At the 2004 Annual Altar Guild Meeting, Tad was impressed with presentations by Altar Guild members. He requested that they be delivered to the parish as a whole. The first reflection is offered here.

Comments to the Altar Guild

September 19, 2004

Amy B. Henderson

I am Amy Henderson, and for those of you who do not know me, I live in Beverly Farms and have three young children – a four year old daughter and two and a half year old twin boys. I joined the Altar Guild at St. John’s one year ago at the invitation of Nannie Winslow.

When I was asked to speak today about why I enjoy being on the Altar Guild, I realized in order to address that question I first had to explain why I joined the Altar Guild in the first place.

My husband, Malcolm, and I moved to the area almost six years ago and technically joined St. John’s at that point. Our attendance at church for the first four and a half years was, at best, sporadic; I knew we should attend, but we never quite seemed to get our act together to get to church. Then I found out I was pregnant with the twins.

My pregnancy was not an easy one; I was put on bed rest at 5 months and told if the boys were born within the next few weeks they would not survive. After three weeks of bed rest at home, I was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, ostensibly for just one night, but one night turned into one week and one week turned into eight weeks. Throughout this time, Tad and Susan were very supportive and, upon my request, my unborn sons were placed on St John’s prayer list. Of course, I too prayed, a lot.

At the end of the whole bed rest experience my boys were born three and a half weeks early, not three months early and I found myself feeling immensely thankful. My family and I had been blessed with healthy babies. The experience, while scary at the time, turned out, in fact, to be transformative. I felt a huge debt of gratitude to St. John’s – who could say the prayers really worked? But I felt as though they had and I knew I wanted to give something back – as soon as I was able.

So, when the boys were 18 months (and my daughter turned three), Nannie Winslow approached me and asked if I would be interested in joining the Altar Guild. I jumped at the chance, even though I had absolutely no idea what “Altar Guild” was or what my duties would entail.

Terry Dow trained me and from the beginning I felt an awe of the rituals which have been established to support one of the most important foundations of our religion – the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. As I completed my duties over my first two months, I came to appreciate the privilege of doing God’s work in the quiet of the church with just one other person. In setting up for service (or cleaning up after service), one follows certain steps – all of which become like a meditative, moving prayer. In my past when attending church services I would feel a bit like a passive observer or one participating by rote. Once I started helping with Altar Guild I began to feel more like an active participant, curious to understand how the chalice I had vested earlier would be used or when Tad or Susan might need the extra communion wafers in the bread box I had filled.

I cannot, of course, deny the selfish pleasure I am given when, during my Altar Guild service months, I have an excuse to be away from my children for an hour and to enter into the peace and quiet of the church. I have come to realize, however, that even in the company of one other Altar Guild member, I am, in a sense, alone with God, doing God’s work for God. Prayer does not have to be formulaic words on bended knee; it can be through action, movement. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to spend that time with God – On most nights I find myself falling asleep before I can even complete my wish list of prayers! When moving through my Altar Guild duties and considering the importance of each beautiful object, I feel a sense of grace and know that I am so lucky to be able to do this work.

I am so grateful to Nannie for inviting me to join the Altar Guild and the opportunity to meet and work with its many lovely members. I feel really, truly blessed.