As the clergy of the Church of England are allowed not to wear vestments to lead communion services, many of the evangelicals are asking themselves - what are vestments? And a few are wondering what a communion service is.
Meanwhile Alistair McHaffie told Synod that his father seldom left the house without wearing a tie. I'm hoping that's not all he wore. The 60s were a strange time.
Alistair said that his Father always wore a shirt and tie rather than just a tie - he lived in a cold part of the UK so a tie alone was not enough...
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough a friend and I were talking about this "informality" trend only today. We agreed that if you make churchgoing, liturgy, vestments, praxis in general etc, just like everyday, the result is that people say "Well,if there's nothing special about it, why should I bother going?" And so they don't. All the Christian denominations are currently haemorrhaging adherants, however they try to appease the public.
ReplyDeleteI have seen altar servers in Ireland (and not only there) stood in the Sanctuary in jeans, T-shirts and trainers,and I must admit my reaction is "Can't you at least make an affort to smarten yourself up for the Lord in His own house?"
But hey,it's a different world now. To show visible signs of respect and reverence are out of fashion. After all, if you insist on dressing-up in special clothes, people might think that you think you are better than them, and that would never do!