| CHARLES JOSEPH WOOD is, in more ways than one, the
'Father' of the Scottish Guild of Servers. In the last half of the
nineteenth century, while there were individual servers and no doubt
some groups of servers in Scotland, the only society to include servers
among its members was the Guild of St Alban, a society for laymen
founded in 1851. The first society, purely for servers was the Guild
of Servants of the Sanctuary (GSS) which was formed in England on 3rd
December 1898. At that time Charles Wood was a very small boy
learning to sing in the choir of a church in an unfashionable part of
London. He was however, in his own words, "very soon
initiated into the art of serving as an altar-boy," and even
had, "a dim recollection of being taken to my first meting of a
Guild Chapter and being admitted to the Guild of Servants of the
Sanctuary at the ripe age of ten". This was in 1901,
which made him among the original members of the GSS. |
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In 1908 Charles Wood moved to Glasgow and eventually
formed a branch of the GSS at his local church, St Bride's, Hyndland.
Branches were formed in other churches in the area and on 14th December
1920 the Council of the GSS formally registered its first Scottish
Chapter of St Mungo. A few other Scottish Chapters appeared in the
years that followed, but by 1928 the number of servers in Scotland had
increased and there was a growing desire to have an independent and
distinctively Scottish Guild. |
| After some prolonged negotiations, the Foundation Meeting
of the Scottish Guild of Servers was held in St Mary's Cathedral,
Glasgow, on the Eve of Pentecost, 18th May 1929, and the first Annual
General Meeting took place in December of the same year. The
decision to form the Scottish Guild of Servers proved fully justified
over the next few years and membership increased rapidly, although many
servers continued to have dual membership with the GSS. |
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The years 1934 and 1935 were of great importance in the
development of the Guild. The GSS, through Charles Pitt, a Member
of the Council, approached the Scottish Guild with a view to
reconciliation. This led to a long period of negotiation.
Finally it was agreed that the GSS would recognize the SGS as the
official Guild for servers in Scotland. The agreement meant that
the GSS would have no chapters in Scotland nor the SGS in England.
There was to be an exchange of membership in the case of servers
transferring from one country to the other. These proposals were
approved at the AGM of the Scottish Guild on 25th May 1935 and a formal
agreement was concluded with the GSS in 1946. In 1939 a similar
agreement had been made with the Order of St Vincent of the Episcopal
Church in the United States of America. |
| After his retirement as an industrial manager, Charles
Wood was ordained to the priesthood in 1954, serving as a curate
in Glasgow and then as Priest-in-Charge of St Ebba's, Eyemouth. In
1966, with his wife Elsie, he retired to live on the Isle of Arran
where, almost immediately, he set up a House Church in his home.
This was the beginning of the present church on the island, dedicated to
St Margaret of Scotland. To mark his ordination the Council
revived the special office of Honorary President so that the Guild could
continue to benefit from his guidance. This he continued to do
until his death on 6th February 1983. Some years later, the Guild
was the major contributor to a memorial window to Charles and Elsie in
St Margaret's, Whiting Bay, Isle of Arran, which was dedicated by the
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles on 9th April 1997. |
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