreat.

Many years to you as well!

Gordo

CaelumJR,

Any acolyte server congress is just another one of those remedies for not having minor orders. They are just volunteers, who may depart from ministry when they get tired of it.

At the parish in Mentor-on-the-Lake, we always had adult servers before a Father-Son program was started. I remember serving there with adult servers back in the mid-80s. Today, we still have adult servers, in fact, one doesn't have to have a son to serve. We don't make distinctions about Father-Son teems or some confraternity, we just serve. Why call it a name or start another club?

It would be wonderful if our church recognized the ministry at the altar as possibly a permanent life-time commitment. But our church prefers to make cold calls on vocations rather than harvest them from the early ages through life. There is a verse used in our liturgies regarding the Psalmic note on planting a vineyard. Planting a vineyard means planting, nourishing, harvesting, processing, not going to the store to buy a bottle of wine.

But instead, our church is into altar server 'congresses', extraordinary eucharistic ministers, Mary-Martha servers, ... See where this is heading? Remedies for lost ministries and to seek some sort of political justice for lay minister wannabees is our current track. The Latins provide us with many uninspiring alternatives for our lack of commitment, vineyard planting, and fear of re-establishing mininstries that have been on the books for centuries. Many of our fellow Eastern Catholic churches have them. But it is so typical that we look on the Latin plate to solve our Eastern problems.

Confraternities cater to brewing specialists of a particular ministry rather than keeping them with their feet in the fold. Its not another association that our servers need, but to learn to participate in their parish life at the altar. The greatest 'confraternity' they can belong to is their parish. I know that such groups can teach us about our eparchy, but my son has gotten a better view of our church simply by us taking him to other parishes in our eparchy as well as other churches.

What also kills server congresses or confraternities is when there is a scandal in the church. Then no parent wishes to send their sons to a camp out of fear and lack of trust. At least at the altar, they know who they are with. They can see what is going on.

Any pull away from the parish is a stessor. It sais that we are here for ourselves. We get to look at each other, not the Lord. I remember such confraternities where one got medals and different colors on their server vestments. Just another boy scout club.

I have a son who served at the altar since he was in first grade and never joing some club. He'd rather serve at the altar than talk about it. A number of his fellow servers also thought about the priesthood.

Lets teach our children well. Let them love and serve the Lord within the parish community. Keep ourselves from wanting to establish more clubs for the sake of what? Pray that our bishops see the light and re-establish minor orders where they can benefit from our youth who will not just become our future church (we hope) but let them BE the church NOW. NOW is the time, not when we hope that our bottle of wine is on the store shelf ready for us to retrieve.

Joe

Amen, brother!

Σώσον, Κύριε, καί διαφύλαξον η�άς από τών Βασιλιάνικων τάξεων!

Joe,

I agree with your assessment of the situation as it pertains to minor orders. Most certainly it would be a wise move to begin recovering this vital ministry for all of the reasons (and more) that you mentioned.

In my field of leadership development, the concept of a "talent pool" is very much in vogue, and for good reason. Organizations have realized that to develop leadership bench strength, one needs to begin long before a position is posted. Towards this end, in my own company I'm responsible for developing a talent pool known as "emerging leaders" - essentially individual contributors (employees) who have both expressed an interest in a management role in the next 2-3 years and have been identified by their sponsoring manager as having the potential to be a leader. As part of the development planning process, we encourage and offer specialized training, projects and interim assignments that help to stretch and form these future managers effectively. By way of analogy, certainly minor orders could be regarded as a "vocation pool" from which to draw future deacons and priests. They are thus able to exercise some form of leadership in the parish that is still distinct from the ordinary lay role. Your idea has real merit.

I do not share your experience or cynicism about confraternities, however. The Byzantine tradition has a strong history of confraterities and, depending on how they are run, they can be a very effective means to fostering certain spiritual ideals and apostolic efforts within a group. Confraternities must, by their very nature, support the overall mission of the parish, eparchy and metropolia. Anything less than this runs the risk of driving a wedge in the common life of the Church, and cannot be of God. Your assumptions here may be based on your own poor experience with whatever confraternity you saw, but it would not represent the ideal I am shooting for with this one. I think the experience you share, however, is a good cautionary tale for any effort to develop something for our acolytes.

As for the Father-Son piece, my thought was to open things up to more than just that grouping. I will say that it is an extremely positive experience (as you and I know) to have both serving together.

Many years,

Gordo

Gordo,

Why must we call ANY support by name if this is what we are supposed to do by nature of BEING Church?

I understand your desire to see particular support systems in place, places or resource and encouragement. Personally, I would like to find it IN the parish AS the parish responsibility, not some auxiliary.

There is no greater 'confraternity' I know of than the Church itself, eparchy in general and parish in particular. If we had minor orders, their support system would be the Church. Hopefully, reciprocal relationships would exist as articulated in Canon Law, Norms, and Eparchial Statutes. If the pastor is not cooperative, supportive, or even helpful as some 'big brother' or mentor, then all these confraternities mean nothing.

The Church ALREADY has particular ministries it can resurrect at the flip of a switch. If they can do it with the deaconate, they can do it with minor orders.

Lets get away from volunteer ministries. You can't talk about commitment and/or marital fidelity if the church is the worse example of fiduciary, reciprocal, and ministry relationships. I feel that any ministry under canon law brings fear of monetary commitment. Volunteer ministry relieves the pressure and any financial burden. Its just like cohabitation. If you have a falling out, you just leave or ignore them and go on to the next willing.

Joe

Even deacons, though ordained, are 'volunteers'.

Neil,
The weekend Altar Servers Congress is a weekend retreat for all interested Eparchial altar servers. There was until a few years ago a week-long Altar Servers Camp at the property in Canadensis, St. Nicholas Shrine. It has recently been condensed to one weekend in the Fall.

Joe,
The altar servers retreat is 'under new management' if you will. I think the problems of the past are gone, as far as supervision, leadership, etc.

Sam

Deacons are not volunteers in the sense of a cantor or acolyte who can just walk away and no longer be a cantor or acolyte. A relationship is established through ordination and canonical norms. Volunteer ministers aren't supposed to even use the word 'minister' either. There is no permanent relationship.

Joe