Saturday » July 26 » 2008
Question: Do the faithful in your group dress in a particular way to
express their religion?
What is the significance of each item of dress?
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Pat Powers
A: We have no prescription of a specific or particular type of dress
for the laity. Nonetheless, the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls
us to be modest. It reminds us that forms of modesty can vary from one
culture to another. "Everywhere, however, modesty exists as an
intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man" (no. 2524). It
awakens in each of us a genuine respect for the human person.
It is through baptism that we become Catholics and thus subject to the
teachings of the Church. Near the end of the sacrament, the priest
says: "You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in
Christ. Receive this baptismal garment and bring it unstained to the
judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ so that you may have
everlasting life." It is pure white and reminds each of us that in
putting on Christ, we must — until death — be his witnesses. In the
baptism of adults, the white garment that they put on is a type of alb
– a striking sign to all those present of the inward change that has
just taken place in them.
One of our former archbishops used to take this example a step further
when speaking of the liturgy. The members of the faithful who serve at
the altar frequently wear this same type of alb, which is a reminder
of one of the ways in which they are living out their baptismal call.
Consequently, they challenge us to live out our baptismal promises as
well.
We are respectful of the practices of all other faiths. However, as we
live our lives, rather than wearing a particular item, style or even
colour, we are asked to dress both inside and out–in a respectful
manner which befits our status as children of God.
Msgr. Pat Powers is the rector of Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica.
Rick Reed
A: There is, but not in the way you may expect. If you walk into most
Christian churches, you probably won’t notice anything unusual about
the attire. Some folks will be dressed casually, others more formally.
All should be dressed modestly, as the Bible directs in 1 Timothy 2:9.
So you may conclude that what we wear to worship is a matter of
personal taste. But that’s not the case. The Bible is actually quite
clear on what Christians are to wear when they gather to worship.
The apostle Paul spells out the dress code for Christians in
Colossians 3:12-14: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever
grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them
all together in perfect unity."
When followers of Jesus go to church (or when we go anywhere else, for
that matter), we are to be dressed up in Christian virtues
(compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and
forgiveness). For a jacket or overcoat, we are to put on love ("over
all these virtues put on love").
You could sum it all up with the instructions given in Romans 13:14:
"Clothe yourself in the Lord Jesus." Christians dress for spiritual
success by looking like Jesus — not in our clothing, but in our
character and conduct. When we are dressed in this way, we’ll always
look attractive and never be out of style.
Where does a person get this new spiritual wardrobe to wear? We get it
from God. He gives it freely to all who give up the rags of their own
self-righteousness and put their faith in his Son, Jesus.
Rev. Rick Reed is senior pastor at the Metropolitan Bible Church in
Ottawa.
Abdul Rashid
A: Let us begin with the purpose of a dress. First, covering certain
parts of body has been practised through the history of civilization.
In fact, dress is what visibly distinguishes human beings from all
other animals.
Islam prescribes a dress for men that should cover at least their
midsection–from waist to knees; for women, except for hands, feet and
face, the dress should cover their whole body, including the head.
These basic requirements should not be violated by either sex through
subterfuge, such as a skin-tight dress which describes the body, or a
transparent dress, which exhibits rather than covers.
Secondly, a dress is also a source of beautification, in that it
projects the wearer’s personality in a pleasant form. The Holy Koran
covers both these aspects of dress in a single verse: "O you Children
of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your nakedness, as
well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness,
that is the best." (7:26)
Thirdly, while nature provides skin, hair and feathers to all animals
for protection against their physical environment, human beings meet
this need through dress. Irrespective of faith, the nature of a dress
worn in the Arctic regions will certainly not be the same as in an
equatorial desert.
Finally, the so-called hijab, or a head cover, is worn by Muslim women
in obedience to religious injunctions of their faith. Incidentally,
head cover for women is not unique to Islam. It was practised among
most other faiths until a few decades ago.
I was in Baghdad in the mid-1950s. Most, if not all, women were
dressed in "abayas," which covered their whole body. It was impossible
to know whether one of them was a Jew, Christian or Muslim.
And last year in Ottawa, I went into a store and found the manager and
his assistant speaking in Arabic. It drew my attention, as it is the
language of the Holy Koran. When I looked at the manager, he was
wearing a cross around his neck and I realized he must be a Christian.
While this cross was an obvious expression of his faith, it also
seemed to be part of his personality.
The point is that these crosses, yarmulkes, hijabs, and other
religious items, are part of the personality of the wearers and we
should not find these as threats to our own personalities or a danger
to our values or faith.
Abdul Rashid is a member of the Ottawa Muslim community, the Christian-
Muslim Dialogue and the Capital Region Interfaith Council.
Reuven Bulka
A: A word about the way the question is phrased. Generally, people do
not dress in the manner they uniquely do in order to express their
religion. They do so in order to fulfil a religious requirement. If
they do so in order to express their religion, they have missed the
point, and most likely have distorted religion.
Take the yarmulke, the kippa. Jewish people wear it not so that others
will know they are Jewish. They wear the kippa because it is part of
the package of religious requirements, to remind them of their
religious responsibilities.
There are items of dress worn by Jewish people that do not necessarily
meet the eye, but belong to what may be described as Jewish dress. One
example is the small talit, a four-cornered garment with fringes worn
underneath the shirt and often not visible except to those who look
very carefully. Wearing such a garment fulfils a biblical directive.
The four-cornered garment with fringes is the closest we come to
religiously mandated dress. There are other regulations concerning
dress, such as not wearing a mix of wool and linen, and the general
obligation to wear clothing that is modest rather than provocative,
but these would not project onto the public in a definitive manner.
They are part of religious dress, but not obviously so. There are some
who wear clothing that is readily identified with the faith, such as
fur-lined hats and long coats. These are worn even in the intense heat
of the summer. There is certainly no biblical obligation to wear such
garments, but they are the garment of choice because they were worn by
these peoples’ ancestors.
The garments are worn religiously even in the absence of a religious
requirement. The dress links to the past, and serves as a reminder of
one’s obligation to uphold the dictates of faith.
In the end, it is not how we dress; rather how we address our
responsibilities that is most important.
Rabbi Reuven Bulka is head of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa,
a host of In Good Faith on the A Channel, host of Sunday Night with
Rabbi Bulka on CFRA and recently authored Turning Grief into
Gratitude.
jack Mclean
A: The Baha’i Faith, a world religion whose followers are drawn from
widely diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, has no dress code
for men, women or children. Diversity is instead encouraged.
At international Baha’i conventions, the Baha’is attend in their
native dress. This produces a rich garden variety of beauty and
colour, which enhances the harmony and unity of the whole. The key
phrase here is "unity in diversity," a phrase that has a number of
specific meanings for Baha’is.
A dress code may be rooted in religious law or tradition and is meant
to identify the wearer with a particular faith, culture or function.
But `Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), the Perfect Exemplar of the Baha’i
teachings, exhorted the Baha’is to "spiritual distinction."
He said: "I desire distinction for you but it is not an ordinary
distinction I desire: not scientific, commercial, industrial
distinction.
For you I desire spiritual distinction; that is, you must become
eminent and distinguished in morals.
In the love of God, you must become distinguished from all else. You
must become distinguished for loving humanity; for unity and accord;
for love and justice.
In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the
human world" (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 185)
However, despite the abolition of a dress code, guidelines for style
of dress and personal appearance are by no means lacking.
Bahá’u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, `Abdu’l-Bahá’s
father, wrote in his Book of Laws, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: "The Lord hath
relieved you, as a bounty on His part, of the restrictions that
formerly applied to clothing and to the trim of the beard … Let
there be naught in your demeanour of which sound and upright minds
would disapprove, and make not yourselves the playthings of the
ignorant" (Para. 159).
Both the Báb and Bahá’u'lláh emphasized purity, beauty and refinement
in dress and character.
Only clean and spotless clothes should be worn: nothing should appear
on our person that would cause repugnance. But beauty should not be
confused with ostentation or extravagance.
The style of dress should not cause the poor to be self-conscious.
Dress should reflect the spiritual attributes of economy, moderation,
decency, and clean-mindedness.
Jack McLean is a Baha’i scholar, teacher, essayist and poet published
in the fields of spirituality, Baha’i theology and poetry.
Radhika Sekar
A: Hindu society is highly diverse and there is no clear distinction
between ordinary dress and religious dress. Unstitched clothing is
considered less permeable to pollution and is therefore preferred by
the orthodoxy, but there is no scriptural injunctions against stitched
clothing.
Preference for unstitched clothing led to the development of the dhoti
(a rectangular piece of material, five yards long, wrapped about the
waist and the legs, and knotted at the waist) for men and the sari
(also unstitched material ranging from four to nine metres in length)
for women.
The style of draping both these garments, however, varies from region
to region.
Dhotis (vesti, pancha, laacha, mundu, dhotar, panche) are usually worn
with a kurta or shirt on top, except in the warm climes of Tamil Nadu
and Kerala, where an angavastram (unstitched cloth for the shoulders)
covers the bare chest.
In Kerala, this code is rigidly enforced on sacred premises.
The earliest sari resembled a dhoti with a long end piece draped over
the shoulders to cover the upper body. Nowadays the most common style
is the six-yard nivi derived from the two piece Keral mundum
neriyathum, popularized through the paintings of Raja Ravi Verma
(1848-1906).
The shalwar kameez, a loose, pyjama-like pant that is long tunic,
became popular for both men and women in north India in the 12th
century. Women wear a long scarf or shawl called a dupatta around the
head or neck, which is used to cover the head in a temple or in the
presence of elders.
Canadian Hindus generally wear western clothes, but on religious
occasions prefer to dress in their traditional attire, which is
dictated by custom rather than religion, and the main criteria being
cleanliness and modesty.
Radhika Sekar has a PhD in religious studies
and taught Hinduism at Carleton University for
several years. She is a disciple of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission.
James Christie
A: I confess to being a great admirer of the late Pierre Elliot
Trudeau. Not that I always agreed with him, but he was a true global
statesman, helping to define a place for Canada in the community of
nations which, I find, as a frequent traveller myself, still stands us
in good stead.
And he had a wicked sense of humour, often at the expense of the
media. If asked a question he was not prepared to answer, he would
simply change the question. I would hardly be so bold, but in this
case, perhaps I could be permitted to tweak the question just a
little.
Protestants are sartorially boring. Christians in general tend to
adopt the cultural norms of their native cultures, whatever they may
be; there is really no reason for us to do otherwise.
Oh, some Protestants, men or women, may choose to wear a modest cross;
no corpus given the Protestant emphasis of the Resurrection over the
Passion. The cross may take the form of pendant, lapel or earring,
according to the believer’s taste.
It is another thing when it comes to clergy leadership. Some ordained
ministers wear a "Roman" collar, though they are, and have always
been, in the minority. Protestants can’t decide what to make of the
collar, really. Some say it symbolizes a slave collar, indicating that
ministers are slaves of God and servants to the Church; others that it
is but the vestigial remains of a Jacobean ruff. Neither much appeals.
Worship leaders have most often worn a simple black robe, intended to
distract attention away from the preacher and onto the text. There is
no norm today, with many adopting a curiously priestly white alb,
hardly in keeping with Protestant austerity.
The point of all this? Protestants, for better or worse, are incurable
individualists.
The Rev. James Christie is a minister of the United Church of Canada
whose home is in Old Ottawa South. He is dean of the faculty of
theology of the University of Winnipeg and president of the Canadian
Council of Churches.
Kevin Flynn
A: For the most part, no. Anglicans wear the dress and styles of
whatever culture they inhabit. Exceptions to this rule may be found
among members of the clergy who may (it is not required) wear clerical
attire, or members of religious orders — monks or nuns — who have a
special habit.
Even these depend on local culture. In Canada, we may see Anglican
clergy wearing a black shirt with a round, white "dog collar," or a
smaller white tab or Roman collar. In India, on the other hand, the
usual clerical garb consists of a white cassock bound by a black rope
or belt.
The current clerical collar is a variation of 19th-century gentlemen’s
attire. The collar serves simply as a useful uniform that signals
instantly the role of its wearer.
The only other distinctive feature of the attire of most Anglican
clergy is that it tends to be several beats behind contemporary
fashion. The habits of our monks and nuns are based on medieval
patterns of dress. The most significant piece is the knotted rope
belt, which recalls the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience of the
wearer.
Leaders in public worship, both lay and ordained, will likely wear
various garments of differing shapes and colours. For the most part,
these vestments serve to give visual focus. They minimize the
individuality of the wearer who, for the moment, has stepped into a
more public role. The range of colours are festive, and may evoke
particular associations with attitudes such as celebration or
repentance.
Although these vestments are continually evolving from patterns from
very early in the Christian period, their use is a deliberate
anachronism. They remind us that we are not the only Christians and
that we worship in communion with others who have gone before us.
Rev. Kevin Flynn is an Anglican priest and director of the Anglican
Studies program at Saint Paul University.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
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