In the Church of England the period leading up to Advent, the fag-end of the interminable Trinities, is second only to Lent in popularity – if you are on the flower rota.
Chrysanthemums are in bloom and last specially well on the altar of a chilly church, anything up to a month and then only a few will need replacing. It is a peculiarity of the C of E that flowers are put on the altar, except in Lent. Catholic churches allow flowers to be placed in front of or around the altar but not actually on it. Does the C of E hark back to primitive pagan rites or are flowers a symbol of the congregation’s devotion to Christ and the Church?
I don’t think it is either. When a guest comes to stay it is usual in many houses to put flowers in the visitor’s bedroom. Indeed when I came home from boarding school for the holidays my grandmother always put flowers from the garden in my room. I always notice and appreciate this when it happens now in friends’ houses. In a church I think it is the same. It is an acknowledgement that at each service the congregation are being welcomed and flowers are a symbol of preparations that have been made for the service. Choir practice, brass cleaning, gardening and weeding and sermon writing go under the radar but the flowers get noticed and, I bet, there are more plaudits for the flowers than the sermons.
A few years ago a High Court judge told me that, as a teenager, he once accompanied his father to Evensong. The congregation was small, just his father and him. As the vicar mounted the steps to the pulpit his father announced “don’t waste one of your good ones on me” and after a swift blessing the three of them adjourned to the pub. It encouraged him to go again – to Church, pub and ultimately the Bar.