Adapted from “Anglican Compass”
The color green is associated in the season of Ordinary Time. It appears in green clergy vestments, in green fabrics on the altar and pulpit, and sometimes in green hangings or other adornments. You might even choose to wear green on occasion (no obligation to do so!).
This green represents growth. Just as we see green in the growing plants of the natural world, green appointments in the church remind us of God’s creation, his gift of food for our flourishing, and his command to numerical and spiritual growth.
The Green in God’s Creation
In nature, green is the universal color of vegetation, including trees, bushes, grass, and all manner of edible crops. Scientifically speaking, plants’ chlorophyll absorbs the blues and reds in the light spectrum, leaving the greens reflected in our sight. Green is not the most common color on earth (that distinction belongs to the blue of waters and skies), but it is the color most associated with growth and the food that growth requires.
Green is the only color named explicitly in the Genesis creation account, where God gives to the animals “every green plant for food,” and likewise gives to man “every plant yielding seed” and “every tree with seed in its fruit” (Genesis 1:29-30).
Moreover, the home God made for man was a garden, which contained “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). In other words, God expressly linked the sight of green trees with the expectation of good food.
By analogy, when we see green in the church, it is a sign of the good food we will find there.
The Green in God’s Temple
The analogy between the church and the green garden of Eden is not as far-fetched as it may seem. God has always made a link between his place of worship and the Garden of Eden, both through figural symbolism and the color green.
The Tabernacle and the Temple both featured figural symbolism of plants and fruits, including the lamp stand shaped like an almond tree (Exodus 25:31-34), priestly vestments adorned with pomegranates (Exodus 28:33-34), Temple doors carved with gourds and open flowers (1 Kings 6:18), and all around the walls of the Temple were carvings of palm trees and open flowers (1 Kings 6:29).
Similarly, the design of both the Tabernacle and the Temple referred back to the Garden with strategic use of the color green. This color was achieved not through fabric, but rather through the metal bronze, which oxidizes into a green patina. In the Tabernacle, bronze appeared in many places, but most importantly as the material for the altar (Exodus 27:1-8). Thus, just as in the garden, the color green was linked to the provision of food. Green altar fabrics in churches today make the same association.
The Temple featured bronze in its great pillars at the entrance of the building, complete with capitals engraved with pomegranates and lilies (1 Kings 7:15-22). To someone entering the Temple, it must have felt utterly transporting, the green pillars like glorified trees of a new Eden.
Green Calls Us To Growth
With this context, the green adornments of ordinary time remind us of God’s commands to numerical and spiritual growth. Indeed, growth was part of God’s very first command to mankind:
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Genesis 1:28
In the New Covenant, the command to numerical growth is repeated in a new way, in Jesus’ “Great Commission” to his disciples, that they would:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
Matthew 28:19
We should also remember that the call to growth is not only quantitative, but also qualitative. Multiplication is of little benefit without sanctification. That is why Jesus continues his commission with a call for instruction and growth in obedience:
…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:20
The Danger of Fast Growth
In light of God’s commandments, it is natural for churches to be zealous about growth. We talk about growth, we pursue growth, we track growth, and we report growth in our annual numbers. And if we are honest, we often tie our sense of satisfaction to the numerical growth of our ministries. The Anglican Church in North America is feeling great at the moment, having reported a remarkable 13.4% increase in Average Sunday Attendance from 2023-2024.
But I want to warn about two dangers. First, there are the dangers associated with any success, the dangers of pride and envy. Those who have growth are tempted to pride, and those who observe that growth are tempted to envy. But let’s not so green as to fall into pride, and let’s not become green with envy! While thoughtful analysis and comparison can be helpful, we must remember that ministries do different things. Some plant, some water, some bring in the harvest, and the growth itself comes from God. As Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).
Second, we need to acknowledge the danger of fast growth. To be clear, God can and does give the church moments of dramatic numerical growth, as in the baptism of 3000 at Pentecost. However, Jesus also warned against fast growth in his parable of the sower, in which some seed grew quickly but soon withered away:
Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
Mark 4:5-6
The problem is not growth, per se, but rather growth in the absence of roots. Another way of describing the problem is growth externally without growth internally, or quantitative growth without qualitative growth. Jesus applies the parable to the church this way:
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
Mark 4:16-17
The Deeper Roots of Spiritual Growth
Viewed in this way, the point of the color green in ordinary time is not to pursue numerical growth alone, but rather a balance of quantitative and qualitative growth, numerical and spiritual, of green shoots and deeper roots.
For most Christians, the best use of Ordinary Time may, in fact, be internal cultivation focused on pursuing holiness and practicing the spiritual disciplines. Such internal growth comes especially through the development of faithful rhythms of spiritual life, such as daily prayers, weekly church attendance, and the monthly psalter.
In her book on Ordinary Time, Ashley Wallace describes the green growth of ordinary time this way:
“Ordinary Time might not have the excitement of Advent calendars or Lenten disciplines, but in many ways, it is the most essential part of the Christian year. This is the long green stretch of days where our faith takes root and begins to grow. Ordinary Time invites us not into preparation, but into formation. It’s the season for building spiritual habits, shaping the quiet, consistent ways our families walk with the Lord.
The Liturgical Home: Ordinary Time, 27
Though a focus on the spiritual disciplines may seem like a distraction from God’s call to numerical growth, in fact, this is the deeper soul-work that is necessary to any sustainable long-term ministry. In other words, it is not only that green shoots need deeper roots, but also that deeper roots can prepare the way for the green shoots of the future.
Resting in God’s Green Pastures
Perhaps the most famous reference to green in the scriptures is from Psalm 23, which describes the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his flock and brings us to green pastures:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
Psalm 23:1-3
This passage came to mind when I visited Trinity Anglican Seminary and its renovated Good Shepherd Chapel in the Trophimus Center. The chapel takes its name from the stained glass window above the altar, which depicts Christ as the Good Shepherd and is pictured at the top of this article.
What is especially striking about this window is its use of green, not only in details but also in large fields of color, like the green pastures of the psalm. In my view, what makes the renovation successful is the use of materials that complement the green fields of color, which appear both in the altar window and in windows throughout the chapel. Here are additional photos showing the chapel and its many green windows:
The green windows of the Good Shepherd Chapel point to a universal theological truth: Even as God calls us to growth, he also provides us with rest. When the Lord is our shepherd, he makes us lie in green pastures and restores our souls.
Green Comes After White
It is fitting that the Green of Ordinary Time should come after the White of Easter. If green represents our numerical and spiritual growth, our multiplication and our sanctification, neither form of growth is possible without justification. The white robe of righteousness is the precondition of our growth.
Moreover, like the trees which require water and the sun, so Christian growth requires the waters of baptism and regular exposure to the light of Christ. Or put it another way: just as plants absorb energy from the blues and the reds of the spectrum of light, so we are born again from baptism in the blue waters and the red flames of the Holy Spirit. The visible remainder is the green of our growth in God’s love.
Established by God’s love in Christ, and strengthened by God’s love in the Spirit, we grow in God’s love and extend it to the world. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Green in the New Jerusalem
The book of Revelation describes many green things that will appear in the New Jerusalem. Around the throne of God is a rainbow with the appearance of an emerald (Revelation 4:3). The base of the walls includes stones of multiple hues of green, including emerald, chrysolite, and chrysoprase (Revelation 21:19-20). Most significantly, the city is home to the tree of life and its twelve kinds of fruit (Revelation 22:2).
Concerning the tree of life, the text includes this striking detail:
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2
How can green leaves bring healing? By refining and transmuting light, green leaves often contain the most potent of remedies. This is why botany and chemistry have always been the handmaidens of medicine.
But in the New Jerusalem, there is no need for the sun, for the city has the light of the Son of God, the true light of the world (Revelation 22:4). Imagine the power of this greater light as it is absorbed and transformed into greater greens!
Thus, the greens we hang in our churches during ordinary time also point to those greater greens, the leaves that grow in the light of the Lord. Even now, we can grow like those greens, basking in Christ, who is the light of light. And as we trust in him, we can pray like David:
I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
Psalm 52:8