A few minutes before 11 a.m., the doors of St. Leo the Great School opened and hundreds of youths rushed onto the blacktop toward the adjacent soccer fields. The annual Battle of the Servers had begun.
The event, organized by the diocesan vocations office and run by seminarians, felt more like a family reunion at St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax July 10. Parish teams of more than 600 altar servers — including members of junior altar societies — signed up to compete in sports tournaments. The competitions included cornhole, soccer, basketball “knockout,” gaga ball and nine square. Many servers wore matching T-shirts bearing their parish name.
Several of the newly ordained priests jumped in on the fun. Father Jordan A. Evans, parochial vicar of Nativity Catholic Church in Burke, tag-teamed with Nativity servers in a cornhole match, while Father Raymond E. Goins, parochial vicar of Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria, monitored the basketball competition. Seminarian Michael Gibbons wandered around the competitions with a megaphone, entertaining servers and adults with punny jokes.
Knights of Columbus Council No. 6292 cooked hundreds of hot dogs and hamburgers to satiate the competitors’ voracious appetites.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge greeted the servers and watched several of the sports competitions, then offered grace before lunch. While the servers chowed down on lunch before heading back to the fields for free-play, Bishop Burbidge greeted and thanked the Knights for their service, before enjoying a hamburger himself.
Thaddeus Guerrero, a parishioner of Precious Blood Church in Culpeper, and Thomas Roa, a parishioner of St. Leo the Great, both enjoyed competing in the soccer tournaments and meeting fellow servers from other parishes. “It’s really cool that there’s a lot of kids serving Christ,” Roa said.
A group of servers from St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church reflected on the various aspects of altar serving. “I really like serving the Mass and helping Father,” said Josephine Eley. “I like lighting the candles,” added her friend Ava Calla.
The servers and seminarians then gathered back in the school gym as seminarians Connor Kleb and Gibbons announced the tournament winners. “The winning team of the 2025 summer battle of the servers — All Saints!” exclaimed Kleb. A deafening roar arose from the blue-clad servers from All Saints Catholic Church in Manassas.
After the celebrations died down, the servers made their way to the church, where Bishop Burbidge, assisted by Deacon Sean Mazary, led all in a prayer service. “It is a tremendous blessing for me to travel around our diocese to all our various parishes,” Bishop Burbidge said. “Wherever I go, I need altar servers who carry out their ministry reverently, joyfully for the Lord, and always well-prepared altar servers who take seriously this great privilege that God gives you to stand so close to the altar, so close to the priest as he’s celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass.”
Bishop Burbidge thanked the servers for their service before reminding them, “Remember what it means to follow the Lord … He appreciates all the things you do, but nothing pleases the Lord more than the time you spend with him in prayer, heart to heart. He’s your friend, he’s your Lord, he wants you to speak to him. He wants to speak to you.”
The prayer service ended with an “Altar server prayer” that was distributed to the youths. Servers and seminarians alike left with a deeper sense of camaraderie.
“It’s been a blast,” said John Murphy, a seminarian at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington. “We get here early, we set up the games, and we make sure they’re all working properly, so we get the competitive spirit already rolling.”
“The kids are meeting each other, and they’re making new friends,” he said, watching the colored shirts mingle across the blacktop.
This article has been updated.
