An easy target, I admit, but also irresistable: a clerical fashion show in which English clerics of various denominations walk the catwalk wearing chasables, capes, clergy shirts, and clergy skirts (short). The Daily Mail writer calls the vestments “cutting-edge,” but they’re all (except for the two capes and one black cassock) bog standard sappy vestments in the sixties liturgical tradition. The last pictured, a chasuble, features two eggs, one white and one goldenish, the second with a cross on it, apparently dancing around. And a chicken, sheep, and rabbit. And three daffodils. It’s for Easter.
According to an area manager for one of the older vestment companies, quoted at the end of the story, “Our latest range, Serenity, is for women and features cutting-edge designs.” (Cutting edge, it seems, for, oh, 1969.)
‘They don’t want to just dress in black, so we have new colours such as blush pink and rose, which are popular.‘Each item is fitted and made to measure. It is in response to female clergy who have said they want something out of the ordinary.’
Clerical dress is a uniform. It’s supposed to be ordinary.
Update: a friend suggests the last vestment comes from the same company that produced this movie poster .
Update II: This stuff reminds me of the church furnishings I discussed in Ecclesiastical Art, So-Called . That stuff is, much of it, even worse.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
