Clergy vestments
Sir, Your correspondent Ian Gregory (3 February) seems - if I may use a colloquialism - to have ‘got his knickers in a twist’ over the matter of clergy garb. Granted that the ostentatious embellishment and over-elaboration of such apparel is to be discouraged, there is nothing finer in general for clergy to wear than a cassock-alb: easily put on and taken off; or at least a black cassock and surplice.
Surely the Rev Gregory is aware of the three main functions of such garments: firstly, to indicate to all the social role being undertaken by the wearer, and the kinds of behaviour to be expected therefrom (compare the uniform worn by a police officer on duty, and the traditional dress of a nurse); secondly, to signify the spiritual authority vested in the wearer (compare a police-person’s authority to keep public order and to arrest offenders, and a nurse’s authority to dress wounds, give injections, and a host of other medical tasks); and lastly the mundane matter of ‘cover-up’: just as (at a much higher level) Christ’s blood ‘covers’ our sinfulness before God, so proper clergy apparel ‘hides’ the person wearing it so as not to distract observers from ‘keeping their eyes on Christ’, whose ‘vicar’ that person purports to be (‘vicar’ from Latin vicarius, meaning ‘substitute’).
It may be worthwhile also to put in a word here concerning the similar threefold benefits of pulpits, now so out-of-fashion in some churches: firstly, in raising the preacher to a position not only to be seen (and heard), but also to receive feedback from the ‘body language’ (especially the eyes!) of the congregation; secondly, to prevent the preacher from wandering about, a distracting habit acquired by some if given the space to do so; and thirdly to hide at least the lower half of the preacher’s body - especially if wearing such worka-day garments as crumpled jeans and a jersey, compounded by ‘sneakers’ down below.
Mr Gregory seems to forget that all of these issues were carefully considered and resolved many years ago, and the solutions found to answer for the most part; so why discard such tradition for the sake of some spurious ‘relevance‘ in so-called ‘modern’ times? JM Hughes, Heaton Mersey, Stockport