His Eminence in red and white
The full effect of the train
Lace and more lace
Kissing the ring
What's happening here?
More kissing the ring
Even more kissing the ring
Look, I know I am a hypocrite. I have not given away all my worldly goods to the poor to follow Jesus, but may we still speak of excess, excess to the point of hilarity? And kissing the ring? Don't get me started.
The entire collection of pictures may be seen here.
I've taken a set of these and am making a slide show set to a recording of "Lady of Spain."
ReplyDeleteBarbieAnn, what a brilliant idea! Will your slide show be available for us all to see?
ReplyDeleteOh, you´ve brought out the worst in me--you see I have a little, teeny-weeny-tendency to make fun of ¨my own¨ when we/they play ¨dress up¨-- I´ve been trying to break myself from that automatic snarl/twitch that crosses my face (and turns my stomach) for decades-- you may have helped solve the teeny-weeny-loathing disorder because just now I just rushed from the spinning room and threw up in the corridor--finally, it took Mimi the exorcist and her ¨brocaded photo essay¨ to get the snarling ¨bad taste hating/twit loathing¨ snob out of me (well, almost, it may grow back if I don´t keep a eye on how blatantly NUTS these men seem to be...hope they are heterosexuals but I doubt it)!
ReplyDeleteWhen first entering the Land Episcopal, I must confess some adjustment to the "looking Catholic" was required. However, these photos add an element of perspective, for which, I thank you.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo, when your own are are playing dress-up, they're in a whole different category of camp. The folks in the pictures are conducting a religious ceremony, and they are SERIOUS. I'd like to see the expression on Jesus' face were he present at the ceremony.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm glad the exorcism worked for you, but have a care. When the evil spirit finds your place clean and swept out, he/she may return with seven others.
KJ, the silliest of the vestments in Episcopal/Anglican land is the mitre, and I'd like to see them go. But I realize that any such proposal would cause greater division in the church and communion than same-sex relationships. The next garment that I'd like to see disposed of is the purple shirt. Isn't it odd that both items are worn by bishops?
Leonardo, check out Jim Burroway's post on Robert at Box Turtle Bulletin.
ReplyDelete"What's happening here?"
ReplyDeleteLooks like six bad boys have been sentenced to the time-out chair.
Bex, what an excellent suggestion.
ReplyDeleteOh --did you see all the nuns in the balcony!!!!!! And all the ordinary folks have to sit behind the screen...
ReplyDeleteThis puts "The bride of Christ" in a new perspective.
Mimi, is this your version of
ReplyDelete"Late, late have I loved TEC"?
;-)
[Do you think the Good (by which I mean Eeeeeevil) Cardinal has *2* rings: a gloves-on and gloves-off model?]
margaret, it's like tiers, top tier, second tier, third tier. Some are "in", second tier are "in" (sort of), while the nobodies are relegated to the fringe.
ReplyDeleteJCF, yes, indeed, late have I loved thee, TEC, although I must admit in all my 60 years in the RCC, I never saw a spectacle as extravagant as what is pictured.
I wondered about the ring would myself, if it would fit over the gauntlets.
Talking of "women in their proper place", did you catch Notre cuisinière est à l'honneur ! on page 21, Margaret?
ReplyDeleteMedieval episcopal liturgical rings were sized to fit over gloves. I wouldn't doubt that the obsessive-compulsive imperative would extend to oversized rings for use in hoedowns of this scale.
The reception was quite a spread.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the picture of the cardinal in his fur, Tom was looking, too, and we both burst out laughing.
This is hilarious, Mimi.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the mitre is a fairly recent arrival in Anglican land. Until the Oxford Movement it was unheard of; bishops wore a white rochet, a black (not red) chimere, and a black shovel hat. And in some places the mitre is still not used. I was ordained deacon by a bishop who never wore a cope and mitre.
I like the way they do things in the Church of South India where a bishop is distinguished only by the pastoral staff he or she carries.
Tim, some sign of the office of bishop is fine, and I like the idea of just the staff.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a potboiler series of 'occult' thrillers cowritten by Katherine Kurtz, in one of which the chief villian was endowed with the title "The Man with the Green Gloves".
ReplyDeleteAlthough the "what's happening here" picture reminds me of chorus members getting ready to jump up and dance in some Broadway production number.
BTW, I think the picture under that one actually shows Son Eminence adminstering communion--notice the little plate being held under the chin, and that Son Eminence is lacking miter, cap, and green gloves.
Who and where was this? I gather than a cardinal was involved, and since the language is French, I assume it's in France...
Miters, btw, seem to date to the eleventh century.
Son Eminence seems to have foregone one bit of pompous circumstance (at least, I don't see it in the pictures)
On all occasions, an altar server may wear a shawl-like veil, called a vimpa, around the shoulders when holding the bishop's mitre. The vimpa is used to hold the mitre so as to avoid the possibility of it being soiled by the natural oils in a person's hand as well as symbolically showing that the person does not own the mitre, but merely holds it for the prelate. (from the Wikipedia article "Miter")
Kishnevi, the man is Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a judicial body in the RCC.
ReplyDeleteI think the picture under that one actually shows Son Eminence adminstering communion--
If you look at all the pictures, you see that the deacons kiss the cardinal's ring before receiving communion, which seems a very strange practice to me.
The occasion is the ordination of three deacons in Gricigliano, Italy.
As to the vimpa to keep oils of the hand off the mitre, what about the oils from the hair of the person wearing the mitre? I suppose they're OK. :-)
While mitres were carried in the funeral processions of a number of English bishops in the second half of the 17th century, the only reliable recorded instance of one actually being worn, prior to the Ritualist phase of the Tractarian Movement, is a mitre made for Samuel Seabury, first bishop of Connecticut and first bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church. Seabury seems to have worn it routinely at confirmations and other episcopal functions. The mitre was preserved at Trinity College, Hartford, and may still be there. A rough woodcut illustration of the mitre was published in the
ReplyDeleteDecember 8, 1895 issue of the New York Times.
Guess that qualifies the mitre as a bona fide Episcopalian garment.
Thomas Claggett, first bishop of Maryland and first bishop, of any denomination, consecrated in the United States, also wore a mitre, which still exists.
ReplyDeleteLapin, I guess the mitres are all TEC's fault, as is everything else that goes wrong in the Anglican Communion.
ReplyDeleteThese pictures would be comical if they were not true. Being true, they are nothing short of repulsive.
ReplyDeleteBeing true, they are nothing short of repulsive.
ReplyDeletewhiteycat, true, but if we laugh at them, are they not in some way redeemed?
Redeemed? Absolutely! If we forget that these are "for real" they are downright funny. Beats Halloween!
ReplyDeleteI'm still fascinated by the green gloves. From comments here I gather that they are called 'gauntlets'. What was their purpose? Yes, the underlying purpose of all of this is repulsive, that's the right word!
ReplyDeleteNij
Beats Halloween, indeed, whiteycat.
ReplyDeleteNij, I called the gloves "gauntlets", because that's what they look like to me. There is probably an ecclesiastical name for these special gloves. I thought Lapin might help us out, but he hasn't yet. I'll try to find out something.
According to Wikipedia, they're called episcopal or pontifical gloves, and are no longer normally worn except when celebrating a Pontifical Mass according to the preVatican II rite. The color is supposed to match the liturgical color.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_gloves
Kishnevi, thanks. I posted the answer to a query in the New York Times with further information on the gloves.
ReplyDelete'Although the "what's happening here" picture reminds me of chorus members getting ready to jump up and dance in some Broadway production number.'
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud.
Ellie, I've had lots of laughs from the pictures and the comments.
ReplyDeleteAll this talk of Cardinal Burke, why hasn't anyone insulted the rest of the beautifully dressed priests at the altar? Being picky, are we?
ReplyDeleteAndrew, and there's this:
DeleteBurke is a real piece of work. He's one of the bishops who tried to get John Kerry denied communion in 2004. He tried to get the late Rick Majerus, basketball coach at St. Louis University and very old friend of the blog, whacked because of Majerus's support for stem-cell research. He birthed a major bovine when Notre Dame invited the president to give a speech shortly after his inauguration in 2009. And, of course, when he was bishop in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, he transferred molesting priests without warning anybody, or calling the cops, and, in his own personal twist, used a diocesan "counseling fund" to buy silence from the victims.