Manual for Acolytes: The Duties of the Server at Liturgical Celebrations [Paperback]

Dennis G. Michno (Author), Richard E. Mayberry (Illustrator, Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1981

For all churches who value dignified ceremony, here is a practical handbook detailing the responsiblities of all who serve at the alter: acolytes, thurifers and crucifers. It is a useful guide for training new servers, as well as a lifelong reference companion for all duties that servers may be asked to undertake. Diagrams and a friendly style throughout make its teaching crystal clear and there are helpful notes on general demeanour, how to avoid fussiness, dress, posture, preparation of the altar and processions. The information is applicable to Eucharist, the Daily Offices, Baptism, Marriage, Funerals, special occasions and the Christian year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing (June 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819212725
• ISBN-13: 978-0819212726
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Episcopalian > Book of Common Prayer

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Manual for Acolytes, Dennis G. Michno, September 4, 2000

By 

Rob & Kitty Ash (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manual for Acolytes: The Duties of the Server at Liturgical Celebrations (Paperback)

Michno's Manual for Acolytes is a most useful reference for anyone involved with serving at the altar or in their training. Instructions are clear and concise and generally well supported by Mayberry's illustrations. A very well-done glossary is comprehensive and useful for anyone, including the altar guild! The manual covers liturgy from highest to lowest and the service from vesting to a final prayer of thanks for the privilege of serving (can't be reinforced onten enough). Reverence is emphasized and fussiness is discouraged. Ins and outs of censing and the thurible are clearly explained. Best of all, you know Michno writes from experience when he reminds the thurifer to "bring the boat!" six times (humor in a manual)! I would recommend this manual for all parish priests, acolyte trainers, and older servers who would value it as a reference. It would make a nice reward for a server who has served failthfully for a few years.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How things are done..., November 9, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Manual for Acolytes: The Duties of the Server at Liturgical Celebrations (Paperback)

When I was the acolyte master and senior sacristan for my old parish, I developed a manual for teaching the service participants their roles in the liturgy. I wished for a more complete manual to give them, so that they could learn more about standard practices and all the possible service parts (our parish had a streamlined liturgy most of the time); Michno's 'Manual for Acolytes' fulfills that desire. It is a good, useful guide for illustrating the different parts of the standard services, as well as some of the not-so-standard ones.

Michno begins by giving some simple prayers and movements that acolytes of any age can easily memorise and enact in their practices. It also teaches the basics of vestments (how to dress for success in the liturgy) and the various things necessary for service preparation. A lot of things are for information purposes, rather than practice -- most acolytes will not actually set the altar or table in a service, but knowing the parts of the chalice set-up can be helpful.

Michno has brief sections for each of the major service positions -- acolyte, crucifer, thurifer; other server functions such as altar position and processional/recessional set-ups are explained, including line-art drawings and Book of Common Prayer sections relevant to the parts. In addition to the basic eucharistic service, Michno gives brief outlines for Morning and Evening Prayer, weddings, funerals, baptisms, and major processional services.

This book does not take the place of actual, in-person training. Particularly with positions such as thurifer, hands-on training with an experienced person is a must (any time you are going to be twirling burning coals over the heads of dozens of people, training is a good thing). Training is important also because no matter how good and complete a service manual may seem, each parish and congregation is different, with minor variations in service tone, style and choreography that need to be learned independent of any manual.

Michno concludes with several appendices. In the first appendix, there is a reprinted Service of Commissioning, taken from the Book of Occasional Services (a companion to the Book of Common Prayer). In the second appendix, there is a chart of liturgical seasons. The third appendix is a glossary of terms; not as complete as the Dictionary for Episcopalians, this glossary will nonetheless go a long way toward making the reader who learns these terms aware of the complexity and beauty of the liturgy. Indeed, the glossary is longer than any of the chapters.

Michno's book is written in an engaging style, and includes helpful hints scattered throughout -- for instance, the admonition to acolytes that they should be ready 15 minutes prior to the service appears during the description of the various vestments.

Despite the complexity and careful detail with which Michno presents this material, he concedes that there is no absolutely right or wrong way to do the liturgy (there are those who come close to making the liturgy the idol they worship, and if it is done 'wrong', then worship cannot be valid somehow), but that a care and attention to reverence and dignity in the service regardless of what one is doing should be the primary concern of servers.

This is a good book for anyone in Anglican and Catholic churches, to better understand the ceremonial. It is particularly valuable for those in Episcopal churches, who want to understand the particular liturgical roles of most churches in that denomination.

The one thing missing in this practical guide is the 'why' of things done. There are no theological discussions here -- not a bad things, for a how-to guide, but the theological guide underpinning why things are done the way they are, step by step, written to the same audience, would be useful.