Chancel Guild Cleaning Supplies

The St. James Archival Committee found the above tin can, marked with cleaning supplies for the Altar Guild, in the butternut oak cupboard at the back of the church next to baptismal font.

There are two labels on the tin can. One looks original and the other was updated in the late 1990s, according to records.

The altar guild is a lay ministry to serve God in His home by preparing the sanctuary for worship, maintaining and caring for sacred vessels, altar linens, and vestments, and serving clergy and parish.  Before the nineteenth century, the sexton or parish clerk performed these functions; later the clergy and in the late nineteenth century the Altar Guild was formed.

A Sexton is an officer of a church who is responsible for the maintenance its buildings, and/or the surrounding cemetery.