Their names are never listed in the bulletin. They don't get elected or have terms limits. They don't wear vestments or get installed. If added together, their years of experience would run into the hundreds; to a certain extent, they are the corporate memory of the Parish. They are your Epiphany Altar Guild members.

Altar Guild members basically serve the clergy. If you have had a family member baptized, an Altar Guild member prepared the font and made sure the water was not icy cold. If you wore a palm cross on Palm Sunday, an Altar Guild member made it, and, if a Lay Eucharistic Visitor has visits you, a Guild member prepared the small kit this Minister uses.

Behind the scenes, they DO wash and iron linens, polish silver, and one or two of them prepare for every service of the church, whether at 5 AM on Easter Sunday or until the last item is washed, dried, and put away on Christmas Eve, perhaps at 1 AM. The responsibility of maintaining a supply of everything they use (wafers and wine, oil for candles, linens) is theirs as well.

If asked why they do this year after year, generally the answer is that they do it because it is their way, with no bells or whistles, to do what needs to be done to set the Lord's table whenever His people need feeding. The Altar Guild is, in a phrase, a group of "God's Housekeepers".

Current Chairperson: Yvonne Hudson