In St. John Bosco, our Altar Servers help Fr. Chris during the Mass. They have several duties to carry out, such as carrying the processional cross and candles, carrying the incense and thurible, holding the missal for Fr. Chris when he is not at the altar, assisting him when he receives the gifts from the people, washing his hands before the prayer over the gifts, removing and placing items on the altar, ringing the bell at important points during the Mass, and generally assisting Fr. Chris as necessary. All our Altar Servers wear a red alb with a white surplice and a wooden cross or a Guild of St. Stephen medal, with a different colour cord depending on how many years they have served.

The Guild of St Stephen is an International Organisation of Altar Servers founded in England in 1904 by Father Hamilton McDonald when he formed a Society of Altar Servers at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in London. In 1905, Pope Pius X gave his approbation to the Canonical establishment of the Guild at Westminster Cathedral and in 1906; the Sacred Congregation of Rites made the Guild an Archconfraternity enabling all the parish branches to be linked with it. The Guild spread, and in 1934, Pope Pius XI enabled all Guilds of Altar Servers throughout the British Commonwealth to be affiliated with the Archconfraternity at Westminster. A confraternity is a sort of club, or society, for people who are interested in the same things and want to do these together. We often use another, easier, word instead of 'confraternity' - Guild. That is what the Guild of Saint Stephen is. The main Archconfraternity is based on Westminster Cathedral, in London. It has many Guilds in parishes in Great Britain and elsewhere affiliated to it.

The objects of the Guild of Saint Stephen are: To encourage, positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Mass and so contribute to the whole community’s participation in a more fruitful worship of God, and to provide altar servers with a greater understanding of what they are doing at Mass so that they may serve with increasing reverence and prayerfulness and so be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life.

Membership of the Guild is open to any server, who can serve Mass and who has shown a wish to live up to the objects and standards of the Guild. Servers are given adequate training and then should serve satisfactorily for a minimum of one year before being enrolled as a member of the Guild. Fr. Chris decides whether a candidate is eligible and worthy of admission to the Guild and he is empowered to perform the ceremony of enrolment and invest the server with the Guild medal, (which is made of bronze) using the prescribed form of enrolment.

The medal means two things: Firstly, Fr. Chris has decided this particular server is eligible and worthy to be admitted to the Guild. Secondly, the server accepts and wears the medal as a sign of commitment to server regularly and as well as possible. A commitment is a serious promise, and this promise is a very serious one because it is made to God and the Church. The Guild Medal looks like this: