Friday 11 February 2011

Worcester Cathedral altar and ecclesiastical colours



I’ve been asked about the altar cloth at Worcester. There’s virtually nothing about it on the web. The adjacent notice gives a brief description:


Finding a reference to the ecclesiastical colours was tricky till I found an old news item about the vicar of South Brent and Rattray who died his hair to match the colours as a fundraising stunt a few years ago. The colours are:
  • Epiphany: green, for life
  • Easter: gold and white, for celebration
  • Pentecost: red, fire of the Holy Spirit
  • Trinity: green, for lushness
  • Advent/Lent, purple for power, coming of the King
The Love Life Live Lent website gives a slightly different interpretation of the colour of Lent: The colour for Lent is purple, which means both sorrow because we do wrong, and royalty. Another Lenten fact from LLLL: Some churches decorate their church with grey banners and cloths for the whole season of Lent as a reminder of the grey ashes of Ash Wednesday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whatever the symbolism, the altar cloth is ugly, plain and simple. I have no problem with some modern vestments, altar frontals and the like, but many modern ones do nothing for the hallowed sacred spaces that they end up in. Why would an embroidered or otherwise Medieval looking cloth in this magnificent church not have been the first choice? Why the trendy stuff that screams "We are modern and with it!" more than it does "Glory to God in the highest!"? I went to Mass once and coudn't take my eyes off the priest, who wore a garish chasuble striped with every color in the rainbow. Sorry folks, but it "isn't about" the priest or the committee who chose these God-awful things, no pun intended.

Anonymous said...

Since when was 1969 modern and with it!?!? I really don’t see why a splash of colour would detract from your prayers any more than the Victorian scene behind, or any other aspect of this magnificent building for that matter.
Who's to say that the Victorians have the monopoly on 'hallowed sacred space' adornments?
Not sure as this is to my tastes but the Cathedral is more that big enough to find another space to pray if this is so offensive.

Pray ~ Without Ceasing said...

I love it!