Does This Go With This?

At Episcopal churches, along with our liturgically inclined brethren and sistren in the Roman Catholic church and most mainline denominations, we're a little nutty about colors. Purple or dark violet is for the season of Advent. You might think red for Christmas, but it's white, for the Incarnation and in anticipation of Resurrection at Easter.

Red is for poinsettias, and they go around the altar at Christmastime, not Advent. But in our church's sacristy, the busy staging area where the St. John's Altar Guild does its faithful work, the colors and personalities run together -- Advent purple, Christmas red, and even the magi, who don't get here until Epiphany.