HATLESS WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20832, 26 September 1929, Page 13

HATLESS WOMEN.

CUSTOMS OF THE CHURCH. ' ST. PAUL AND HIS DICTUM(From Our, Own Correspondent.) : ' -tl ri • LONDON, August 23. ine iieparitions Gonferencfe seems vta . have delayed the “ silly .season " for London. newspapers.-.' Nevertheless, "itVhas ■ come at_ last. , The , Daily Telegraph haa.. launched pus--'w’Hh. a ‘discussion dAVthe subject or natiesh in Church* The - controversy arose;, when a woman : whosji . , head was uncovered was .asked recently- to . leave . Wesbninster Abbey.-' ’ •. “W, is., the- sex. element so empha-.. sised by a man haying to “ bare his .head ■ whilevia- woman;.has-.to-idover-hjers; ? ’ -asks ; one ; correspondent.,... 'f Surely. When' it comes, to a question' of, .worship, there , ought.. to ,bo no - sex division; /but.- rather a sincere, sympathetic 'unity. ‘ J might-eveh/go. eb; far. as to ; suggest • that’ bare' arms’- also,are'-neitbpr -disgusting nor irreverent, and, do not- seem to have -any bearing. on the fact of, a • womans—or -g,; worship. . Is. a bare arm, then, wbrise. than a .bare , .neck or abort skirts?- ‘ The .whole: differentiation seems rather ■like; throwing dittle.-irritant pebbles,, in' a spirit of : childish mischief, into the great, ' calm t dignity o£ a beautiful lake,' distorting and spoiling ■ its reflection and still .majesty., ‘ . ... . ■ . Pastor Tgnotus writes“ The Biblical passage giving authority • for- "women ■ lb be covered in, churehrrviz.i 1 Cor. xi, 1-16. is not without; difficulty.- but, speaking generally,it refers to that- uhfotunate. class of woman attached to the' temples of the. East.. and > especially Greece,-who made immorality their, trade. They were distinguished' by uncovered heads and tong flowing hair. _ It Was natural, that St, Paul did not,wish Christian women to be <( Ofisqeiated even, in; thoiight',with- them. It is possible that .we have, emphasised the idea erroneously; that;there is reason for the common; custom may: be' -alldVred m the growth it .has attained; that forbidding the general disuse of head covering in even, ah empty-church ■ is-folly: iu these days.” ’ ' ;" • ’ •";. THE ONLY BEAUTY LEFT. ”1 think it. .well to keep In mind,** -■ writes a medical practitioner, “ that when St. Paul put his dictum into , the form of a question he was writing td his friends in .Corinth—a city.-, in those days rather ; less _ pleasant than it is to-day. Is it possible that he had in mind those unfortunate Magdalenes of Greece, and. .not washing to exclude them from the.benefits of the newly-found faith, was asking.them to hide from the public gare wliat was about the only beauty left to ■ them—the glory of their hair? ” The same writer-.asks: “Do you 'suppose that when St. : Paul and-his contemporaries went into; church they removed their headdress, i.e„ took off their hats? I think it is improbable; but they probably took off their: shoes. - “May wc press the point and ask: ‘la, it comely that a man pray unto God with his boots on? ’ ” V WOMANLY. PEELING. Here is a woman’s view of the case; “Is not the'jnstiScation for the custom of woman covering their heads in church reverence .to God and womanly -modesty ? If a woman had the honour of being received in audience by royalty would she enter the presence with her head uncovered? I think not. ’ . ; “My own mother, in her earlier days, before she commenced to wear caps • (which, by the way, was a pretty and becoming. fashion); always pm; a handkerchief over her head during family prayers,'' not as. a token of her inferiority to the opposite sex, but of reverence 4 when an* proaching the .Almighty, : . “ I’ke natural instinct to cover thehteirf in . ur , ’ ln , street, and. in . other public places,, and when engaged in acts of is. mot ,a ; relic-of antiquity : but a Imng expression of proper womanly leelmg, . , . , . : .• . . 5 • vTKo,. dean’s verger at'St; Paul’s, MrWilliam Skinner, who has si-ei. sl> vears' seryuce at, the'Cathedral.: said-that hatless «c ot ° t V H S cd *0 leave 'the .Lathedral. , Sometimes - a -wonm,- ik T-u 1 • * “ ave B P O^Q : I**3 arf atiged a hand. ’ kerchief or/something of the .sort over' her head,” he added; “The occurred' is usually due - merely to' thoughtlessness ”' Mr Skinner recalled: that some ydars a Q n 3kcr; .entered fn r^mn^ r ll W h,S hat on - and refused fined t- ®- e '' r;ls , prosecuted and Thq main view expressed among both clergy and laity, is that women generally have a firm.. regard.', for tradition and that a wholesale attempt , to' attend head covering’ is not to be feared. . *