Undercover
My priest's sermon on Sunday was a bit of a shocker. He spoke on the verse in I Corinthians 11:2-16, which talks about "For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels."
No one else in my communion (the Charismatic Episcopal Church) is doing this, but he asked us women to consider wearing head coverings of some sort from now until Pentecost. That's about the next two months. I have a thing against being a "doily head", because the legalistic church I grew up in in the late 70's early 80's required women to pin doily-like things to their heads. I tend to equate doily heads with legalism.
But, since there's no specific covering mentioned (doily, veil, etc...) and I can choose want I want to wear, since it was a request and not a mandate, and since it was for a specific time period, I think I'll do it.
A few of my friends at church have been doing it while praying in private and say it's blessed their time with the Lord. I'm willing to give it a shot. I'd hate to not do something that would bring me closer to the Lord just because of one bad church and cultural feminist tendencies. (Head coverings for women in church started going out with the influx of the feminist movement in the 50's and 60's, although a few denominations still encourage it.)
I'm thinking of it as an experience in humility. I prayed about it and asked myself what St. Teresa de Avila would do. (I'm currently reading her book "The Interior Castle".) She would do whatever her priest asked, as long as it wasn't against God.
I've been wearing a scarf during my prayer times this week, and I don't think the scarf itself has improved my relationship with the Lord. I think that my willingness to submit to my spiritual authority has increased my humility, and the humility has improved my openness to hearing the voice of Christ during my prayer times. So far I haven't observed any benefit to the scarf other than the secondary humility.
I'll give you my final decision on Pentecost.
No one else in my communion (the Charismatic Episcopal Church) is doing this, but he asked us women to consider wearing head coverings of some sort from now until Pentecost. That's about the next two months. I have a thing against being a "doily head", because the legalistic church I grew up in in the late 70's early 80's required women to pin doily-like things to their heads. I tend to equate doily heads with legalism.
But, since there's no specific covering mentioned (doily, veil, etc...) and I can choose want I want to wear, since it was a request and not a mandate, and since it was for a specific time period, I think I'll do it.
A few of my friends at church have been doing it while praying in private and say it's blessed their time with the Lord. I'm willing to give it a shot. I'd hate to not do something that would bring me closer to the Lord just because of one bad church and cultural feminist tendencies. (Head coverings for women in church started going out with the influx of the feminist movement in the 50's and 60's, although a few denominations still encourage it.)
I'm thinking of it as an experience in humility. I prayed about it and asked myself what St. Teresa de Avila would do. (I'm currently reading her book "The Interior Castle".) She would do whatever her priest asked, as long as it wasn't against God.
I've been wearing a scarf during my prayer times this week, and I don't think the scarf itself has improved my relationship with the Lord. I think that my willingness to submit to my spiritual authority has increased my humility, and the humility has improved my openness to hearing the voice of Christ during my prayer times. So far I haven't observed any benefit to the scarf other than the secondary humility.
I'll give you my final decision on Pentecost.
posted by Terri | 9:56 AM
1 Comments:
Great attitute, Terry. I believe the willingness to submit (and indicate it outwardly) shows humility--I think that's what the head covering's all about anyway.
I wore one for a number of years until just the past few months. I haven't been wearing one because my husband has been wavering on whether or not it was scriptural. If I'm not doing it to submit to him or scripture, there's no point. It's about humbling ourselves and a reminder that our husband is our head.
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