“Hey, mom, look that pastors wearing PINK”
“You would never catch me dead in that colour”
And
“I’ve never seen that before”
These are just some of the things one may hear if they decided to introduce rose vestments and or paraments into their parish. But – it’s worth the remarks. Let me tell you why.
Every year, TWICE the western chruch steps out of the normal set of the 4 basic liturgical colours and dips into its broader colour palate palate to pull out pink (rose technically) in order to celebrate JOY. Those days are Gaudete and Laetare Sundays. That is, 3rd Sunday in Advent and 4th Sunday in Lent.
And why? Why do we go through the effort of changing parametents and vestments, let alone spending all of that money just for two single days of the entire year? That, to many people, even many liturgical people, sounds like a waste of time, a waste of effort, and a waste of money. But is it? After all what is the nature of liturgical vestments, and of liturgical praxis? The candles, the robes, the cincture, the incense, the bells, the gestures and words, even the architecture of our buildings, who’s to say any part of that, and indeed even every part of that is unnecessary? And the same also goes for black and blue (More on this later when I write to you about liturgical minimalism and liturgical maximalism).
This is one of the essential attributes of the nature of liturgically oriented or “high church” forms of Christianity over those which might be called “low church.” It is the recognition that everything we do, wear, say, how we do it, and where we do it, communicate something and express something. In the Low church setting, this notion is either explicitly or implicitly rejected instead of a mainly cognitive or internal (inward) expression. For such reason, even when “clerical vestures” and the liturgical calendar are not forbidden by churches (I.e. suit and tie pastors), they often dress plainly and in a way that doesn’t “express” the change of the seasons or doesn’t explicitly “express” the liturgical theology of the church in an intentional way. Perhaps they wear a suit and clerical collar to express that they are in fact clergy, perhaps they go further than this and wear a black Geneva gown (talor robe), which is a matter in and of itself, but the idea of an expression of the text and its meaning and even the unchanging faith of the church in clerical venture and chruch paraments is one that is if not alien, then at least unused.
And even in liturgical churches, especially in our Lutheran context, we have a rampant problem of churches that do a little bit but take offense to other congregations that do a lot. Not only is this liturgically true with congregations cherry picking parts of the liturgy to either do or to ignore, but who also tend to push against newer holidays (I.e. Christ the King), against Eucharistic prayers, against introits, against psalm chanting, against chasubles, and against the maximal liturgical colours (I.e. blue, Rose, and black). While some of them indeed do do this on the ground of being historical and unchanging (something which can be both factually and philiosophically disputed), the majority do it out of laziness or a spiritual fetish for “simplicity”
Of course, the fact of the matter is that none of this is “necessary” at all. And if you balk at changing the paraments for Gaudete, Laetare, Ash Wedneaday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, etc, then you might just as well give up changing them altogether.
The question must be begged, at what point does parament changes become too much? At which point is a feast to small, or a colour to rare for us to change it or to have it? Are we cutting out Gaudete and Laetare because they’re insignificant to us or becuase the colour only comes up twice? What of black? Ash Wednesday and Holy week are certainly not insignificant, but only come up thrice, and most churches omit the service for holy Saturday (something but be said on that as well). Why buy blue vestments/paraments for advent instead of the traditional purple? Why not simplify? Why not just use 4? Why use 4? Why not just use 1? Why use 1? Why not just use none? See if we let go of the Expressive nature of everything and the intentional decision making of every part of our liturgical praxis, then the whole liturgical praxis becomes arbitrary. And if arbitrary, then meaningless. And if meaningless… then useless. If you balk at adding colours because it’s too many then you probably wouldn’t agree with having any at all if you thought about it long enough. If you balk at changing the paraments for Gaudete and Laetare, then you probably won’t agree with changing them for ascension Day or trinity Sunday or Pentecost either if you really thought about it objectively.
At root level, our question is this. Do the colours we use express something? Does changing the paraments express something?
Yes!
During Advent and Lent, two traditionally penitential seasons, (where purple/violet is used) we have Gaudete and Laetare, where the flavor of penitence and repentance is broken by a glimmer and glimpse of the hope of Gospel that bursts forth right after. In Advent, it’s the hope of the incarnation that we wait for. In Lent, it’s the Easter joy. Gaudete means joy, Laetere means rejoice. Theses penultimate Sundays communicate this change of tone in their texts. But to purposely refuse (this is of course different than not being able to afford it, or not having heard of it, etc) to bring our sanctuaries and pastors into aesthetic congruity therewith is to reject the communicative power of aesthetics altogether. It is to say either that it communciates nothing or that it communicates it so weakly and insignificantly that it doesn’t matter. And that leads inevitably to empty sanctuaries and secularly dressed pastors. Which, while not a sin, is grossly unbiblical.
So why the rare colours? Why the effort? Why the money?
In short, there are two answers
Firstly, becuase everything we do, including the vestments and paraments and special days and calendars serve to express outwardly our theology. And indeed, our theology is one that demands to be expressed outwardly
And secondly, because if this is too much, then that which you do is only arbitrarily not too much. Or, in otherwords, consistency demands it.
And so in conclusion, this is why we wear pink. This is why we wear blue. This is why we wear black and silver and gold. It’s because in doing so we communicate and express outwardly that which believe, teach, and confess. In doing so the faith, and the texts, and the movements and even the breath of the church is communicated outwardly and celebrated, and practice in the flesh. And let me tell you, if our faith is anything, it is one that is done, had, and manifested in flesh.
As for other colours, in case you’re interested
Blue – traditionally used along with white for Marian feasts (which is not a Roman thing, she is in our Lutheran Sanctoral cycle as well), but more recently used for Advent to convey a different tone and direction of Advent, from being a penitential season of repentance (mirroring Lent), into being a season of future hope. This fits perfectly into the Advent texts, which focus not omly on the coming of the Messiah, but the end of time and the new creation of all things, which flows perfectly out of the end of the Church year, which ends with the second coming and the final judgement. While these texts can obviously be preached penitentially, these texts almost scream to be preached as gospel hope to all the baptized found in Christ. Therefore, new as it is, this innovation is almost universal in both the Lutheran and Anglican tradition, and praise be to God that it is! Of course, this does not lessen the need for Gaudete Sunday, uthough instead of being a break from penitence and repentance, it becomes a break from the future hope, and a glimpse at what is about to come breaking in into the now. I.e., Gaudete Sundah is proleptic Eschatology (already but not yet) as a day.
Black – traditionally used for Funerals (though now more often replaced with White or purple, – a long conversation is tk had about this), as well as for “all souls” (A conversation is to be had here also), black is most commonly known and used now for Ash Wednesday, for Good Friday, and for Holy Saturday. Just as blue, simplistic alternative is purple/violet so also black in these latter days has been replaced not only by white for funerals, but also by purple/violet and even red/scarlet for the days of Holy Week. But what’s lost here is the evocative and emotive power of black as a liturgical colour. This is especially powerful on the days of Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday days that remark, respectively our death, and Christ’s rest in death for us and the hopelessness and silence of those messages. Though I will grant, red/scarlet for good Friday, is actually quite fitting, for obvious reasons. Though I still use black. Perhaps the most important use of black however is for funerals. Whereby, instead of white, those in mourning are not forced to cease their mourning and grasp hope and joy but are allowed to actually wear, and mourn, and suffer under that loss. Which is even from a secular and purely psychological perspective necessary for their processing of their loss.
Silver & Gold – these two are the most easy to miss “special colours” becuase they rarely show up by themselves (though sometimes they do). Both of these function in place of plain white on the bigger Christ-feasts, and serve to distinguish for example, Christmas and Easter from a saints feast.
