Gratitude for diversity

Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Op-Ed page, Patricia Templeton gives thanks for the ways that the Episcopal Church celebrates diversity:

Thank heaven for church that celebrates diversity
By Patricia Templeton writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When my family began going to the Episcopal Church when I was about 10, women and girls were still expected to cover their heads in church with little lace caps that looked like doilies. (I’m sure there is some arcane ecclesiastical word for those things.) I don’t remember when the doilies disappeared, but by the time I was a teenager they were gone, and females went bare-headed in God’s house. Somehow the church survived.

Now, four decades later, women’s headgear is making ecclesiastical headlines again. Or to be more precise, one woman’s headgear in church — or lack thereof — is making news on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The brou-ha-hat, which has been dubbed “mitregate,” involves Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Rowan Williams, head of the Church of England, who have already been involved this year in one theological smackdown (as writer Diana Butler Bass aptly called it).

A mitre is the pointy hat that bishops wear. It is not the most flattering of headgear. But flattering or not, the pointy hat is a symbol of a bishop’s office and authority; they are expected to wear them.

Mitregate began with an invitation to our presiding bishop from the dean of Southwark Cathedral in London to preach and preside at the Eucharist there last month. She accepted.

Then she received a letter from Lambeth Palace, the London home and office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, instructing her not to wear her mitre at the London cathedral.


Posted on July 8, 2010 7:30 AM | |
Comments (4)

Yes, I remember the little stack of loaner-head-coverings in the narthex of the church, for women who forgot their hats or scarves. As I recall, the arcane ecclesiastical word for those things was "doilies." As a member of the Other Half of the human race, I was forbidden to wear a head covering in church. Unless, of course, it was a biretta. (Go figure.)

A vigorous, senior lady in my first parish asked me if it would be okay if she wore slacks to church. I said, Sure, why not? That was probably the beginning of my apostacization from The Catholic Faith....

Posted by Bill Moorhead [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 8, 2010 9:43 AM

I'm fascinated by the cultural aspect of the current dislocations in the Communion. I.e., to what extent is allegiance to Christ tied to a first-century Greco-Roman identity, or a Reformation English identity, and to what extent is it malleable to other cultural contexts? Can an Indian—a person whose culture is intimately tied to the Hindu and/or Muslim religions—follow Christ faithfully? Can an African whose culture is deeply tied to ancient animist and chthonic religions follow Christ faithfully within his or her cultural context?

Or is Christianity really colonial: Does following Christ—interestingly, since this viewpoint seems to come mainly out of Africa—really mean putting on the cloak of 1st century Greco-Roman culture, and leaving behind whatever you had in the past? I call this viewpoint the sola cultura viewpoint, in conscious counterpoint to John Yates's snide remark about Peter Lee's insistence that the time of the Apostles and the Pentecost is not past. The sola cultura viewpoint is that there is only one cultural context consistent with Christianity, and that cultural context is Paul's. I consider myself blessed to live in a time when we can be part of working out the answer to this question for us and our children.

Mike Lockaby

Posted by www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1505362 [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 8, 2010 10:17 AM

Thanks for running my column. But my last name is Templeton, not Thompson.
Tricia Templeton

Posted by Tricia Templeton [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 8, 2010 10:34 AM

Tricia,

My apologies! Thank you for your wonderful column.

I will correct my error,

Peter Carey+

Posted by Peter [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 8, 2010 11:00 AM

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