Blackfen's Newest MC...

Jonathan, Blackfen's Senior MC, believes in training up the young altar servers to carry out all the different roles on the Sanctuary. There is no protracted period as junior torchbearer for the first few years to get settled in before being promoted to senior torchbearer. I believe that Thurifer is a much sought-after role (something about boys and matches), and it's first-come, first-served when the duties are being assigned in the Sacristy before Mass.

The job of MC is, of course, a much more tricky one which requires much more in the way of preparation. There are certain responses to make (in Latin) and it must be rather daunting to have to tell Father which bits he needs to chant next (and point to the right spot in the Missal.) Nevertheless, Jonathan is keen to get the young boys doing this job too. I suspect he wants to retire early and spend Sunday mornings sailing instead.

One of our altar servers acted as MC today at Mass for the first time, at the tender age of 11. I only got a few pictures (his justifiably proud mama has promised to put up a few more in due course), and they're up on Flickr if you want to have a look.