Acolytes

JACKSON FUMC ACOLYTE PROGRAM

As a First United Methodist Church acolyte, remember you are continuing a service to God that has been going on for seventeen hundred years.

YOUR SERVICE AS AN ACOLYTE IS IMPORTANT TO OUR WORSHIP. The Acolyte program at FUMC provides an opportunity for you, our Confirmand, to serve Christ and the church by assisting the clergy in the service of worship.

Perhaps an explanation of the meaning of each of the rituals that you are responsible for in the Sunday service will illustrate how important you are to the service.

The entry of the acolytes into the sanctuary at the Call to Worship portion of the service emphasizes to the congregation that it is a time for reverence and worship of God.

The flames of your torches are a symbol of Jesus coming into the presence of the worshiping community. At the Altar Table, you will light two candles. To some, these candles represent the two natures of Christ, divine and human. Some believe they represent the Gospels and the Epistles. Many Christians look at them and think of the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew and Greek scriptures.  They may look at the flames and think of Jesus as the light of the world and the living Word of God. To others, they are the old light of the Tabernacle and the new light of Christ himself. Whatever they represent to each person in the congregation, they are symbolic of the visible manifestation of Christ in our midst.

At the beginning of the service, the entrance of the acolytes into the sanctuary and the lighting of the altar candles is a very reverent and solemn time. The time of the Benediction at the end of the service is no less important. The lights of the brightly burning candlelighters as acolytes solemnly exit the sanctuary symbolize that Jesus Christ is for all people everywhere. It is the light of Christ and the Word of God going out into the world where believers are called to serve just as you have served Him that day.