Candles And Lights In Worship

Lights serve both a utilitarian and symbolic function in worship. This article traces the history of candles, lamps, and other lights in worship and suggests ways that the symbolic function of these lights can be maintained. The first recorded use of lights in Christian worship occurs in the New Testament (Acts 20:8). There the use was obviously utilitarian, since the service was being held at night. By the third century at the latest, however, the bringing in or kindling of the evening lamp(s), whether at home or at a meeting of the church, was understood as a symbol of Christ,"the light (that) shines in the darkness" (John 1:5), and was frequently accompanied by a prayer of thanksgiving and/or a hymn. The Order of Worship for the Evening in the prayer book is a conscious revival of this practice, while the service of light at the Great Vigil of Easter is a special form of it. Given this symbolic understanding, it is perhaps not surprising that the city churches built in the fourt…