Affiliation
The Guild is an ‘Archconfraternity’ of the Catholic Church. This is a special status awarded by the Holy See, which allows the establishment of Altar Serving groups (confraternities) in local catholic organisations (parishes, schools etc.), to be connected to the original Guild of St Stephen of Westminster Cathedral in London, where the Guild was originally established in about 1901 and is the home of the Guild still today. It is the only Altar Serving organisation in the world recognised by Rome, as such we are connected to parishes and schools all over the world. We are a registered charity in England and Wales.
The Guild has 3 aims as set out in its constitution:
To encourage, positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Church’s liturgy and so contribute to the whole community’s participation in a more fruitful worship of God.
To provide altar servers with greater understanding of what they are doing so that they may serve with increasing reverence and prayerfulness and thereby be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life.
To unite servers of different parishes and dioceses for their mutual support and encouragement.
Each diocese in England and Wales has a Diocesan Director of the Guild who is appointed by the diocesan bishop and co-ordinates local activities.
Merged Parishes
If your parish has been subject to a canonical merger (2 or more parishes into one) then you should re-affiliate your parishes under the new single parish name as the previous parish has been disestablished. A record will be kept of the previous parish enrolment for historic purposes but will not be considered ‘active’.
Schools
If you are a school wanting to affiliate, this application should come from the Priest Chaplain assigned to the school, or if there isn’t one, the priest with responsibility for the pastoral care of the school, which may be the parish priest of the area the school falls within. Students who have already been enrolled in their own parish should not be enrolled again at the school, enrolment to the Guild is personal and not tied to the parish where they were enrolled.
Process
The process involves several steps as it is regulated by Canon Law (Canon 312), we try to make this a straightforward as possible. There is no cost to affiliate.
You obtain a letter of approval from your local Ordinary (usually the diocesan bishop) to establish a confraternity of the Guild of St Stephen in your parish, or school. Please e-mail secretary@guildofststephen.org for a template letter.
Your Parish Priest or equivalent sends in the application for affiliation.
A diploma will be prepared and sent to to the office of the Archbishop of Westminster as the Superior General of the Guild. He will issue the relevant canonical documents and return them to the Guild which we will then forward to your parish in the post.
You are then free to enrol servers and undertake other activities associated with the Guild in your organisation.
Other Christian Denominations
We are only able to affiliate Roman Catholic organisations who are in full communion with the See of Rome using the Roman (Ordinary or Tridentine) Rite. Anglican parishes may consider contacting the guildofservantsofthesanctuary.co.uk.