What are the paraments (Sp?) for? I know they decorate the alter and chancel and change color with the different events in the church. Do they have any other purpose? Any significant meaning?
What are the paraments (Sp?) for? I know they decorate the alter and chancel and change color with the different events in the church. Do they have any other purpose? Any significant meaning?
What are the paraments (Sp?) for? I know they decorate the alter and chancel and change color with the different events in the church. Do they have any other purpose? Any significant meaning?
If I may...
The paraments used in the church serve basically the same function as the vestments worn by the clergy. The vestments are meant to "cover up" the man so that the focus is not on the individual minister but is directed toward Christ. Altar, lecturn, and pulpit paraments serve a similar purpose in that they, in a sense, "cover up" the worldly aspect of the furniture and indicate that these things are set aside for God's holy use, as places where His means of grace of word and sacrament are offered.
I'm curious. How did those "banners" and "standards" make it to the North American Lutheran churches, do you know? We don't have them over here and never have. I'm thinking about what I learned about the "Star Spangled Spanner" and the reasons why the American Lutheran churches began to adopt the US national flag next to the altar (to show "patriotism", for instance, vs. a German-speaking Lutheran churches at a time when Germans were the "enemy" of the US), and I wonder if there's somewhat similar reasons.
I'm not sure what you mean by "banners" and "standards". Paraments are the colored cloths that cover the chancel furniture.
As for the American flag in the church, that has its roots during WWI (I believe) when many of the churches here were still very ethnically based. There were German churches, Swedish churches, Slovak churches, Irish, Italian, Polish, etc. The flag in the church was a way to show that the members of the church were loyal to the country. As for today, the national flag has no business in the chancel. many churches still display the American flag in the nave (including this one) mainly out of tradition. I don't allow the flag in the chancel.
On that note it's interesting that my Aunt and Uncle's LCMS church had another LCMS church that is in the same town same town split from it because of a disagreement about if they where gonna do worship in German or English.
Of course by now they both do their services in English.
In the town where my first Call was, there were two ELCA churches, a block apart, that had split decades ago for the very same reason. There was some talk of merging the two in recent years due to low attendance and financial issues. I don't think they ever did, though.