Lighting the Candles

A bishop once told me that in his very low church home parish during his growing up years, Altar candles were forbidden as pure Romanism. In fact, that was once part of the ornamental rubric of the Church of England. Customs evolve though and are widely diverse, especially in Anglicanism with our absence of a unifying central authority such as the Vatican. These days, however, whatever is current Roman Use spills over into all that we do, including Altar customs.

Current custom with the freestanding Altar that came with twentieth century liturgical reform after Vatican Two, is to have two Eucharistic lights, candles on the Altar for the celebration of Holy Communion. When the Eucharist is not to be celebrated, the Communion candles are not there. With the freestanding Altar, the custom of having office lights on the Altar is no longer practical, because they would be in the way of the liturgical action: the office lights, usually three, or five, or seven on each side of the cross, are placed on the retable behind the Altar along with the cross and any flowers. Called “office lights” because of the custom of lighting them for the Offices (Morning Prayer, etcetera), those ceremonial candles may or may not be used, depending on local preference. If they are used, there is a custom for lighting them, a standard that once (and still may be) in every acolyte manual.

There were two sayings that made the standard easy to remember:

“The Gospel never stands alone.” There was a Gospel side of the Altar (from which the Gospel was read) and an Epistle side. That custom has disappeared, but the “Gospel Side” is still easy to remember because that’s where the Gospel Book is placed on the Altar -- on the left side as one faces the Altar. The saying, “The Gospel never stands alone” clued the clueless acolyte that the candles on the Gospel side are to be lighted after the candles on the Epistle side. Light the candles on the right side first. When extinguishing them later, put out the candles on the Gospel, left side, first. 

“The Light shines out from the cross.” This saying told the acolyte that when lighting the office candles, the candle nearest the cross is lighted first, then out from there. A bit of theology makes for disciplined routine. The candles were later extinguished in the opposite sequence, from the outside in toward the cross, remembering that “the Light flows back in to the cross.” Practice these days varies from parish to parish, person to person, acolyte to acolyte, acolyte master to acolyte master; but “the Light shines out from the cross” remains the standard. Light the candle nearest the cross first, then out from there.

In following the standard, a theological statement is made to the observing congregation before worship even begins, and later as it closes. A seminary professor in my class long ago once told us, "in Anglicanism, blasphemy is defined in terms of sloppy liturgy."

The old ways were best.

Sometimes.

TW+

Codger Emeritus