Altar server guide

• Parents and adult servers: the Altar servers tab at the top of your church page. You need to be signed in.
• Altar-server managers: sign in → My account → Manage next to your church → the Altar servers tab.

If you don’t see the tab, check that you are signed in and that your church has turned altar servers on.

Only the church’s altar-server family: parents with a linked child, approved adult servers, and the altar-server managers and viewers.

Members who are not linked yet can only send a registration request from the tab. Once a manager approves it, the schedule, calendar and notices open up.

There are two ways.

• Send a request: Altar servers tab → Register → Register your child as a server: fill in your child’s name, baptismal name and grade. When the manager approves it, you get an email.
• Manager invitation: the manager links your email and an invitation goes out. Sign up or sign in with that email and you are linked right away.

We never ask for a child’s birth date or contact details. All contact goes through the parent’s account.

Go to Altar servers → Register → Join as an adult server and send a request for yourself. The manager reviews and approves it, just like a child request.

After approval you use sign-up, the calendar and unavailable days from your own account. Adult servers can only take positions the manager set to Adults only or Anyone. Parents can send an adult request too.

1. Altar servers tab → Serving shows the upcoming masses.
2. Press Sign up on a mass, choose the server and the position, and send it.
3. Your sign-ups appear on the right under My children’s schedule.

Sign-up is open only during the church’s sign-up window and only for masses in its date range. The grey line at the top says whether sign-up is open and until when. A full mass shows “Full”.

Because the schedule has to be balanced with other servers, please contact the altar-server manager. When the manager removes the serving, you get an email.

Altar servers tab → Unavailable days: choose the server, the date (one day or a range) and a reason, then press Add. The manager sees “⚠ Unavailable” on that date when assigning. Past dates drop off by themselves, and you can Delete a mistake.

Yes. The Calendar lists the servers for every mass. Days your child serves are shown in green. Use Previous · This month · Next to move around, and Print for a one-page calendar.

On a phone, masses show as dots under each date. Tap a date to see that day’s masses and servers below.

You see masses up to the month the manager has opened: the end of the month of the last date in the sign-up range, or of the last mass that already has a sign-up. When the manager opens the next round, that month appears too.

The cards at the top of the tab show this school year’s (July–June) services, attendance rate and next service. Only services the manager marked present are counted. Past serving lists the last 12 months by date.

• A reminder the day before serving (at a time the church sets)
• When the manager assigns or removes a serving
• When a mass you serve is cancelled, moved, or back on
• When sign-up opens, and notices the manager sends by email
• When a registration is approved or declined, and when a child is linked

Turn notification emails off in My account → Notification emails, or with the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of an email.

Altar servers and the church board are separate.

• The Altar servers tab (serving, calendar, notices, unavailable days) works as soon as the altar-server manager links your child.
• The church board is for that church’s members, so it needs membership approval by the church admin.

When you are linked as a parent, a membership request is sent automatically, so you do not need to apply again. The board opens once the church admin approves it. If the board tab shows an application form (for example, you have not confirmed you are 18 or older), apply with that form.

A church admin turns on the Altar-server module at the manage page → Church tab → Altar servers. The church page then gets an Altar servers tab.

In the same card, pick altar-server managers from your members or by email, then press Appoint. Only people with a HolyLink account can be chosen.

• Altar manager (full): can change everything on the altar-server screens, but not church info, boards or member approvals.
• View only: for the liturgy team, for example. Sees masses, assignments, attendance and reports without changing them.

Four cards at the top show where things stand: assigned this month (filled / needed), next month, the next mass, and active servers.

The menu on the left switches screens (on a phone it runs across the top).

• Masses · Assign: masses by month, assigning, attendance, editing or cancelling a mass, special masses
• Calendar: the month at a glance, with printing
• Sign-up window: when parents can sign up
• Server roster: approve requests, add servers, link parents. Waiting requests show as a red number.
• Attendance · Season: monthly report, school-year summary, tiers
• Unavailable days, Notices, Settings (feature, photos, mass rules, reminders, positions)

1. Settings → Positions: the roles servers take (senior, junior, cross…) and their order.
2. Settings → Mass rules: masses that repeat every week (day, time, which weeks) and how many servers each position needs. Weeks can be every week, the 1st–4th, the last, or all but the last. If every number is 0, parents can’t sign up and only managers assign.
3. Masses · Assign → Make masses automatically: how far ahead to create masses from the rules (up to 3 months). It runs every hour, only adds missing masses, and never touches existing or cancelled ones. Make masses now (pick a month) previews and creates one month at a time.
4. Server roster: add servers and link parents.
5. Sign-up window: open the period when parents can sign up.

In Server roster → Add server, enter the type (student/adult), name, baptismal name and grade. Don’t enter a student’s birth date or contact details.

Under Link a parent, choose the server, enter the parent’s email and press Link / invite. An existing account is linked right away and gets an email. Otherwise an invitation goes out, and the link happens the moment that email signs up or signs in. A child can have more than one parent linked.

Press Pause for a server who is taking a break: they drop out of new sign-ups and assignments. Resume brings them back.

Waiting requests are at the top of Server roster under Server requests (a red number on the menu). Adult-server requests carry an “Adult” badge.

• Approve as new: adds a new server and links the person who asked.
• If the child is already on the roster, pick the request and the server below and press Link.
• Decline: closes the request and emails the person who sent it.

In Sign-up window you set two things: ① the sign-up period (open and close time) and ② the date range of masses. Parents can sign up only during the period and only for masses in the range. Managers can assign any time.

When the window opens, parents get a “sign-up is open” email. You can add a note for parents too.

In Masses · Assign, press Assign next to a mass to open its assignment screen.

• Under Assign a server, choose the server and the position and press Assign. Servers marked unavailable show “⚠ Unavailable”, adults show “Adult”. If the student/adult type doesn’t match the position, the assignment is refused.
• Remove takes a server off and emails the parents. Assigning emails them too.
• After the mass, mark each server Present or Absent on the same screen. These marks drive the attendance rate and the season summary.

• New time: press Edit next to the mass and change the time. Assignments stay, and assigned parents get an email. A mass made from a rule can’t change its date: cancel it and add a special mass instead.
• Cancel: press Cancel next to the mass. Parents see it as cancelled and get an email. Restore brings it back.
• Special mass: under Masses · Assign, use Add special mass with date, time, name and seats per position.
• Ending a weekly mass: Settings → Mass rules → Cancel future masses, then set the rule to Pause.

Each position has who can take it: Students only (the default), Adults only, or Anyone. You’ll find it under Settings → Positions → Edit.

• Adult masses: create a position such as “Adult server”, set it to Adults only, and give seats only to that position in the mass rule.
• Mixed masses: add both student and adult positions, or set a position to Anyone.

Both parent sign-ups and manager assignments follow these rules.

In Notices, enter a title and text and press Post notice. If you leave the English empty, the English page shows the Korean. Pinned keeps it on top, and Also email the parents sends it by email too. Notices are visible only to the church’s altar-server family.

• Monthly report: for the month chosen in Masses · Assign, each server’s assigned, present, absent, unmarked and upcoming. Download CSV (Excel) opens in a spreadsheet.
• Season summary: July through June, counting only services marked present, month by month. Move between years and download it as CSV.
• Tiers: set the counts for gold, silver and bronze and the summary shows each server’s tier. 0 turns a tier off. Handy for awards or thank-you cards.

It’s the manager’s choice, and it starts off.

• Turn on Settings → Use server photos, then upload a photo from a server’s Edit screen. You must tick the box confirming a parent agreed before uploading.
• Photos show small on the roster and assignments, and only the church’s managers, viewers and that child’s parents can see them. Location data is removed.
• Turning photos off hides them without deleting. Delete all photos can’t be undone.

In Settings → Reminder email, choose what time (church time) the day before. It reaches the assigned parents within an hour after that time. Do not send turns it off. A sign-up made only a few hours earlier skips the reminder.

• For a server we keep only the name, English name, baptismal name and grade. No birth date or contact details; contact goes through the parent’s account. A photo is added only if the church turns photos on and a parent has consented.
• Names and serving schedules are visible only to the church’s altar-server family (linked parents, adult servers, managers and viewers). On the calendar, parents also see other children’s names.
• Other members and visitors can’t see any of it.

See the privacy policy for details.