BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--John Barranco was an altar server in grade school, high school and college where he recalls being taken out of class to serve at funerals.

Decades later, he and other members of Knights of Columbus Council 11402 at All Saints Church, Dunwoody, return with reverence to the altar during funeral Masses and form the Senior Acolyte Assembly.

Dressed in blue blazers and gray slacks, one of four teams, each composed of six Knights, serves at funeral Masses every one to two weeks, leading processions and assisting priests at the Mass and during the blessing where the priest uses both holy water and incense.

“It’s very interesting and very fulfilling,” Barranco said. “After many years I’m back doing it again.”

Msgr. Donald Kiernan, pastor of All Saints, initiated the senior assembly last summer after Pinecrest Academy relocated from the church to its current school in Cumming. This left All Saints with a shortage of young altar servers at the parish, who typically served for funerals during the week. While All Saints has used youth from other elementary schools, the pastor said that it is often inconvenient for parents who have to drive children to the church.

Msgr. Kiernan provided a training program for the Knights, most of whom are retired. The senior assembly is now on call to serve at funerals as needed year-round except in July.

“They’ve done a marvelous job. To my knowledge they may be one of the first in the country. It’s been a big help to us,” said Msgr. Kiernan.

On such emotional occasions, the senior assembly “adds a lot more to the dignity of (funerals),” said Msgr. Kiernan. “It’s nice to see men with dedication and reverence and devotion.”

“Funerals are the time you really need them--with the incense, the holy water. A person can do it by himself, but you have to stop and get the incense. It adds a lot when it’s a planned ceremony,” he said.

Assembly member George Novac, 68, described a family’s appreciation for the Knights’ presence at a funeral for a 14-year-old killed in an accident.

“That was a very emotional service. Just having the grown men, the adults, there made the family feel so much better, “ he said. “When the service is over, to have a family (member) come up and say, ‘We really appreciated your serving here’...That’s the kind of gratitude we get for it.”

Novac added that he and most of the other members were altar servers as youth and that the responsibilities have come back to them naturally.

Barranco, 65, recently was an acolyte at a funeral for a man whose children were in the congregation. Many funerals, like this one, are especially emotional and he acknowledged that he struggles to control his emotions. “Some are extremely sad,” he said.

Barranco believes the Knights contribute to the funeral by their uniform dress, their decorum and the intensity of their focus on “trying to be very somber and attentive and giving.”

As the Knights’ main focus is charity, “It brings a lot of pride to us and it makes the people of the church feel good to say, ‘These are the Knights of Columbus and they are living up to what the fraternal order is about,’” Novac said. “It’s serving the parish in times of need.”

SENIOR ACOLYTES -- Ten members of the new 24-member Senior Acolyte Assembly, who serve at weekday funerals, are shown with clergy of All Saints Church, Dunwoody. Shown front (l-r) are Al Garofalo, Walter Williams, Deacon Ray Egan, Msgr. Donald Kiernan, Father Dan McCormick, Edward O’Reilly and Edward Krise; back row (l-r) are James Fraser, George Novac, David Moeller, Jerome Travers, Fred Schlitt and Kenneth Winkler.