The Sundays after Epiphany are rather a tertium quid. Are they "ordinary time" and thus green? Or are they echoes of Epiphany and thus white? The truth is that they are a bit of each - and so various schemes are used at this time of year from parish to parish. LSB calls for green for the Sundays after Epiphany and for Pre-Lent. If memory serves, Reed (or maybe it is Lang?) recommends white all through the season of Epiphany and then green for Pre-Lent. The older tradition is green for the Sundays after Epiphany and violet for Pre-Lent.
So what's the use in your parish - and has it recently changed from some other use?
+HRC
We use Green and Green, although Green and Violet makes a lot of sense. Violet is reserved here until Lent proper.
ReplyDeleteI was reading this morning about Gold and White being the colors for Epiphany-tide. Is Gold and option that is not white though and not really an other color?
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the First Sunday after Epiphany being the Baptism of Our Lord or not debate. With that, the color scheme for Sundays after Epiphany could include white (B.O.L.), green (Ordinary Sundays), and violet (pre-Lent).
ReplyDeleteSince my parish is a three-year parish [horror of horrors!], we have white for the First Sunday after Epiphany (B.O.L.), then green for all other Sundays after Epiphany until Transfiguration Sunday (white).
Reed in the Lutheran Liturgy does indeed have white for Epiphany season and green for Pre-Lent.
ReplyDeleteAlso, would it be justifiable to say, in regard to colors of vestments as well as other customs, that the "local custom" excuse was never supposed to justify accidental practices or haphazard customs whose origin could theoretically be traced and is no older than, say, 200 years? Surely few churches in the US can claim "local custom" as a defense for any variant practice, unless perhaps it was brought over from the fatherland and its origin lies in the murky recesses of the middle ages.
ReplyDeleteWe do the red and speak the black, and that yields green and green in this instance.
ReplyDeleteWe do the same, yielding white and violet.
ReplyDeleteWe do white and violet, partly because there is precedent, and mostly because of what the colors mean.
ReplyDeleteAnd incidentally, we observe the Baptism of our Lord on the octave of Epiphany, thus preserving the Boy Jesus in the temple for Epiphany I.
We observe Epiphany on the day off, but move the Baptism to the very next Sunday. We'll pick up the Epiphany I propers at next week's midweek Divine Service.
ReplyDeleteIn the past we have been green and violet - though I must say I like the idea of white for all of Epiphany: and I know the Altar Guild would like it too!
Someone asked about Gold - the old rubrics call for gold as an option to replace any color except violet - and they also call for the option of using the congregation's most beautiful set, no matter the color, for high feasts.
+HRC
"day of" not "day off" - to think, a pastor working on his day off! Ha!
ReplyDelete+HRC
We keep white through the Baptism of Our Lord (celebrated on the Octave of Epiphany; the First Sunday of the Epiphany is, well, the First Sunday of Epiphany here, which means the Boy Jesus in the Temple), then switch to Green. Gesimatide is Violet here at Immanuel, Alexandria.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a lot of local options in our part of the Lord's Christian earth.
ReplyDeleteCommon practice here is black and gold through the playoffs; purple, green, and gold between Epiphany and Mardi Gras; black on Ash Wednesday, and purple during Lent.
There is also the LSU Rite that adopts the post-epiphany scheme sans vert (without the green) while the Tulane Rite maintains the green year-round.
I've never heard of green for pre-Lent. I've only ever heard of violet (although our violet is more of a Roman purple). The DDSB has exactly what we do.
ReplyDeleteFr. Diers,
ReplyDeleteWell, of course you can trust the DDSB :)
+HRC
We do what the CTS calendar tells us to do.
ReplyDeleteMy colleague, Charles McClean, wanted to post the following back when this discussion was going on but had a hard time doing it. Here are his thoughts:
ReplyDeleteI tried to respond at the website where colors are being discussed but became baffled with various directions about choosing Google or AIM or Type Pad - all of this is Chinese to me. This is what I wanted to post:
Color use varied widely both in the pre-Reformation Church and in Lutheranism after the Reformation. The inventories of vestments mentioned in Fr. Piepkorn's "The Survival of the Historic Vestments" (Second Edition) prove that this was certainly the case in the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Cf. pp. 41f, 70, 75, 90, 123, 129-131. Similar evidence is available in P. Severinsen's "The Proper Communion Vestments." For example, an 1841 regulation of the Church of Denmark required the constant use of red chasubles with a gold cross.
The 1917 "Common Service Book and Hymnal" directed the use of white throughout Epiphanytide and green for the "Gesimas." This usage was perpetuated in the 1958 "Service Book and Hymnal." The 1955 General Rubrics of The Lutheran Liturgy, the altar book for The Lutheran Hymnal, direct the use of white only for the Epiphany and its Octave; the rest of Epiphanytide (except Transfiguration) is to be kept in green. Violet is to be used for the "Gesimas." At the same time these General Rubrics permit as an alternative use white throughout Epiphanytide and green for the "Gesimas."
I believe that one should in general follow the rubrics of the service book in use. Nevertheless, the use of green for the "Gesimas" does seem very strange since the propers for the "Gesimas" clearly have a penitential character. It's interesting to note that, although Fr. Piepkorn generally advocated obedience to the rubrics,
he was not averse to variations in color use: e.g. the not uncommon medieval use of unbleached linen for the first four weeks of Lent and a dark red (with black orphreys) for Passiontide. My personal opinion is that there is nothing wrong with choosing to use violet for the "Gesimas." It is scarcely an arbitrary choice, it has good precedent, and it is of a piece with the texts of the liturgy for that short season.
Now how happy we'd all be if the question of color use were our only problem!