Christian headcovering

The Christian headcovering is a veiling worn by various Christian women from a variety of traditions. Some cover only in church or while praying; most never cover their heads all the time. They refer to 1 Corinthians 11, or to custom, as the basis for their practice. Many contemporary Christians, however, see no need for this practice.

History

Genesis 24:65, Numbers 5:18 and Isaiah 47:2 are references in the Old Testament referring to a headcovering for women. 1 Corinthians 11:4-16 contains the only reference in the New Testament referring to a headcovering for women and to an absence of a headcovering for men. Various early Church Fathers, such as Hermas^[1], Clement of Alexandria^[2], Jerome^[3], Augustine of Hippo^[4] and Tertullian^[5] also mentioned women's headcoverings. Early Christian art shows women wearing headcoverings.^[6]

During the ensuing centuries, women definitely wore the head coverings during the church service, especially when praying or prophesying (1Corinthians 11:5). However, during the twentieth century, the practice of headcovering gradually disappeared from many churches, which dropped their requirement that women cover their heads during worship services. At different points in history, the style of the covering varied.^[7]

Catholicism

The requirement that women cover their heads in church was introduced as a universal law for the Latin Rite of the Church for the first time in 1917 with canon 1262 ^[8] of its first Code of Canon Law. It was not addressed in the 1983 revision of the Code, which declared the 1917 Code abrogated.^[9] According to the new Code, former law only has interpretive weight in norms that are repeated in the 1983 Code; all other norms are simply abrogated. There is no provision made for norms that are not repeated in the 1983 Code.^[10] Some have argued that it is still obligatory, advancing several grounds for their opinion, including the claim that headcovering for women is a centennial and immemorial custom (cf. canon 5 of the Code of Canon Law)^[11][12] It was never universally obligatory for members of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

In countries where women no longer as a matter of course wear hats when going outdoors, most Catholic women do not wear headcoverings in church, but many Traditionalist Catholic women do.^[13] The forms range from a mantilla to a hat or a simple headscarf.

For men, the 1917 Code of Canon Law prescribed that they should uncover their heads unless approved customs of peoples were against it. In the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church it is obligatory for bishops to wear the zucchetto headcovering during certain parts of the liturgy, while use of the biretta, once obligatory for all diocesan clergy (as opposed to members of religious institutes), remains permitted for them. In all rites of the Catholic Church, bishops wear a mitre or a corresponding headcovering in church. Nevertheless, the mitre is removed in certain parts of the liturgy, and the zucchetto is also removed during the Eucharistic Prayer, which is always done uncovered, even for bishops, cardinals or the Pope.

Protestantism

Among the early Protestant reformers, Martin Luther's wife, Katherine, wore a headcovering and John Knox and John Calvin both called for women to wear headcoverings.^[14][15][16] Other commentators who have advocated headcovering include Matthew Henry, A. R. Fausset, A. T. Robertson, Harry A. Ironside ^[17], and Charles Caldwell Ryrie.^[18]

Current practice

Amish women wearing coverings.

Headcovering, at least during worship services, is still promoted or required in a few denominations and among the more traditional Catholics. Some Anabaptist denominations, including the Amish, some Mennonites, the Old German Baptist Brethren,^[19] the Hutterites,^[20] and the Apostolic Christian Church; some Pentecostal churches, such as the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, The Pentecostal Mission, and the Christian Congregation in the United States; the Plymouth Brethren; and the more conservative Scottish Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches. Though most Protestant denominations have no official expectation that women cover, some individuals choose to practice headcovering according to their understanding of 1 Corinthians 11.

Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches

Some Eastern Catholic, as well as Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, require women to cover their heads while in church, while others do not. In some cases, the choice may be individual, or vary within a country or jurisdiction; for example, most Orthodox women in Greece or Finland will not wear a head covering in church, but a widow might. In a country like the United States, where there is no prevailing custom, the decision to cover is made personally, often in consultation with one's spiritual father or mother.

The male clergy of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches often have long hair and untrimmed beards if they are monastics, but married clergy often have standard haircuts. Eastern Orthodox clergy of all levels have head coverings, sometimes with veils in the case of monastics or celibates, that are donned and removed at certain points in the services. However, in U.S. churches they are less commonly worn.

Bishops, Archimandrites and Archpriests wear mitres when wearing their liturgical vestments, which have their own rules concerning donning and doffing.

Orthodox nuns wear a head covering called an apostolnik, which is worn at all times, and is the only part of the monastic habit which distinguishes them from Orthodox monks.

Jehovah's Witnesses

Within the congregation, a female Jehovah's Witness may only lead prayer and teaching when no baptized male is available to, and must do so wearing a head covering.^[21][22][23] Female head covering is not required when evangelizing or when participating in congregation meetings or Bible study courses being led by another, or any aspect of Christian or family life.^[24]

Jehovah's Witnesses males are instructed to remove headcoverings when they represent even a small group in public prayer. A male Witness may or may not choose to remove his headcovering while praying privately or listening to another's public prayer, according to "the dictates of his personal conscience".^[25]

Reasons

Those espousing the practice of headcovering have used Apostle Paul's appeal to universal principles in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 to argue that since the passage mentions “every man” and “every woman,” as well as the universal order of creation, this passage must apply to all Christians in all ages and of all cultures.^{[citation needed]} Also, some Christians^[who?] wear head coverings because Sarah (Abraham's wife) Genesis 20:16 and Rebekah (Isaac's wife) Genesis 24:65 wore head coverings.^[26] They hold that the Bible is not merely referring to hair, long hair, or submission, but rather a literal cloth headcovering.^{[citation needed]} They support this understanding from the original Greek, which uses two different words: one meaning covering, referring to the woman's head, i.e., her husband, and the other meaning veiling, referring to a literal cloth covering.^{[citation needed]} 1 Corinthians 11:6 is also cited to refute the notion that the headcovering intended by Paul is merely long hair, ("For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.") because it would be akin to saying "If a woman has short hair, let her hair be cut short."^[27]

Objections

Some Christians^[who?] interpret the passage as a cultural mandate that was only for the first-century Corinthian church. Therefore, they say, women no longer need to cover their heads.^{[citation needed]} Other Christians believe that long hair is intended to be the headcovering (see 1 Corinthians 11:14-15).^[28] Still others believe that a woman’s husband is her covering^{[citation needed]}. Yet another view, propagated by feminist theologian Katharine Bushnell, holds that 1 Corinthians 11 itself even teaches that women should not cover their heads at all.^[29]

References

1. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Two, Book One, Part Four, Chapter Two
2. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Two, Book Five, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 11
3. ^ Schaff, Philip (1994). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 1565631161. 
4. ^ On the Trinity, Book 12, Chapter 7
5. ^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume Four, Book One, Part Three—On the Veiling of Virgins
6. ^ Let Her Be Veiled, pp. 51-58. Tom Shank, ed. (Eureka, MT: Torch Publications, 1988)
7. ^ http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/head-covering-history.html
8. ^ http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0813/_P42.HTM
9. ^ Canon 6 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law
10. ^ Canon 6, section 2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law
11. ^ http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P1.HTM
12. ^ Still Binding? The Veiling of Women and Meatless Fridays
13. ^ The practice is not universal even among Traditionalists: as can be seen in this video, not all the women attending Mass in the church of St Nicholas de Chardonnet in Paris, which is run by the Society of St. Pius X, wear a head covering, even those singing in the choir.
14. ^ John Knox, "The First Blast Of The Trumpet Against The Monstrous Regiment Of Women", Works of John Knox, David Laing, ed. (Edinburgh: Printed for the Bannatyne Club), IV:377
15. ^ Seth Skolnitsky, trans., Men, Women and Order in the Church: Three Sermons by John Calvin (Dallas, TX: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1992), pp. 12,13.
16. ^ Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (and related passages)
17. ^ Epistle to the Corinthians, H. A. Ironside, 1938, pp. 323-340
18. ^ Ryrie Study Bible, Moody Press, 1976, comments on I Corinthians 11:1-16, p.1741
19. ^ Thompson, Charles (2006). The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge. University of Illinois Press. p. 33. ISBN 0252073436. 
20. ^ Hostetler, John (1997). Hutterite Society. The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0801856396. 
21. ^ "Head Coverings—When and Why?", Keep Yourselves in God's Love, ©2008 Watch Tower, page 210-211, "Occasionally, though, circumstances may require that a Christian woman be called on to handle a duty normally performed by a qualified baptized male. For instance, she may need to conduct a meeting for field service because a qualified baptized male is not available or present. ..she would wear a head covering to acknowledge that she is handling the duty normally assigned to a male. On the other hand, many aspects of worship do not call for a sister to wear a head covering. For example, she does not need to do so when commenting at Christian meetings, engaging in the door-to-door ministry with her husband or another baptized male, or studying or praying with her unbaptized children."
22. ^ "Questions From Readers", The Watchtower, July 15, 2002, page 27, "There may be other occasions when no baptized males are present at a congregation meeting. If a sister has to handle duties usually performed by a brother at a congregationally arranged meeting or meeting for field service, she should wear a head covering."
23. ^ "Woman’s Regard for Headship—How Demonstrated?", The Watchtower, July 15, 1972, page 447, "At times no baptized male Witnesses may be present at a congregational meeting (usually in small congregations or groups). This would make it necessary for a baptized female Witness to pray or preside at the meeting. Recognizing that she is doing something that would usually be handled by a man, she would wear a head covering."
24. ^ "Head Coverings—When and Why?", Keep Yourselves in God's Love, ©2008 Watch Tower, pages 43-44 and 209-212
25. ^ "Should You Cover Your Head During Prayer?", The Watchtower, February 15, 1977, page 127-128, "Christian man walking down the street with a hat on might offer a prayer to God. If his own personal feelings urged him to remove his hat, he should do so. But God’s counsel about head covering does not specifically require it. What about prayers in congregational activities or in the family? In line with the principle of headship, if a baptized man is present, he should offer prayer with his head uncovered. That is true in the family even when just husband and wife join in prayer. ...Finally, what about head covering when you are part of a group but not personally voicing the prayer? ...Would a woman present during the prayer have to cover her head? No... If a man felt that he should take his hat off when represented by another’s prayer, he, of course, can follow the dictates of his personal conscience."
26. ^ Page 8 under the title "Progressive Biblical testimony of covering
27. ^ McGrath, William (1991). Christian Woman's Veiling: A Biblical and Historical Review. Amish Mennonite Publications. p. 12. 
28. ^ Headcoverings and Modern Women
29. ^ Bushnell, Katharine (1921). God's Word to Women. Minneapolis, MN: Christians for Biblical Equality. ISBN 0-9743031-0-0. http://godswordtowomen.org/resources/onlinebooks/gwtw.htm. 

External links

• Head Coverings in Public Worship
• Headcovering and Prayer Veil at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online