The Advent Wreath Candle Controversy

15/12/2006

I was just in conversation with my American correspondent in the Diocese of Argyll about Liturgical Matters. It transpires that there is schism between us. It is my belief that the candles on an Advent Wreath should be red, with the possible addition of a white one in the middle at Midnight Mass. It is her belief that candles should be either all purple or three purple ones and a pink one.

My contention is that this purple and pink business is something which came to us from our colonial brethren not that many decades ago and that it is, like George Bush, something of which they should repent. My correspondent replied with the assertion that red candles on an Advent Wreath could never be, because “…red candles are common”.

This seems to confirm my view that although she may not be personally responsible for changing our candles from red to purple/pink, her co-countrypersons were. Anyone beg to differ?

If we could resolve differences such as this, we might be able to move to some kind of companion link with the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles one day, which would be quite exciting. We could go there for visits and exchanges, and maybe even share communion.

Comments

99 responses to “The Advent Wreath Candle Controversy”

Val

03/12/2009

Thank you for this illuminating and uplifting discussion which has made me chuckle and reaffirmed why I loved being an ‘Episcopalian’

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Kennedy

14/12/2009

How about this:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/beautifully_minimal_led_advent_wrea_1.html

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John Overton

11/07/2012

It never ceases to “get to me” after my nearly 30 years in Scandinavia that “church bad taste” should so mar the use of Advent candles in churches of the Anglican Communion (I was born British and was an organist in Sweden for over 2 decades.)
Colour clash seems always to be a problem in churches where, for example, liturgy dictates and choir preferences have not found ways to work together (scarlet reds and mauve pinks, for example…) Unfortunately humans seem unable to get away with the gaudy mix of colours that nature shows in spring, though during Advent in churches this is when they try hardest to do so – the 4 weeks before Christmas with the advent into the church of the seasonal wreath are the worst!!
May I respectfully suggest that the only proper colours for Advent candles is white – (with a fifth white for Christmas, of course) – in sisterhood with the Anglican’s Lutheran communion of the North and in the upholding of exquisite taste! Gently “cellaring” the majority of current wreath-holders and ordering special wrought-iron candlesticks with style (good for local business) would add to the sense of excellence!
Ah! I have long yearned for the opportunity to write this. Thank you
John Overton (currently in Italy)

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Fr David Lloyd

03/07/2013

I like the significance of purple for penitence, pink to rejoice (gaudete) and to signify the lesser light of SJB and white of course for Christ.

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Stuart

03/12/2013

We have dark pink (ie not really red candles on our advnet wreath at home – becasue they match the wallpaper.

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1. Agatha
  
  06/12/2013
  
  Love it! Bet you sometimes wear shoes that aren’t black as well.
  
  Reply
Adelaide Kent

11/10/2014

In the churches I have attended ( Northeastern US) the custom of using blue vestments in Advent has been echoed by using three blue candles and one pink for 3 Advent. I am told that blue vestments are a Celtic practice which has come into vogue as Advent has been dissociated from Lent.

I will not comment on the subject of rose vestments except to say that if a church actually has a set, it is up to the rector.

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1. Kelvin
  
  11/10/2014
  
  Doing it the “celtic” way is a pretty good excuse for anything.
  
  Reply
Lorna Shields

30/11/2014

Right, I’ve got to stick my oar in on this one.
Shouldn’t they be yellow, historically? Before candle dyes were invented they’d be beeswax, or tallow if the good ones had run out. Red looks a lot mire striking & pink is a perfect complimentary to the green in the wreath (& matching it with the chusible is spot on) purple does look lively too. Maybe in the spirit of unification you could have one of each colour on the wreath every alternate year? Xxx

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Pamela Lucas

30/11/2014

All I can say. Is give thanks you are not in Canada where they are all blue, the church is blue, the vestments are blue, decorations are blue…. take me home country roads….

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1. Kelvin
  
  30/11/2014
  
  I like blue for Advent.
  
  Reply
  1. AustralianSusan
    
    16/03/2015
    
    I thought the pink candle was because we are hoping for a girl this year?
    
    Reply
Meg Rosenfeld

03/12/2016

The Advent wreath arrived in our parish in Santa Clara County (then, part of the Episcopal Diocese of California) in the mid-sixties, and soon my parents made one for our dining room table at home. Do you folks in Scotland have home wreaths? Lighting the candles and saying the prayers for the four Sundays is a nice family dinner-time ritual, one which my current family and I, now including a granddaughter, still practice. Back in the 1960’s, we had all-purple candles, because Advent was still called a “penitential season.” Later, the pink candle was added, a spin-off, I suspect, of the tradition of referring to Mary as a rose. No-one seems very clear on which Sunday (third, or fourth?) this should be. Our home wreath, purchased from a Lutheran website 8-), has a space for a central candle, and we always add a white one in that spot on Christmas Eve. Interestingly, the Advent wreath arrived in Santa Clara County just about the time that we began allowing German immigrants, one of who taught in my high school and introduced the class to the “Advenzkranz.” (Back then, you could put a religious symbol in a public school classroom; this is no longer possible.)

All Saints Parish, San Francisco, has only white candles in its wreath, and uses blue vestments. I miss the purple.

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Pat Whittaker

12/12/2017

Thank you, thank you, and again I say THANK YOU I am aching with laughter! We are a United Reformed Church way down in Cornwall. Our Congregationalist traditions hold that it was Popish to even have one candle. I believe the Presbyterians had similar thoughts, but one member from Greenwich spoke of the church making its own candles in the cellars, and when challenged, informed us it was because there was neither gas nor electricity so candles were used during evening worship! WE are having 4 red and one white. Down here its mainly the Roman Catholics who have purple pink and white. Might I respectfully suggest that tartan might be an option, though I do like the idea of rainbows.
Merry Christmas
Pat

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1. Meg Rosenfeld
  
  12/12/2017
  
  I love the idea of tartan candles, perhaps due to our American descent from the Scottish Episcopal church. No idea what other people do, but our parish church’s Advent wreath has four white candles, and ours at home has three purple, one pink, and a white one for the middle of the wreath (this is a metal wreath, mail-ordered decades ago from a Lutheran source, with the words “A light shines in the night” running around the circle.)
  
  My never-quite-answered question is this: which Sunday is the pink one, the third or the fourth? I know it has something to do with Mary, but now that we’re on a three-year lectionary, the lessons and collects change every year, a practice which annoys me personally although all the younger folks–post 1979–think it’s fine.
  
  Reply
  1. Kelvin
    
    12/12/2017
    
    There is no ancient tradition. It is has all been made up recently by people selling candles.
    
    Reply
    1. Meg Rosenfeld
      
      12/12/2017
      
      Ah. Well, I suppose that as greedy, commercial customs go, it’s a relatively harmless and very nice one. We especially like repeating the collect for Advent I every evening, alone the first week, then after the (1928 Book of Common Prayer) ones appointed to the other three weeks. I like the phrase “. . . . put upon us the armour of light” (this is the cue to strike the match) and later “. . . we may rise to the life immortal.” Those who can do so, usually rise onto tiptoe at this–as it were–pointe.
      
      Reply

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