Christian headcovering

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The Christian headcovering is a veiling worn by various Christian women from a variety of traditions. Some cover only in church or while praying; others cover their heads all the time. They refer to 1 Corinthians 11, or to custom, as the basis for their practice. Many contemporary Christians, however, see no need for this practice.

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[edit] History of the Christian headcovering

1 Corinthians 11:4-16 contains the only reference in the New Testament to a headcovering for women and to an absence of a headcovering for men. Various early Church Fathers, such as Hermas[1], Clement of Alexandria[2] and Tertullian[3] also mentioned women's headcoverings. Early Christian art shows women wearing headcoverings.[4]

Both at that time and through the ensuing centuries, women usually wore a headcovering in public, as they still do in some Middle Eastern countries. But during the 1900s, the practice of headcovering gradually disappeared from many churches, which dropped their requirement that women cover their heads during worship services.

[edit] In Protestant churches

Among the early Protestant reformers, Martin Luther's wife, Katherine, wore a headcovering and John Knox and John Calvin both called for women to wear headcoverings.[5],[6], [7] Commentators such as Matthew Henry, A. R. Fausset and A. T. Robertson also wrote that women should wear headcoverings.

Headcovering, at least during worship services, is still promoted or required in a few denominations. Among these are some Anabaptist denominations, including the Amish, some Mennonites, and the Apostolic Christian Church; some Pentecostal churches, including Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith; and the stricter Dutch Reformed churches. Though most other Protestant denominations have no official expectation that women cover, some individuals choose to practice headcovering according to their understanding of 1 Corinthians 11.

[edit] In the Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church omitted the requirement in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The requirement had originally been introduced as a universal law for the Latin Rite of the Church in 1917 with canon 1262 of its first Code of Canon Law. This canon mandated that, in church, women should cover their heads.

In Western countries, where women no longer as a matter of course wear hats when going outdoors, most Catholic women do not wear veils or other headcoverings in church, though of course women still do so where a headcovering for women is customary even outside of church. Canon 6 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that the 1917 Code has been abrogated. Though a headcovering for women in church is accordingly no longer imposed by law, some Catholic writers have maintained that it is still required on several grounds, one of which is that they say this headcovering is a centennial and immemorial custom (cf. canon 5 of the Code of Canon Law),[8] and Traditionalist Catholics continue the use of headcovering for women in church. The forms range from a mantilla to a hat or a simple headscarf.

For men, the 1917 Code of Canon Law prescribed that they should uncover their heads unless approved customs of peoples were against it. In the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church it is obligatory for bishops to wear the zucchetto headcovering during certain parts of the liturgy, while use of the biretta, once obligatory for all diocesan clergy (as opposed to members of religious institutes), remains permitted for them. In all rites of the Catholic Church, bishops wear a mitre or a corresponding headcovering in church.

[edit] In Eastern Christianity

Some Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches require women to cover their heads while in church, while others do not. In some cases, the choice may be individual, or vary within a country or jurisdiction; for example, most Orthodox women in Greece will not wear a head covering in church, but a widow might. In a country like the United States, Eastern Orthodox women in more mainstream jurisdictions will generally not wear a head covering, but those from highly conservative sects may.

The male clergy of the Eastern Orthodox Church often have long hair and untrimmed beards if they are monastics, but married clergy often have standard haircuts. Eastern Orthodox clergy of all levels have hats, sometimes with veils in the case of monastics or celibates, that are donned and removed at certain points in the services. However, in U.S. churches they are less commonly worn.

[edit] Reasons for the headcovering

Those who practice headcovering call attention to St. Paul's appeal to universal principles in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, arguing that since the passage mentions “every man” and “every woman,” as well as the universal order of creation, this passage must apply to all Christians in all ages and of all cultures. They hold that the Bible is not merely referring to hair, long hair, or submission, but rather a literal cloth headcovering. They support this understanding from the original Greek, which uses two different words: one meaning covering, referring to the woman's head, i.e., her husband, and the other meaning veiling, referring to a literal cloth covering. Corinthians 11:6 is also cited to refute the notion that the headcovering intended by Paul is merely long hair, ("For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to eb shorn or shaven, let her be covered.") because it would be akin to saying "If a woman has short hair, let her hair be cut short."

[edit] Objections to the headcovering

Some Christians interpret the passage as a cultural mandate that was only for the first-century Corinthian church. Therefore, they say, women no longer need to cover their heads. Other Christians believe that long hair is intended to be the headcovering.[9] Still others believe that a woman’s husband is her covering. Yet another view, propagated by feminist Katharine Bushnell, holds that 1 Corinthians 11 itself even teaches that women should not cover their heads at all.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Two, Book One, Part Three, Chapter Two
  2. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Two, Book Five, Part 13, Chapter 11
  3. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Four, Book One, Part Three—On the Veiling of Virgins
  4. ^ Let Her Be Veiled, pp. 51-58. Tom Shank, ed. (Eureka, MT: Torch Publications, 1988)
  5. ^ John Knox, "The First Blast Of The Trumpet Against The Monstrous Regiment Of Women", Works of John Knox, David Laing, ed. (Edinburgh: Printed for the Bannatyne Club), IV:377
  6. ^ Seth Skolnitsky, trans., Men, Women and Order in the Church: Three Sermons by John Calvin (Dallas, TX: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1992), pp. 12,13.
  7. ^ Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (and related passages)
  8. ^ Still Binding? The Veiling of Women and Meatless Fridays
  9. ^ Headcoverings and Modern Women

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[edit] External links