What you'd see if you walked in — and what it all means.
Churches say things with cloth, colour and furniture as well as with words. None of this is a ranking — some traditions cover the sanctuary in gold, others keep it bare on purpose, and both are saying something true.
The colours
Advent and Lent
Waiting, repentance, preparing room. The quiet colour of getting ready.
Christmas, Easter, weddings, saints' days
Joy, light, resurrection. Brought out when the Church has most to celebrate.
Ordinary Time
Growth and steadiness — the long ordinary stretches where faith actually grows.
Pentecost, Holy Week, martyrs
Fire and blood — the Spirit's flame, and the cost of following Jesus.
Third Sunday of Advent, fourth of Lent
A single glimpse of joy in the middle of a fast. The lightening of violet.
Clothing
A long black robe (the cassock) with a loose white linen garment over it (the surplice).
The everyday dress of the choir office — Morning and Evening Prayer. The black says 'servant, not celebrity'; the white says 'washed clean'.
Seen in · Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran
A plain white full-length robe, with a long narrow scarf in the colour of the season worn around the neck.
The alb recalls baptism — the white garment given to every Christian. The stole is the mark of ordination: a priest wears it around the neck, a deacon across one shoulder.
Seen in · Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist
A wide poncho-like outer vestment in the season's colour, worn over the alb and stole.
Worn only at Holy Communion. It's the garment of the one presiding at the table — often called 'the garment of charity', because it covers everything else.
Seen in · Catholic, Anglican (many parishes), some Lutheran
A long ceremonial cloak fastened at the chest with a clasp (the morse).
For processions, festivals and great occasions rather than the communion table itself. Essentially a beautiful outdoor cape that stayed.
Seen in · Anglican cathedrals, Catholic
The pointed hat and the shepherd's crook carried by a bishop.
The crozier is a shepherd's crook — the bishop is meant to be a shepherd, not a manager. The mitre's two peaks are often read as the tongues of fire at Pentecost.
Seen in · Anglican, Catholic, some Lutheran
The sanctuary
The table at the centre of the sanctuary, dressed with a coloured frontal and a white linen cloth, with candles and a cross.
Two names, two truths: an altar because of the sacrifice remembered there, a table because of the meal shared there. The frontal changes colour with the season. Candles say Christ is the light; the cross says how that light came.
Seen in · Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist
The cup (chalice) and the plate (paten) for communion, with small white cloths — the corporal underneath and the purificator for wiping the cup.
Ordinary tableware treated with great care, because of what it carries. The linen is handled reverently so nothing of the bread and wine is lost or spilled.
Seen in · Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist
A small cupboard (aumbry) or tabernacle where consecrated bread is kept, a lamp burning nearby, and a side table (credence) holding the water and wine.
The bread is reserved so it can be taken to the sick and the dying. The lamp burns to say it is there — a small light that never goes out, kept for the people who can't get to church.
Seen in · Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican
Church by church
Roughly from the most ornate to the plainest. Every church varies — this is the usual shape, not a rule.
Clothing
Alb, stole and chasuble in the season's colour for Mass; cassock and surplice otherwise. Bishops add mitre and crozier.
The space
Stone altar, tabernacle with a sanctuary lamp, crucifix, candles, statues and stained glass. The eye is drawn to the altar.
Clothing
Sticharion, epitrachelion and phelonion — richly embroidered, often gold. Priests are usually bearded and wear a cassock outside services.
The space
An iconostasis screen of icons separates the altar. Hanging lamps, incense, no instruments — the singing is unaccompanied.
Clothing
Varies more than anywhere else: cassock, surplice and preaching scarf in lower-church parishes; alb, stole and chasuble in higher ones. Both are properly Anglican.
The space
Holy table with a seasonal frontal, cross and candles, pulpit and lectern facing each other, choir stalls between.
Clothing
Alb and coloured stole, sometimes a chasuble; in some traditions a black preaching gown.
The space
Simple altar with cross and candles, a prominent pulpit, a crucifix, and usually a strong organ and hymn tradition.
Clothing
Often a black preaching gown with a stole, or plain suit. Colour and vestment use is lighter than in Catholic or Anglican churches.
The space
The pulpit is central and raised — the word preached is the focus — with a simple communion table below it and plain walls.
Clothing
Usually no vestments at all — ordinary clothes or a suit. Some ministers wear a gown for baptisms.
The space
A plain platform, a pulpit, a simple communion table, and a baptistry pool for full-immersion baptism. Little or no ornament by conviction.
Clothing
Everyday clothes. Occasionally a stole or clerical collar, but the norm is deliberately ordinary.
The space
An open stage with a band, screens and a simple lectern. The room is shaped for singing and preaching rather than a fixed altar.
Illustrations are artist's impressions, drawn to show the usual pattern.