Servers

The server is a child or adult from the congregation or choir who helps in the service (for example, by carrying candles or handing the cruets to the priest when they are needed).  Servers act as the people’s representatives.  They are the link joining priest and people together and show that the Eucharist is not just a service which priests take by themselves at the altar, but something which is done by both priest and people.

Lay ministers of Communion: in many churches adult servers or members of the congregation assist the priest by administering the chalice at Communion.

Introit

Introit comes for the Latin word introitus which means ‘an entering’.  The Introit used to be a complete psalm which was sung while the clergy and servers entered in procession.  Before it a verse was sung called an antiphon and the same verse was repeated at the end to round it off.  Later, the Introit was sung after the priest and servers had arrived at the altar, so the psalm which had been sung in procession was left out, except for the first verse.  Thus the Introit became: Antiphon, first verse of a psalm, Glory be, and Antiphon repeated.