Guild of Servers of the Sanctuary

The Guild of Servants of the Sanctuary (sometimes known as the Servers' Trade Union!) was founded in 1898 in South London and from a handful of servers at a few churches, has grown to over 3,000 members from churches all over the world.

The Guild is led by a Warden (our present Warden, Fr. David Moore, now retired), has a Chaplain General, Secretary General, Membership Secretary and Treasurer General. We use the term General because the Guild is divided into Provinces and Chapters, and each Chapter has those officials. Each Province has a Guild Councillor and the Guild is overseen by a Council of some 30 Councillors from the various Provinces in England and Wales. Scotland has its own Guild of St. Vincent with the same organisation.

For many years, membership of the Guild was restricted to men and boys who served at the Eucharist as Master of Ceremonies, Crucifer, Acolyte or Thurifer, but eventually in the mid-8o's, after much discussion (and no little dissension!) women and girls were admitted, and now constitute a considerable percentage of Guild Members. Priests are admitted as Associate Members, because the Guild is primarily a lay organisation, and each Chapter would normally have a Chaplain who would be responsible for the conduct of the worship of the Chapter, though in the absence of a Priest, a senior member of the Chapter or the Guild Councillor could conduct the worship.

Worship is offered in the Guild Office, a series of Psalms sung to the ancient plainsong melodies, often unaccompanied, with the Office Hymn, Magnificat and Guild Collect. The Psalms and Magnificat are usually sung alternate verses by Cantors and Members. The Guild Office must be sung a minimum of four times a year; at other times a Sung Mass may be used. The Guild holds two main Festivals, the Easter Festival on Easter Saturday (the one AFTER Easter Day) normally held in one of the large churches in London, When the Annual General Meeting is held, and an Autumn Festival which goes to Cathedrals and churches in various parts of the country. Often there are Group Festivals when several Chapters meet together to celebrate the Mass and Guild Office.

The Guild has a Fund for supporting its members through their theological training for the ministry (a qualification for this financial gift is three years' membership) and at present this amounts to £1,000 a year.

The local Chapter of the Guild is that of Our Lady and St. Richard and operates from Fishbourne to Littlehampton, meeting monthly throughout the year. Fr. Peter is the Chaplain this year. All servers are welcome to join the Chapter or just attend its worship. There is usually a time for refreshments after the worship when we can meet servers from other churches.