Altar serving is important: working as a team with other ministers, servers have special responsibilities which, when well done, help the whole congregation to pray better and to join in worship as a community.

This Handbook will help altar servers to develop a fuller understanding of what they are doing. It is presented by the Guild of St Stephen which for over eighty years has been training and assisting altar servers. It gives in very simple terms an understanding of what the worship of the Church is, and how the altar server plays a part in it.

The opening chapters give an account of the nature of the Church as the community of believers, each with their part to play; and of the Mass, the central act of worship. A general chapter of ‘hints on serving’ is followed by a detailed guide to serving at Mass, both in its simple and its solemn form. A glossary of things used at Mass, a brief history of the Guild and of its patron saints follow. The book concludes with a selection of prayers for servers.