Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

One of my favorite ways to mark the turning of seasons in the church calendar is by the colors we use to adorn our worship. Purple(some places use blue and you'll see some blue here and there in our Advent as well), a royal color, for the dark, sweet, waiting time of Advent. White, for the celebratory seasons of Christmas and Easter and other special high feast days. Green, for the great green growing times that some call ordinary, where we rest from the excitement of Christmas and Easter and grow through the simple, sacred routines of ordinary life. And of course Purple, for Lent. Wait. No, we don't have purple for Lent at all at St. Columba's, do we? Instead we have something that tradition calls the Lenten Array - a combination of unbleached linin, oxblood red, and black. This is often confusing for folks who come to us from other Episcopal churches or liturgical traditions, where purple is overwhelmingly the color used during Lent. So what's up with this? Why do we use Lenten Array? 

Well to start, I want you to know something important. Here it is: the colors are not required. I know! It's hard to believe but of all the things our prayer book and tradition require without much room to budge, colors are not one of them. We could hang the place with rainbows and tie dye and it wouldn't be against the rules at all. (No. This will not ever happen.) This is likely because early Christians were not always a wealthy bunch - and putting together an entire collection of expensive dyed hangings and vestments wasn't realistic for the average congregation in, say, the Middle Ages. In the early days of this practice everything was white every Sunday, and the first innovations were to simply add black hangings and vestments for the somber seasons of Advent and Lent. Fun fact! Black dye was expensive and depending on what was used, usually faded to either a dark blue or a dark purple. This is likely why blue and purple remain dominant choices for Advent, and purple for Lent. 

In 11th century Salisbury, England, a different tradition for Lent emerged called Sarem Use. It was a unique liturgy as well, but what lasted in our tradition was the practice of covering all the images in a church with unbleached linen during Lent, which was less expensive than dyed cloth, and vestments were developed to match. The vestments we use at St. Columbas are a very beautiful version of these unbleached linen, oxblood red, and black that connect us to the Sarem Use lineage. You'll most often find them in Anglo-Catholic churches, but we've never been shy about being different here at St. C's, and this is one way we bring a unique and less used part of Anglican tradition into our way of worshipping together.

What I have come to love about these vestments is that they offer us a different visual experience than the one we get with our purple vestments during Lent. There is texture, and meaning here - we simplify our lives for the desert wanderings of Lent, we remember that there is blood and darkness ahead. And, when Easter arrives the contrast is marked - from the rough textures and deep colors of our Lenten vestments to the beautiful white and blue of our Easter hangings. 

You can find out a lot more about Sarem use and the vestments associated with them if you care to google a bit. But I encourage you to come close to the hangings and vestments we use - Meghan and I won't mind! Notice the colors and texture - touch them. Spend some time with the beautiful paintings hung behind the altar, by our artist in residence Maeve Wyatt, which were created with this color story in mind. Enjoy the change in pace and visual experience. And trust that Easter is coming.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa