An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up the liturgical books, among other things. If young, the server is commonly called an altar boy or altar girl. In some Christian denominations, altar servers are known as acolytes.
A Czech altar server
Fifty altar servers, during a celebration of a 50-year-old church, Gennep, Netherlands, September 2004
.Since the 1990s, girls may serve at altar
An altar server carrying a thurible is called a thurifer
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the terms used for individual clergy are clergyman, clergywoman, clergyperson, churchman,
cleric, ecclesiastic, and vicegerent while clerk in holy orders has a long history but is rarely used.
14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso in 2007
Bishop MaurĂcio Andrade, primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, gives a crosier to Bishop Saulo Barros
Sir George Fleming, 2nd Baronet, British churchman.
Charles Wesley Leffingwell, Episcopal priest