Altar Server Trainers/Coordinators Workshop

On Saturday February 24th 2018, the Auckland Liturgy Centre held it's very first Altar Server Trainers and Coordinators workshop at the Pompallier Diocesan Centre in St. Mary's Bay.

The workshop attracted 35 participants representing 24 parishes of the Auckland Diocese. The morning started off with morning tea and a meet and great session in the cafeteria before getting into the workshop.

The three hour workshop was led by Judith Courtney, Tina Coll and Marcelles Amiatu. After a brief opening prayer Marcelles opened up the first session with a brief history of the Altar Server and the important role they played in the early church.
What most people don't know, is that by the 10th century the role of the server became so important in the life of the church that there was an ordination rite introduced especially for the servers. Then as the years have passed by, it has certainly got to the stage now, where it's almost impossible to recruit and retain servers in some of our parishes.

Tina closed the first session with some basic Health and Safety tips for the servers and the ministry guidelines that the Catholic Diocese of Auckland has in place for ensuring the safety of those who work in our parishes both in a volunteering and paid capacity.

In between the first session and second was a 15 minute break that allowed for participants who had never been to Pompallier, to take a tour of the Diocesan Centre led by Rochelle from the Auckland Catholic Youth Ministry. The workshop went very well, prior to the workshop we were predicting that we may only get 12 - 14 people. In the end we had a packed room of 35 participants from the various parishes in our diocese. It was a great chance for the coordinators to be amongst those who lead the same ministry and to also hear and know that the challenges they face in their parishes are the same that others also have. The workshop closed off with some tips for the coordinators on Promoting, Recruiting and Retaining Servers for their parishes.

The Liturgy Centre, will be hosting a follow up workshop for the Altar Server Coordinators and Trainers and will also host another Workshop for parishes that did not get the opportunity to attend.