A church without flowers

During Advent, which starts this Sunday on the 29th November, there are no flowers in church. The liturgical colour will change from green to purple - for preparation - and the church will be kept bare, at least until we decorate for our Carol Service Sunday on the 20th December.

The only 'decoration' is our Advent wreath. It tends to be a fancy candelabra with five candles - four red for Advent Sundays (some churches use three purple candles and a pink in the third week. You can find out more about the meanings of the candles here) and one white for Christmas Day; nothing like the old Blue Peter tinsel-covered coat hanger that was a staple of my childhood.

It feels quite stark without flowers - even now, after perhaps forty Christmases at the same church, I get a small shock when I walk into church and there are no flowers. But you do get used to it...it just about begins to feel 'normal', when suddenly, on the last Sunday before Christmas Eve, everything changes and the flower team work their magic to fill the church with colour and candles in celebration of the great Christmas Festival.

But for now, all is quiet and bare... Drop by again on the 21st December!