How many candles…?

30 November 2023

Advent is upon us, which seems a good time for me to attempt a return to regular blogging about the things that make for an “attractive” church.

As I have commented in previous posts, one of the things most likely to attract and keep new members in a worshipping community is quality liturgy. This does not necessarily mean formal or “correct” liturgy (though there is certainly a big place for both), but it does mean doing what we do in a considered and consistent way. Thus my blog entries for the next little while will concern matters liturgical.

Do you know the old joke:

Q. What is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?

A. You can negotiate with a terrorist.

I fully expect others will hold views contrary to mine in what follows and in future posts. My plea for the comments section and on Facebook is: please keep it nice. ;-)

So off we go….

How many candles?

Through every Advent of my ordained life I have led services in parishes that enjoy the “pretty custom” of having an Advent Wreath. The symbolism and ritual applied to the lighting of said wreath are legion. Perhaps the best options are to be found in the Advent resources in Common Worship (CofE). I will spare readers a recital of the fact that the Advent wreath is a comparatively recent idea, imported into Anglicanism from German Lutheranism, much like the even more ubiquitous Christmas Tree. Instead, if you too follow the custom, I have a simple question: how many candles ought there to be in your Advent Wreath?

There are basically two possible answers to this question – four or five.

One of these answers is wrong. There. I said it.

The function of the Advent Wreath is to ritualise our time of preparation for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas. Each candle, whatever colour they are and whatever they are said to represent, says something about this time of preparation. The correct answer is thus four – one for each of the Sundays of Advent. The practice of adding a fifth (usually white, sometimes decorated) “Christ” candle to be lit at Christmas services seems to be an even more recent American idea which misunderstands that we are no longer in Advent once we begin the Christmas celebrations. We are no longer waiting – we are there!

For me the biggest problem with the addition of the fifth “Christ” candle is that the symbolism becomes easily confused with the Pascal Candle – a symbol of resurrection lit as part of the Great Vigil of Easter. To be clear, Christmas is not Easter, Advent is not Lent, and those glorious days before Christmas when the “O antiphons” decorate evensong are not Holy Week.

I have – sometimes – caved in on the addition of a white candle. However it does not sit on the wreath during Advent, and when it appears at Christmas it has no purple or pink candles surrounding it. In such cases I have placed it above the crib scene – representing the star, not Jesus.  At least then it makes some sense as to why it is there.

So, clergy friends and others who hold sway on these things, it’s probably too late for 2023 (‘though maybe not….) but at least for 2024 perhaps you might consider keeping the wreath just for Advent, and let Christmas be Christmas.