Forcing Priests to Wear Robes Is Right Wally

Yep, it’s “right wally,” according to one Anglican bishop. Repeatedly over the years, some Anglican leaders have attempted to remove the requirements that clergy wear vestments when performing sacred acts. Repeatedly, their attempts have been rejected.

Over the last four decades a number of attempts to amend the legislation have been thwarted.

During one debate in 1988 Bishop Pete Broadbent, a supporter of change, said: “Let members ask themselves whether there are not occasions…when they have been embarrassed by, or found evangelism hindered by, the clergyman up front in robes, looking a right wally?”

Fourteen years later an opponent of new legislation said it could lead to “shell-suits in the sanctuary”.

Mr Atherstone, who is also an assistant curate of Eynsham and Cassington, near Oxford, said robes “built barriers” between minister and worshipper.

“Robes can be a form of power dressing – they can reinforce the divisions of a stratified society, where deference to rank and authority is key,” he said.

via Forcing priests to wear robes ‘absurd’, says theologian – Telegraph.