Why do Clergy wear vestments in different colours?

Part of a sermon series during Lent where the clergy will be answering questions from the congregation about the church’s worship

Fr Mike’s helpful volunteers modelling the different colours of vestments that we use in the church.

During the season of Lent, the clergy at Holy Trinity Church are attempting to answer question from the congregation. People have been invited to submit questions about Church order, services, traditions, etc. Today’s question is about clothes and colours.

Why do clergy wear vestments, and what’s the point of using different colours?

Vestments aren’t really anything special. What clergy wear today is more or less what the average person was wearing in first century Palestine. In fact, this is what Jesus would have worn, except that today the vestments include a lot of decoration. In the time of Jesus, the basic dress was a simple tunic. Don’t forget Israel is a hot and dust country, so a tunic made of light materials deflects the sun and keeps people cool. It’s what lots of people in hot countries wear today – you may have seen them when you’ve been on holiday.

In Church the basic under garment for a priest, is a white robe. They’re called simply Albs – from the latin Albus, meaning white. Well, that makes sense! But you know, even in hot countries, it can get cold, especially in the evenings. Israel is no different. It can get cold – very cold. I remember being in the Holy Land one March, when it snowed – quite a lot.

So what did the first century people wear in the evenings? It’s a chasuble, which is a bit like a poncho. It’s a circle of material with a head hole and originally it would have been made from animal skins. A wealthy person would use a complete skin whilst others would have a number of smaller animal skins joined together.

Now there’s loads of other bits and pieces that clergy used to wear or may even wear today, but at its simplest, and at Holy Trinity, it’s a white alb underneath with a chasuble over the top.

There’s something else, though, the stole. These started life as a towel and were worn by servants to wipe the feet of visitors to a house. Where we might shake hands, in Israel guests have their dirty and dusty feet washed as a sign of welcome. A servant in Biblical times wasn’t a job for the lowest of the llow – a servant had great responsibility and was held in high esteem. He would have worn this towel with pride. In Church the stole is worn as a sign of humility – the dress of a servant. A Bishop and a Priest wears the stole hanging straight down from the neck whilst a Deacon wears it over their right shoulder and looks a bit like “Miss Gosport”. Like the servant, a stole is worn with pride indicating that the ordained person has been chosen and called by God.

Now to colours. Just like stained glass windows, pictures in old Bibles and wall paintings, the colours of vestments are for teaching. In an age when most people couldn’t read this was how people learned the stories of Jesus or the seasons of the Church.

The basic colour is green – the colour of nature. We use green for Ordinary Time, which is most of the summer months.

Red, on the other hand, isn’t used very often as it’s the colour of blood for saints and martyrs and something else too – the colour of the flames when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That’s why in many Churches people wear red on the feast of Pentecost – 50 days after Easter.

On major feast days, the colour is white. White wasn’t an easy colour to get 2,000 years ago - it was expensive and kept for best. We still do that. Bridal dresses, smart shirts and tablecloths are examples of how we still use white for best. In Church white is used for Christmas and Easter among other times.

And that brings us to Purple – the colour of Lent and also Advent. It’s the colour of penance – saying sorry. Wearing purple was a sign of penance and still is.

Next time you look inside a Church, be sure to look out for the different colours.