Christ Church Brunswick

The Lenten Array

The late Reverend Alfred Bird, sometime Associate Priest at Christ Church, comments on the change in appearance inside Christ Church during Lent.

Christ Church looks very different now that Lent has begun, and I think that we would all agree that the Lenten Array is impressive. It is austere, as is fitting for Lent; it is simple and clean-looking, and because of its simplicity it has a beauty all its own. Lent is a time for austerity, and the Lenten Array is a constant reminder that we are foregoing some of the extras and the pleasures of life in order to concentrate better on the essentials.

What we have done is to remove or cover up the usual decorative features of the church. The dominant colour is now an off-white, and the material is plain and inexpensive. The colourful vestments and frontals have been replaced by plain ones. But there is a positive element, so that we are not merely draping the church with dust-sheets. Red is used in conjunction with the off-white, and the red motifs are symbols of what lies at the heart of our Lenten devotions – the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross. When we come to Passion Sunday this aspect is suddenly heightened, for then we introduce black and red in the frontals and vestments for the last fortnight of Lent; but now, if we look closely, we see the crown of thorns, the nails, (real, large iron nails in the centre of the frontal on the High Altar), the spear, the ladder, and, on the curtain covering the aumbry, large teardrops, red as blood. Small appliqué red crosses abound.

What we are doing in Christ Church is to follow a very ancient tradition of the Anglican Church. The Lenten Array has a long history, going back to medieval times. It was the general practice when the first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549, and it is in use in many parish churches today and is becoming more general. We are recognising more fully today the value of what our old Puritan friend John Bunyan called the “eye-gate”. Our medieval forefathers depended very much for their instruction in the faith on what they saw in church: the stained-glass windows showing scenes of the Passion and the Resurrection, and pictures of biblical scenes and the lives of the saints, and the wall paintings depicting, often very luridly, the Last Judgment and heaven and hell. It is a far cry from that to our modern television, but strangely enough we, too, are taking in more and more through the “eye-gate”. We are conditioned to visual teaching. So, the setting of our worship is important, a supplementary channel to the dominant “ear-gate”. We pray that during Lent we may be open to all that can help us to understand and practise our faith more effectively.