DRESS IN CHURCH.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19814, 30 December 1929, Page 7

DRESS IN CHURCH.

ANGLICAN JOURNAI/S COMMENT.

Whether it is right or wrong to appear in church in tennis flannels or plus fours is a subject discussed in the January number of the "Church Gazette" for the diocese of Auckland in an editorial article on "Holidays and Worship." "There is really no question to answer in our opinion," states the article. "It is purely a matter of the heart. If my chief Sunday occupation is going to be amusement and I go to church first just to salve my conscience, then I naturally regard it as a nuisance to have to change my clothes. But if my attendance at church is a real recognition of the claims of God upon me, if I go to church because 1 want to honour Him and be a' witness to the faith that is in me, and if I am therefore content to let amusements take a properly-subordin-ate place, the mere question of dress will not arise at all.

"The appeal to 'sporting' people to come to a 'special' service dressed as they please eeems to us to lower the ideal of public worship, and to turn the service into a sort of entertainment provided for their special benefit; it is an admission that their Sunday amusements are necessary for them, and that God and His claims are secondary, and they are asked to be good enough to patronise God for a few minutes before they begin their real Sunday pursuits. The parson becomes the entertainer and the congregation the audience. Of course, in reality the congregation should be the performers, and the audience—God Himself. The whole matter turns on whether people come to church to worship God, or whether they come in a patronising spirit to listen to a sermon; the only question is one of motive, and the clothes we wear may be taken, as a general rule, as some sort of indication whether our attendance at church is an act of patronage or an act of worship."