Church / Acolyte Guide

Church Over the Years

There was a time in the past when quite a bit more involved with church life especially as a child and adolescent in the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church when living and working in Australia (’90 – ’04), and then for a while with the Episcopal Church (especially after returning back to the US in early 2005).

I am essentially done with church for now – I have grown quite tired of the politics, self-rightous, and the “holier than thou” types.

Background

I was brought up Roman Catholic within a small French-Canadian farming community in St-George, IL attending St. George Catholic Church.  My dad and his family trace back there to the mid-to-late 1800s and to Quebec and France prior to that.  Almost all of the headstones towards the north end of the graveyard closest to the church are in French.  There are many graves going back in my family’s history.  Sadly, there are too many graves there from relatives known when growing up such as my father, grandparents (my father’s), most of my dad’s brothers and sisters, and now some of my cousins.  The sister I never knew born and passing about a year and a half before my birth is buried next to my grandparents.

I was 5 years old starting as an Alter Boy in the First grade.  The Mass was in Latin at this time.  I was going to the same school (just southwest of the church) my father and his siblings had gone to - even having some of the same nuns!  The school is now St. George Elemntary School.  We had Mass first thing each and every school day – got lots of practice being an Altar Boy while there at St. George up through the middle of 5th grade when we moved (along with moving off of the farm).  I still recall serving at a Saturday wedding Mass with my dad singing solo up from the choir loft!  

After relocating to Australia for my job in APR90, we again “bounced around” going to churches there in Alice Springs, Northern Territory (NT).  Once again, we were trying to find our “church home”, one where we both felt comfortable and welcomed.  We tried the Uniting (Methodist) and the Catholic churches there for a while before finally visiting the Anglican.  The Anglican Church of the Ascension became our new church home for a number of years!  All of our four (4) children were born in Alice Springs along with being baptized there.  We were quite involved with the church with the boys and I being Acolytes along with me as a Sacristan and training Acolytes.  I was also on the church's Council (Vestry here in the US) from 2002 to late 2004 (just prior returning to the US).

Acolyte

Acolyte Leader (aka Acolyte “Wrangler” in my mind)

I was leading and training the Acolytes at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Brighton, CO from AUG04 to DEC07 (this was the time after Australia and before relocating to northern VA from CO due to my job)..  I seemed to be covering some of the same information week after week in training sessions with our young people.  Out of desperation and not locating any training source aligned with our needs,  I personally produced an acolyte guide, one that reflected how and what we did for the celebration.

Zoe, our daughter and last of the four children, was 8 years old and one of the last acolytes trained at St. Elizabeth's prior to relocating to northern Virginia.  She continued to acolyte at the churches we belonged to in northern Virginia until she was 13 or 14.

I continued to train Acolytes at our church in Aldie, VA until our departure from there.