Listening to: 'Rosebud' by Ryan Adams
Most readers will have spotted that I'm off to Wycliffe Hall in September to train for ordination in the Church of England. I've been doing a fair bit of paperwork and admin for that over the last couple of days, and getting used to the idea of moving home, re-entering education, and getting on with three years of training for ministry.
This afternoon, I was at my grandma's church fete (which was lovely- barbecue, cakes, and sunshine) and they had a little group of morris dancers. I watched them for a few minutes amused at them hopping around like rabbits, bashing sticks together, and ringing bells on their ankles. I turned to my mum to make a comment about their funny clothes, when I stopped mid-sentence, and remembered the part in a letter from Wycliffe which mentioned I will eventually need to buy this outfit: 
The black robe is a cassock, and the white table cloth on top is a surplice. I have to try and remember that! You'll sometimes see people wearing a little scarf as well, which is a stole which is I think only for ordained people. Coming from a free church background, then being part of an Anglican church for eight years where robes are an extreme rarity, getting used to this will be very odd indeed. So long as they don't make me wear little bells and dance, I'll be ok...
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Funny clothes
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4 comments:
You'll get used to it. Especially at weddings - when there will be two of you wearing white!
Correction: if the person is wearing a black scarf, it's probably a preaching scarf ("Hooray" say the evangelicals). In which case it is normally also worn with an academic hood - to show everyone that you have a qualification (which, as 1 Corinthians 1-2 tells us, is essential to authentic ministry...).
Otherwise, if it's a coloured scarf, then it's a stole ("Boo" say the evangelicals) which is apparently all about being a sacrificing priest. It's a shame they get to be colourful.
On the other hand, some say the stole is a reminder of the towel around Jesus' waist when he washed his disciple's feet, in which case it's a sign of servanthood. Which, to me, sounds better than academic achievement!
Me - I'm in my shorts today.
Just think of all the stuff you could hide in your cassock.
I wore my dog collar through Eastbourne today and a local crazy wearing a hat with 'Jesus loves you' painted in tipex wrapped his arms around me yelling 'God bless you! God bless you! God bless you!' while the whole street stopped to watch.
Just one of the joys of clerical wear.
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