altar servers

Liturgical ceremony helpers

Altar servers are laypeople, typically children or teenagers, who assist clergy during religious services.

They perform duties like carrying candles, holding liturgical books, and preparing the altar for communion.

The role exists across Christian denominations, though the term is most common in Catholic and Anglican churches.

Historically called altar boys, the gender-neutral term reflects the now-widespread inclusion of girls.

Related

holy water · incense · surplice · vestment · cross · Sunday mass · genuflect · alb · mass · Roman Catholic · sacristy · cassock · pall · lavabo · kneeling · sign of the cross · robe · liturgy

Categories
Opposites
liturgical role hierarchy

altar serversordained ministers

Officially appointed religious leaders

priests · clergy · celebrant · pope · bishop

spatial/functional position in worship

altar serverscongregation

Assembled group of worshippers

parishioners · laity · worshippers · churchgoers · assembly

Family

server, altar, altars, altar server

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Top 500,000
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Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Rated G