WOMEN IN CHURCH

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4953, 9 February 1937, Page 6

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 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 Xl: 5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth 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. 0. F. Hejhvood), writing in his diocesan Gazette says:— “In a 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 assembles of the Church women sould 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 'vealed’ in the public assemblies of the Church in Corinth (a city with a sinister reputation for immorality) gome clergy and vergers (the latter acting no doubt under instructions) insist that girls who may be on walking or bicycling tours in the year 1936 and come into a church with bare heads to inspect the architecture should retire.

"It has even been mentioned to me that on occasion, in order to avoid such a rebuff, a girl has borrowed her boy friend’s hat before entering the church.

“This curious and wild deduction from a few verses in St. Paul’s Epistle affords a notable example of perversity.”