{"id":54,"date":"2014-08-10T22:20:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T05:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allsaintsorthodoxlv.com\/?p=54"},"modified":"2014-08-10T22:20:28","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T05:20:28","slug":"on-account-of-the-angels-why-i-cover-my-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/on-account-of-the-angels-why-i-cover-my-head\/","title":{"rendered":"On Account of the Angels: Why I Cover My Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elisabet<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At first reading of this verse I thought, \u201cGood grief that, at least, can\u2019t have anything to do with women today.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was a new convert to Christianity and making a valiant effort to read the Bible \u201cas if it were true.\u201d St. Paul was hard to swallow, and so were angels\u2014along with fairies and trolls! My grudging acceptance of Christianity was based on honest doubt rather than conviction. No one had proved to me that it was true, but neither could I prove it false. On that flimsy hope I chose to make what Kierkegaard called \u201ca leap of faith over the abyss of the absurd.\u201d It was a desperate act. I was at the end of my rope, at a loss to explain the painful contradiction between my good intentions and the reality of my life. I was no longer able to pretend success as a wife, mother of four, or writer (even though my book had been sold on first submission to a leading publisher). In truth I didn\u2019t even know who I was, although I loudly proclaimed my manifesto as atheist, humanist, and feminist, with strong opinions on most issues. I had spent most of my young life trying to define myself by \u201cproving\u201d I could do anything a man could do, only better. (What man could bear children!) But inside was a black hole and I was about to f all in.<\/p>\n

Somehow I \u201chappened\u201d across a Bible and read that God (whoever He or It was) created \u201cman in our image, male and female created He them.\u201d I read of Moses encountering a burning bush which was not consumed\u2014and a God who identified Himself as I AM. That caught my attention.\u00a0If\u00a0<\/i>there was a great I AM from whom all small \u201cI ams\u201d received their identity, there was hope of discovering myself and what it meant to be a woman.<\/p>\n

One night, under a canopy of stars in the desert, I cried out: \u201cGod, if you are there, I want to find You!\u201d But my mind refused to accept the Bible stories of sacrificial lambs and Christ crucified and resurrected. Descartes said, \u201cI think, therefore I am,\u201d and I agreed. My ability to reason was my life! With a heavy heart I gave up on the \u201cmindless\u201d Christian solution. But when all seemed lost, a quiet little thought lodged in my head: \u201cIf it were true\u2014would you accept it? And can you prove that it is not?\u201d The question would not let go. In fear and trembling I chose to \u201csacrifice\u201d my reason, accept the incomprehensible in hopes it would prove true, and live the rest of my life as if it were. It felt as if I was dying, but I saw no other way. The proof of the pudding, of course, was in the eating. The truth of the Bible could only be tested through obedience. I determined to do whatever \u201cleapt at me\u201d in the daily reading of Scripture. I disagreed with St. Paul\u2019s view of women, but he did say, \u201cThere is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus\u201d (Gal. 3:28).<\/p>\n

Clearly we were equal in salvation and worthiness\u2014then why different rules? Were they only cultural, not applicable to us today? Then one day I prayed, \u201cGod, You made me a woman; I want to live the fullness of womanhood as you meant it\u2014spiritually, emotionally, every way, even if it means doing as St. Paul says!\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after that, during Morning Prayer, I Corinthians 11:10 leapt at me. It seemed silly, but I got up from my knees, found a kerchief to put over my head, and went on with prayers. Somehow it felt right. One day I wore the scarf in my Southern Baptist church. There were glances, but no comments. Gradually it became more of a habit, both during prayers at home and in church. As the only woman with a head-covering, I felt conspicuous at times, but could not bring myself to take it off. I decided I would rather err on the side of obedience than against it. And there were the angels to consider. By now I believed in them, but why they should care about my head was still a mystery.<\/p>\n

After I had been a Christian for thirteen years, a desire for the sacraments drew me to the Episcopal Church. It was 1979, and three-fourths of the women in the congregation wore head-coverings. I rejoiced. During the Eucharist the priest, standing before the altar, chanted: \u201cTherefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name, evermore praising Thee, and saying, \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts: heaven and earth are full of Thy glory\u2026\u201d The glory hit me: We were worshipping God in the company of a heavenly host! Was St. Paul alluding to that?<\/p>\n

When I learned of the Jesus Prayer and adopted a rule of prayer, it seemed appropriate to wear something on my head at all times. I sewed matching dresses and scarves which my friends accepted as my \u201cstyle\u201d\u2014artistic and a bit eccentric. That was fine with me (and I hoped, with the angels!) I was saddened when other women in our parish stopped wearing a head- covering. They though it unnecessary and outdated, and some saw it as a sign of inferiority. Women and men were equal, and\u2014according to current unisex fashions in clothing, life and\u00a0hairstyles \u2014practically alike and interchangeable. For nearly two thousand years Christian women had covered their heads in church, and usually elsewhere\u2014but now we were \u201cliberated\u201d from that. In 1995 I was chrismated Orthodox and was surprised to find myself again the only woman wearing a head covering in my parish. An Orthodox sister told me, with a nod to my scarf, \u201cWe don\u2019t have to wear that anymore.\u201d I smiled and said, \u201cI know, but I want to.\u201d St. Paul had said \u201cought,\u201d not \u201cmust.\u201d It was my voluntary obedience, even if I didn\u2019t understand the \u201cwhy\u2019s.\u201d By now I had no intention of giving up the benefits. I felt blessed and protected, feminine, and, paradoxically, confident and free\u2014in the presence of guardian and ministering angels.<\/p>\n

In Orthodox worship the angels were even more in evidence. The Divine Liturgy is full of references to the various ranks of angels, emphasizing our participation with them in the joyous worship of the Holy Trinity. St. John Chrysostom (d. A.D. 407), in a sermon at the Feast of the Ascension, spoke both of angels and the veiling of women: \u201cThe angels are present here\u2026Open the eyes of faith and look upon this sight. For if the very air is filled with angels, how much more so the Church! \u2026Hear the Apostle teaching this, when he bids the women to cover their heads with a veil because of the presence of the angels.\u201d Origen, another early Church Father, said, \u201cThere are angels in the midst of our assembly\u2026we have here a twofold Church, one of men, the other of angels\u2026And since there are angels present\u2026women, when they pray, are ordered to have a covering upon their heads because of those angels. They assist the saints and rejoice in the Church.\u201d Instructions for catechumens in\u00a0The Apostolic Tradition,\u00a0<\/i>probably written in the second century by St. Hippolytus of Rome, include this: \u201cMoreover, let all the women have their heads veiled with a scarf \u2026\u201d And St. Cyril of Alexandria,\u00a0commenting on I Corinthians, wrote: \u201cThe angels find it extremely hard to bear if this law [that women cover their heads] is disregarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Church taught that it mattered to the angels whether women cover their heads. But why? Was the covering \u201ca sign of submission to her husband,\u201d as some commentaries say, or \u201ca cultural statement of inferiority,\u201d as one woman told me in explaining why she would not wear a veil? A friend and former dean of a Lutheran seminary in Norway, H\u00e5kon Haus, pointed to another possible reason. He looked up I Corinthians 11:10 in Greek: \u201cTherefore the woman shall have\u00a0exousia\u00a0<\/i>[right, power, authority] on her head for the sake of the angels.\u201d The word\u00a0exousia,<\/i>said H\u00e5kon, also occurs in John 1:12: \u201cAs many as received Him, to them He gave\u00a0exousia\u00a0<\/i>to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.\u201d I felt a light go on. Was St. Paul saying that the head-covering was an outward sign of my \u201cauthority, right, power\u201d as a female child of God, recognized by the angels? It rang excitingly true! God asks voluntary submission and obedience of His children. I chose to wear the sign of my feminine\u2014as distinguished from masculine\u2014authority. But why should the angels care?<\/p>\n

In her book,\u00a0The Holy angels,\u00a0<\/i>Mother Alexandra writes: \u201cThe Celestial hierarchies are the\u2026spiritual reality of ordered creation, the stable patterns in which disruption is unknown\u2026\u201d Obedience is characteristic of the angelic realm. Dionysius the Areopagite, influential since the fifth century, wrote of nine orders or hierarchies of celestial beings, arranged in three choirs. Seraphim and cherubim are in the first, archangels and angels in the third choir, closest to us. Without obedience there is chaos and disorder. St. John Chrysostom, in a sermon on I Corinthians, speaks of how distinction in male and female dress\u2014and particularly the veiling of women\u00a0\u2014 \u201cministers effectively to good order among mankind.\u201d Taking off the veil was \u201cno small error,\u201d said St. John;\u201d\u2026it is disobedience.\u201d It \u201cdisturbs all things and betrays the gifts of God, and casts to the ground the honor bestowed\u2026For to [the woman] it is the greatest of honor to preserve her own rank.\u201d To some who argued that a woman, by taking off her covering, \u201cmounts up to the glory of man,\u201d Chrysostom answers: \u201cShe doth not mount up, but rather falls from her own proper honor\u2026Since not to abide within our own limits and the laws of God, but to go beyond, is not an addition, but a diminution\u2026\u201d Always emphasizing the equality between man and woman, Chrysostom admonishes the man \u201cnot to dishonor her who governs next to thyself.\u201d The issue was order, not superiority or inferiority. At Matins for Orthodoxy Sunday, we sing, \u201cCome and let us celebrate a day of joy: Now heaven makes glad! Earth with all the hosts of angels and the companies of mortal men, each in their varied order, keeps the feast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer to my prayer nearly thirty years ago, that I might know what it means to be a woman, and to live it as God wills for me, is becoming clearer in obedience\u2014often in little things, like putting on a scarf . The mystery of womanhood is still incomprehensible, but now I think, so it must be. I don\u2019t have to understand fully what it means to be a woman in order to know that I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/i>a woman and to live it. God knows the meaning and I trust Him. I don\u2019t have to fight for my place or my right; it is given me in the glorious ranks of angels and mortals.<\/p>\n

Fr. Basil Rhodes wrote in his Master of Divinity thesis in 1977 on\u00a0The veiling of women in I Cor. 11,\u00a0<\/i>\u201cMan is the head of the woman, according to Genesis and to St. Paul who compares the relationship of man and woman with that of the Son to the Father: \u2018And the head of Christ is God\u2019 (I Cor. 2:3). It would be a grave error to say that Christ is inferior to His Father. The veiling of the woman, for St. Paul, is an outward sign of the acceptance of God\u2019s order, and His divine purpose in creation. The veil is the woman\u2019s \u2018yes\u2019 to God, a physical, visual \u2018Amen\u2019.\u201d St. John Chrysostom thought that Paul, in admonishing women to wear a covering \u201cbecause of the angels,\u201d meant it \u201cnot at the time of prayer only, but also continually, she ought to be covered.\u201d Fr. Rhodes agrees: \u201cThe veil can be the constant symbol of the true woman of God\u2026a way of life\u2026a testimony of faith and of the salvation of God, not only before men, but angels as well.\u201d Timothy McFadden, who is working on his doctoral thesis at Oxford on the subject of \u201cman\/woman\u2014God\/Christgod,\u201d writes: \u201cMembers of the Godhead\u2014and His image\u2014are not interchangeable. As God Father and Son are equal and One in nature, so also they are unique and not interchangeable. Similarly, though equal in nature, man is not woman, woman is not man. They are distinguishable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In my pre-Christian days, when I sought to understand myself in light of the doctrines of feminism, I believed that men and women shared male and female characteristics, which made us pretty much interchangeable. (And if we were interchangeable, we didn\u2019t really need each other except to conceive babies!) Today some say we have both a masculine and a feminine self that must be lived out. But how do women live out their \u201cmasculine self,\u201d and men their \u201cfeminine self \u201d? That presents an identity problem (another modern notion) for both men\u00a0and women (not to mention adolescent boys and girls!). No doubt it also adds to the chaos and gender confusion of our times. I no longer believe we are a mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics and selves. As God in Trinity is One in essence and three Persons in function, so man and woman, created in God\u2019s image, share a human nature, yet are distinct personal selves with different functions. As Christians we both have\u00a0exousia<\/i>\u2014power, right, and authority\u2014as children of God, but woman\u2019s authority is distinctly feminine, as man\u2019s is distinctly masculine. Hers does not contradict or usurp his, but complements it. And as the Trinity would not be complete with one of the Three missing, so man and woman are both essential to each other and to the whole. Being in the holy order of God\u2019s creation as lived in Orthodoxy calms the troubled waters of my soul. I don\u2019t understand the mystery of Trinity\u2014nor the mystery of man and woman\u2014but I know I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/i>woman, and I both want and love to live it. St. Paul wrote, \u201cWoman is the glory of man\u201d (I Cor. 11:7), a hard verse to take for some of us. McFadden suggests that \u201call women may somehow participate in the glory of the Theotokos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woman\u2019s unique and God-given capacity to give birth made the Incarnation possible. The woman Theotokos is indeed the glory of all mankind, \u201cour solitary boast,\u201d as one writer called her. Eve, our first mother, contributed to the fall of man by choosing to disobey. Mary, the mother of our Lord\u2014and of the Church which is His Body\u2014made our salvation possible by obeying God\u2019s will. If she whom we hymn as \u201cmore honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim\u201d is always seen in icons wearing her head covering, it certainly cannot be a sign of \u201cinferiority to men\u201d! McFadden calls the veil a \u201cbadge of authority\u201d between equals, perceived by the angels who maintain order among themselves.\u00a0Why\u00a0<\/i>head-coverings matter to the angels may be unclear, but\u00a0that\u00a0<\/i>they matter seems evident. Fr. Rhodes says, \u201cThe angels watch what we do and rejoice when we obey.\u201d A scarf may be a small matter, but obedience of ten hinges on small things, small choices. My scarf is seen by men, but to me it signifies obedience to God, a way of living my womanhood. It is my feminine \u201cI am\u201d reflected outwardly. In putting on my head-covering I mean to say to God, \u201cBehold your handmaiden, be it unto me according to Your word\u2014Your will, not mine.\u201d For twelve years I have worn a scarf at all times. I now perceive that it has been\u2014and continues to be\u2014essential for the pilgrim journey and salvation of my soul. The bottom line for me\u2014and a growing number of my sisters\u2014remains obedience. And with it comes a sense of being in our rightful place in God\u2019s ordered universe, rejoicing with the angels. Now I gratefully say, \u201cI am!\u201d in the presence of the great I AM\u2014at prayer and in church, surrounded by the angelic host, worshipping our Lord and King. To God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be the glory, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen!<\/p>\n

\n

Endnotes<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Angelo Babudro of New Glasgow, NS (Canada) had some insightf ul comments about this passage:<\/p>\n

In her article Elisabet wrote, \u201cSt. Paul had said \u2018ought,\u2019 not \u2018must.\u2019\u201d (referring to 1 Cor 11:10).<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually this is both a superfluous and erroneous distinction.St. Paul said neither word, but rather used the Greek word \u201copheilo\u201d (Strong\u2019s number 3784). In addition to Strong\u2019s definition, if we look at the use of this word in the New Testament we see it is translated as owing a debt, should, duty, ought, need, bound, behoved, and also \u201cmust\u201d (in 1 Cor5:10).I checked Noah Webster\u2019s dictionary (who often quoted the Bible and gave us a revision of the KJV in 1833), and saw that the word \u201cought\u201d is defined as an obligation, a duty, or something that is necessary. So even without the Greek, the distinction she drew is extremely fuzzy. I conclude, then, that St. Paul actually did say that a woman must\/ought\/should\/is duty bound\/owes a debt to wear a head covering. Judging from the rest of the article I would say our sister Elisabet has arrived at this conclusion as well, but I thought it was worth pointing out what seems to me quite an important error in her teaching to other women, in the hopes that she may choose to rephrase, remove, or clarify that small part of her article.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

From the Spring 1997 issue of\u00a0The Handmaiden<\/i>, Conciliar Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elisabet At first reading of this verse I thought, \u201cGood grief that, at least, can\u2019t have anything to do with women today.\u201d I was a new convert to Christianity and making a valiant effort to read the Bible \u201cas if it were true.\u201d St. Paul was hard to swallow, and so were angels\u2014along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/russianorthodoxlasvegas.org\/rus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}