WOMEN IN CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 22

WOMEN IN CHURCH

Should They Wear Hats? Is it wrong for a woman not to wear a hat in church? Some Churchmen think it is—-others think it is not. The latest pronouncement is by the Bishop of Ely, who thinks that people who insist that a woman’s head shall be covered have perversely misinterpreted St. Paul. What the Bible says:— Two verses from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter XI :— 5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishououreth her head. . . . 13. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? What; the Bishop says:— The Bishop of Ely (Dr. B. O. F. Heywood), writing in his diocesan Gazette says:—. “In ti rather obscure passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in the interpretation of which the commentators are obviously ill at ease, the writer appears to rule that in the public assemblies of the Church women should be veiled. (St. Paul was not alluding to hats such as in our twentieth century may be displayed in milliners' shops). ’ “Now because St. Paul, in the first century, desired women to be ‘veiled’ in tlie public assemblies of the Church m Corinth (a city with a sinister reputation for immorality) some clergy and. vergers (the latter acting no doubt

under instructions) insist that girls who may be on walking or bicycling tours iu the year 1936 aud come into a church with bare heads to inspect the architecture should retire. “It has even been reported to me that on occasion, in order to avoid such a rebuff, a girl has borrowed her boy friend’s hat before entering tlie church. “This curious ami wild deduction from a few verses in St. Paul’s Epistle affords a notable example of perversity