The Sacristans
I’ve been asked to explain what a sacristan is and what duties and responsibilities it involves. It seems that everything concerned with the rituals of the church has an odd name, so apologies if some of the terminology is unfamiliar; I have tried to explain the names in most cases.
The duties of sacristan were previously included within the responsibilities of the verger. However, since we no longer have a full-time verger, we have had to find a variety of solutions to cover the various roles within the verger’s former job description (including sacristan, as well as caretaker, groundsman, cleaner etc. etc.). There is now a rota of individuals who take turns as duty sacristan for our main Sunday morning service at 9.30, with the clergy picking up this task for the other services where the demands are less onerous. New volunteers to join our happy band would be welcome – please speak to Chris Matthews email cdm65@talktalk.net, Andrew Cole email andrewcole@blueyonder.co.uk or Mike Procter email theprocters@blueyonder.co.uk if you’re interested.
A formal definition of a sacristan is “an official in charge of the sacred vessels, vestments etc. of a church or religious house”. In practical terms this boils down to three broad groups of items which need to be put in place before the service (and cleared away afterwards!): furniture, books and vessels.
The furniture item involves ensuring that the altars and credence table are properly prepared, the president’s chair and prie dieu are in place and that there are seats in place for the acolytes. This area of responsibility also includes the lighting and extinguishing of candles (very popular with young assistants!).
The books that have to be put in the correct place (and open at the correct page where appropriate) include the lectionary book at the lectern, the gospel book to be used by the deacon, altar book and Common Worship for the president, the Banns book if required and the various other pieces of literature (hymn books, service sheets etc.) required not only by the clergy but assistants, crucifer and acolytes.
The vessels to be prepared are the cruets (the silver jugs containing the communion wine prior to its consecration), the chalices into which the wine is then poured and the ciboria (the vessels containing the communion wafers). The sacristan prepares these vessels by placing wine, water or wafers into them as appropriate and then placing them in their appointed place – some at the back of the church and some on the south altar, before they are re-united on the nave altar during the offertory hymn. In theory the sacristan is also responsible for ensuring that the correct vestments are used but in practice our admirably self-sufficient clergy team look after themselves in this regard.
There are probably some other minor duties that I have forgotten but it’s really not as complicated as I have probably made it sound. There are a lot of technical terms, especially for numerous pieces of white linen which on first glance may look very similar but actually have different uses depending upon whether it is a purificator, a pall, a lavabo towel or a corporal. I would love to describe what these all are but I’ve run out of space so if you want to know you will have to join our little team and all will be revealed.
